VOLUNTEER TO HELP CENTRAL ASIAN WOMEN
\nFROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME<\/p>\n
Volunteer Position:\u00a0 The Alliance for International Women\u2019s Rights is looking for an experienced ESL\/EFL teacher with experience working in a developing country to serve as the volunteer coordinator for our Armchair ESL Program, which provides long-distance ESL classes for Afghan and Central Asian women leaders and future women leaders.<\/p>\n
Overview of the Alliance for International Women\u2019s Rights:\u00a0 The Alliance for International Women’s Rights is a completely volunteer-run, U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission of supporting women leaders and future women leaders in the Central Asia region. We do this by creating connections between Central Asian women and skilled professionals in developed countries who can use their expertise to further women\u2019s rights. The primary way in which we create these connections is through our long-distance volunteer initiative, the Armchair Volunteer Programs.<\/p>\n
The Alliance\u2019s Armchair Volunteer Programs take advantage of the Internet and new Internet-based communication technology to help open the world to women in developing countries through long-distance volunteer experts. These volunteers bring their experience and professional skills to help build local capacity for women\u2019s rights organizations, women politicians, women educators, and girls who have the potential to become future women leaders.\u00a0 The exchanges that occur through this process helps to build bridges between worlds and improve understanding between what are often very different cultures.\u00a0 The Alliance has two Armchair Volunteer Programs: our Armchair ESL Program and our Armchair Development Program. We currently run these programs in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.\u00a0 To read more about the Alliance, please visit our website: www.aiwr.org.<\/p>\n
Overview of the Armchair ESL Program:\u00a0 The purpose of the Afghan Armchair ESL (\u201cEnglish as a Second Language\u201d) Program is to increase the English capacity of Afghan and Central Asian women leaders and future women leaders by offering live, long-distance English classes.\u00a0 By improving their English language skills, these Central Asian women and girls can more easily reach out to the international community for information, ideas, advice, and funding, as well as share their experiences with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
The Armchair ESL Program matches Central Asian women and girls with experienced, volunteer English teachers from the U.S. and other Western, English speaking countries.\u00a0 Each student and teacher pair meet on-line twice a week, via Skype\u2122, for live English classes, using both voice and instant messaging features.\u00a0 In addition to providing individualized English lessons to Central Asian women and girls, the classes provide both the students and teachers with a unique opportunity to directly meet and learn about each others\u2019 cultures.\u00a0 This unique cultural exchange helps to build better understanding and stronger relationships between the Western world and countries such as Afghanistan, one person at a time.<\/p>\n
The Alliance currently operates its Armchair ESL program in partnership with USAID\u2019s Afghanistan Higher Education Project, UNIFEM (Afghanistan office), the Afghan Women\u2019s Network, and Kazakhstan\u2019s Feminist League.<\/p>\n
Position Description<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The volunteer ESL coordinator will serve as the main liaison between our Central Asian coordinators and our volunteer ESL teachers, assisting with class scheduling, monitoring, answering questions, and troubleshooting.\u00a0 These responsibilities include the following tasks:
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Determining the students and teachers\u2019 availability and matching up students and teachers according to their availability.\u00a0 This task requires the use of international time zone converters because our teachers are located in over twelve different time zones and each student and teacher are generally only available for several hours a day.\u00a0 Thus, scheduling can sometimes involve a good amount of patience and attention to detail.
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Coordinating the preparation of introductions by students and teachers and ensuring that the introductions are exchanged prior to the initial class.
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ensuring that the student and teacher are both clear as to their start date and ensuring the successful start of each class.
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Answering e-mails from the class coordinators and the teachers as scheduling issues arise and working with both to resolve the issues (e.g. rescheduling or canceling classes for illness or vacations).
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sending out student and teacher surveys at the end of each three-month session and helping incorporate the results of surveys into reports.
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of our volunteer ESL teachers are responsible for preparing their own curriculum.\u00a0 However, the ESL coordinator should be prepared to help the ESL teachers share ideas and suggestions with each other and to provide general curriculum support as needed.
\no\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assisting with preparing ESL materials for our website.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Generally, the above tasks are performed during the morning hours, in response to e-mails that have come in overnight from our Central Asian partners.\u00a0\u00a0 However, the hours and times for the work is flexible, and can be performed in the very early morning, late morning, or, for non-pressing matters, at any time during the day.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ESL coordinator will work closely with the Executive Director and the Program Manager, keeping in contact via phone, e-mail and weekly conference calls.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The position will involve approximately five to ten hours a week.\u00a0 Some weeks may be quite light, with just two hours required, but, at other times, such as during teacher recruiting or monitoring periods, the time commitment can reach over ten hours a week.<\/p>\n
Requirements for Volunteer ESL Coordinator<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The volunteer coordinator should have a minimum of two years of ESL\/EFL teaching experience.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The volunteer coordinator should have experience living and working in a developing country for six months or more.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The coordinator must be willing to commit to volunteering for approximately five to ten hours a week (some weeks may be quite light, with just two hours required, but occasionally, during teacher recruiting or monitoring periods, the time commitment can reach more than ten hours a week).
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The coordinator must be extremely self-motivated and reliable, as the Alliance uses \u201cvirtual offices\u201d and the coordinator will perform all tasks from the coordinator\u2019s home or office.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Excellent English and writing skills are required.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Excellent communication skills required:\u00a0 Because the position is a remote position and is so heavily dependent on e-mail and Skype, and a good part of the work involves dealing with people from other cultures, the coordinator must be able to use the written word to effectively communicate not only information, but also an appropriate tone of understanding, patience, support, cultural sensitivity and good humor.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Must have a basic familiarity with computers and basic internet communication technology, such as Skype or other similar communication programs.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The position will be performed from the ESL coordinator\u2019s own home or office.\u00a0 The ESL coordinator will need high-speed internet and a reliable computer with Skype software (we only use the free, computer-to-computer software).
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Two professional references are required.<\/p>\n
As with all of the Alliance\u2019s positions, the ESL coordinator position is a volunteer position, which means the only compensation we can offer is the sense of reward that comes with knowing that you are making a direct and helpful impact on women in Central Asia.\u00a0 The Alliance is in the process of submitting grant proposals to seek salary coverage for the ESL coordinator position and we are hoping to be able to convert this position to a part-time, paid position within the next year.\u00a0 However, we cannot provide any guarantees that the position will become a paid position.<\/p>\n
Contact Information:<\/p>\n
If you are interested in applying for the volunteer position of ESL coordinator, please send a resume and a brief cover e-mail to Lisa Herb at lisaherb@aiwr.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The purpose of the Afghan Armchair ESL (\u201cEnglish as a Second Language\u201d) Program is to increase the English capacity of Afghan and Central Asian women leaders and future women leaders by offering live, long-distance English classes. By improving their English language skills, these Central Asian women and girls can more easily reach out to the international community for information, ideas, advice, and funding, as well as share their experiences with the rest of the world. The volunteer ESL coordinator will serve as the main liaison between our Central Asian coordinators and our volunteer ESL teachers, assisting with class scheduling, monitoring, answering questions, and troubleshooting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-posts"],"yoast_head":"\n