Get Involved

Eligibility as a Member

Membership is open to all Zimbabweans above the age of 18, with national registration document-ID/Passport/Birth Certificate, of a fixed aboard, with no criminal record and able to demonstrate understanding of the concept of volunteerism.

Membership is also open to all registered institutions that can participate in the programs either as consumers of volunteer services or as volunteers at the institutional level.

Registration as Members

Volunteers are registered formally upon completing membership applications forms and signing disclaimers that they are joining the organisation having understood its philosophy and having understood their obligations and the expectations from the organisations. The register is a live register and is twofold. First is a register of volunteering individuals classified by skills, gender, age and location. The second register is a register of potential institutional and individual recipients/beneficiaries of volunteer services showing area of speciality, contact details and conditions of engagement. Download membership forms on the downloads section.

Conditions of Membership

• All aspiring individual members go through mandatory security vetting as provided for by the laws of Zimbabwe to ensure that the membership is not infiltrated by criminal elements who may want to take advantage to gain access to their unsuspecting victims.
• A full know your customer (KYC) file will be maintained for all the members. This will facilitate easy contact and easy deployment as well as easy recourse should there be a challenge with any of the members whilst on duty.
• Membership operates on an on-call basis i.e. they are called as and when their services are required in a specific area. In deploying resources, care is taken to consider demographics so that the right skill is sent to the right assignment at the least cost possible way.
• To manage the risk of fraud and misrepresentation, no member is allowed to handle cash. Receiving organisations are required to channel their donations through the office and a reward framework specific to the member concerned will be worked where required especially in cases of outstanding performance triggering the donation. Commercial beneficiaries are encouraged to make token payments in the form of part payment for services rendered.

 Member Obligations

• Members are expected to pay nominal joining fees and annual membership fees to sustain the running expenses of the organisation. The joining fees for the respective membership categories are indicated on the respective application forms.
• Those with capacity to pay are encouraged to give donations in exchange for work done or services rendered. This is a percentage of the full commercial value of the services rendered. In the case of domestic beneficiaries deemed not financially viable, any donation is acceptable

Our volunteers fall in the following categories;

Students on Attachment

With more than 15 universities and more than 30 technical and teachers training colleges in Zimbabwe with annual enrolments in excess of 20,000, students are finding it increasingly difficult to find opportunities of industrial attachments/work related learning. For most of these colleges, it is mandatory before graduation that a student successfully completes a period of supervised attachment ranging from 3 months to 12 months. In the absence of paid industrial attachment opportunities, VAZ has relationship with other players to absorb its members who are students on a voluntary basis so that they fulfil their requirements of work related learning. We also have well-wisher families volunteer to take care of students from poor background for the period they will be doing their industrial attachment away from home.

Unemployed Graduates

With formal unemployment at more than 80% and informal unemployment at more than 15%, in a market with about 6 million economically active citizens, it means there is a huge pool of university and college graduates who cannot find meaningful occupation. The result is that their skills become redundant over time, requiring a lot of resources to retrain at the point of engagement. Most employers insist on prior experience before one is offered a job and unfortunately the subject/course called experience is not offered at the university. Finding a volunteer experience is a good way to wait for an opportunity which actually increases chances of that opportunity arising.

Retired and Retrenched Artisans and Experts

The rate of deindustrialisation has resulted in several qualified and experienced artisans and experts in the market. Some have successfully started their own small enterprises but most have been struggling to establish the same. Some of the skills if not used over time gets rusty and make it increasingly difficult to be reabsorbed in the market after a long period of redundancy. CVs with protracted period of idleness are very difficult to sell hence the attractiveness of volunteer opportunities one can refer to in a CV for future employment prospects. Retired artisans and experts fall under this category.

Practising Experts & Specialists

There are experts and specialists who are well established and doing well but can relate with a worthy cause and are free to volunteer their services in exceptional circumstances. This is particularly true for such professions as medicine and law. We have witnessed several premature deaths due to poverty where a poor family can fail to raise as little as $2,000 for a specialist’s treatment and yet the volunteer services of one specialist could make a difference between death and life.

Overseas Volunteers

VAZ collaborates with other overseas volunteer organisations for exchange programs and one-way volunteer programs for experts who at times just volunteer or who are in institutions that require overseas volunteer experience before graduating. Some of these are purely from religious organisations with strong missionary departments. These usually come self-financed and just want an opportunity to serve. They also present great opportunities for skills transfer and cultural exchanges. VAZ establishes itself as a premier volunteer and overseas exchange program institution in sub-Saharan Africa.

MEMBERSHIP FEE STRUCTURE

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP CATEGORIES

Banking Details:

Volunteers Association of Zimbabwe,

NMB Bank, Southerton Branch,

A/C No. 310182427

 Pay online using Ecocash, Telecash, One Money, VISA, MasterCard and ZimSwitch

Merchant Code

61309 (ALMA Academy)

Support Us

You can help us make a better impact in our communities. Please, donate now.

Regular donation; Sign up to a monthly/annual gift

Institutions registered with VAZ as partners can pay fixed donations from their CSR budgets. Partnerships will be categorised as platinum, gold, silver and bronze earning varying advertising space on the VAZ website and premises. Details of these are contained on the membership application form.

Goods donation: Any gift you can give will make a significant difference.

To make a donation you can email the team at volunteerassociationzim@gmail.com or admin@volunteerassociationzim.org

We really appreciate your support.

Jobs: Overseas Opportunities

VAZ collaborates with other overseas volunteer organisations for exchange programs and one-way volunteer programs for experts who at times just volunteer or who are in institutions that require overseas volunteer experience before graduating. VAZ is establishing itself as a premier volunteer and overseas exchange program institution in sub-Saharan Africa.