Who is volunteer
A volunteer is someone who, with free choice, provides in kind services to specific project in an agency without any remuneration. He contributes time, effort and talent to a need or further a mission to benefit a group, organization and/or the community. Volunteering offers important help to the needy people, and the community, but it also offers even greater benefits for the volunteer. Volunteering and helping others can reduce stress and depression, keep you mentally and physically stimulated, and provide a sense of purpose. It will also improve your personal skills and experiences, the more you volunteer. There are many benefits of volunteering with JCC such as:
Benefits of Volunteering:
- Become a member of the JCC volunteers’ network
- Gain new skills and knowledge through participation of the training courses and workshops and by doing the real work by yourself.
- Making a contribution to the society by helping the vulnerable, needy and affected people, communities, during the crisis or disasters.
- Doing something new in volunteering, humanitarian and charity works as well as strengthening social cohesion in the Kurdistan Region.
- Become part of something bigger outside your friends and family.
- Gain confidence and build a real sense of achievement.
- Have a real and valuable positive impact on people, communities and society in general.
- Meet different kinds of people and make new friends and contacts.
Volunteering at JCC
JCC has opened volunteers programme for all those who have interest in volunteering in the field of crisis and disaster management and emergency response, in accordance to the article 8, section (b), point 3, in the mandate of the Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) [number 1 for the year 2015] and KRG Council of Ministers’ letter number 7299 on November 28, 2018 regarding the establishment of Rapid Response Teams for humanitarian emergency response.
Crisis management and emergency response is a shared responsibility among the government institutions, NGOs, people and communities in general. This requires joint cooperation and coordination in a concerted effort to respond to emergencies and manage crisis and disasters, mitigate the impact on the people, economy, infrastructure and environment.
JCC’s volunteering programme consists of three types of categories such as operational work, Office Work and online work.
- Operational Work;
Rapid Response Team consists of JCC and other government permanent employees and volunteers and NGOs and the RRTs are the main operational unit to respond to crisis and would be specialized to responding to any man-made or natural crisis, disasters or emergencies in the Kurdistan Region. The team will be directly linked to the JCC. The main duties and responsibilities of this team would be:
- Rescue and search operations and saving people’s lives during crisis and disasters.
- Conduct field searches in the affected areas and identify the hazard areas.
- Finding and rescuing stranded people in the affected areas.
- Rescue wounded people in the affected areas.
- Delivering assistance and first aid to the affected areas.
- Alerting people and other field teams during the times of crisis and disasters.
- Providing technical support to the people and field teams during the rescue and search operations.
- Providing shelter, food and other types of assistance to the affected people during the crisis and disasters.
- Office Work will include volunteering in the JCC Head Quarter and JCC Crisis Response Offices in the Governorates of Erbil, Slemani and Duhok as well as Representations in Halabja Governorate and Garmiyan and Raparin Administrations. They will be given tasks according to their skills and experiences.
- Online Volunteering;
It refers to the online volunteers who provide the required virtual services to JCC through the internet. This virtual service may include technical support, mentoring, proofreading, and an independent project or work. The online volunteering is exclusive to the skilled and professionals who are committed their time to support JCC in the areas below:
- Research and Assessment subjects
- Developing/writing software
- Fixing software etc.
- Writing/editing proposals, reports, press releases, newsletter articles, etc.
- Translating documents
- Maintenance and designing a database
- Designing graphics /maps etc.
- GIS Technical support
- Capacity building via mentoring, training courses and lectures
Who can apply?
- Any citizen of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
- The NGOs that are officially registered to work in the fields of humanitarian and charity.
- Private and public sector employees.
- Internal skilled and professional individuals.
JCC is a government agency and is fully committed to provide a conducive and friendly working environment to its employees and members without discrimination to gender, religion, sects and beliefs. In return, JCC expects that its members including volunteers, internees, permanent and contracted staff show the following characteristics which are essential for being a successful member of the JCC team:
- Integrity: means following the ethical convictions and doing the right thing in all circumstances; be calm and effective in stressful or difficult situations. Be honest and fair to yourself and do no harm to yourself and others.
- Adaptability: means open to new ideas, flexible enough to work through challenging issues and emergencies, and generally able to adapt and cope with the new and changing circumstances. And have full respect to others regardless of gender, religion, sects, culture and beliefs.
- Flexibility: be ready to take new roles and responsibilities when there is urgency, and the work is important to the JCC and commit to complete it to a high standard.
- Commitment: Be willing to demonstrate the knowledge and skills; using and sharing it with others for the benefit of the JCC.
- Integration: To understand and abide by the KRG’s rules and regulation and apply them to daily work.
- Honesty: To behave ethically and respectfully when speaking and writing to others on behalf of the JCC.
- Management: to plan and prioritize the work and tasks effectively to increase efficiency.
- Working Attitude: To play an effective role as a team player and interact with others in a cooperative and consistent way and be able create positive relation with others in JCC and outside JCC.
