About the project

European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps Project - EVHAC

Purpose

To participate in improving the quality of human resources working in the field of international humanitarian aid by developing a mechanism that gives young professionals an improved and supported learning opportunity.

The Lisbon Treaty provides for the creation of a European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps, or EVHAC. To determine how and to what extent these volunteers can be involved in international humanitarian activities, the European Commission's Humanitarian Office has selected three pilot projects to test mechanisms for sending humanitarian volunteers to the field.

The Red Cross EVHAC pilot project brings together five national companies: the Austrian, Bulgarian, German, Finnish and French Red Cross, with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross / Red Crescent Societies.

The aim is, by developing common processes and standards for field recruitment, training and dispatch, to enable young people who have completed their education and technical experts to gain their first field experience in a way that provides opportunities for learning, ongoing support and guidance from professionals (mentors and advisors), both on-site and off-mission. The final stage aims to summarize the experience by bringing together best practices and lessons learned from all stakeholders in order to make recommendations to the European Union on future opportunities for the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps.

Dialing

The partner national societies will select 21 volunteers through a common selection process. These volunteers will meet criteria that include the needs of the field and the potential projects and missions in which they will participate. Volunteers will have to be citizens of EU member states with excellent English and a strong commitment to international solidarity. The campaign started on November 2, 2011. The Bulgarian Red Cross will recruit 2 volunteers.

Training

21 volunteers will be trained together through the Red Cross training "International Mobilization and Preparation for ACTion", adapted to the context of EVHAC. The training will be held in January - February 2012, in English. At the end of the training, the volunteers will be able to develop their professional project, which they will follow during the missions. The training will provide basic knowledge about the Red Cross movement, European policies and mechanisms and will prepare volunteers for their engagements in the field (humanitarian context and environment, work with the national host society, etc.).

Sending

The first volunteers will be sent in March 2012. They will be included in Red Cross delegations working with local national companies in the field of disaster preparation, disaster recovery, or capacity building work. The selected delegations will ensure minimum criteria for security and socio-political stability. For a period of 6 months, the young volunteers will join the delegations and work together with their mentor (from the delegation) and advisor (from the local national society) to help reduce the suffering in the country. Throughout their mission, they will liaise with each other and with the coordinators to share and share their experiences.

Summary of experience

After returning from the missions, the project plans to identify best practices and lessons learned from fieldwork and from the coordinators to assess the overall success of the project. At the end of the project, a working meeting of all partners will be organized, and the information gathered will allow stakeholders to formulate recommendations to the European Union for the future of the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps.