Every year the Centre for the Working Girl (CENIT) in Quito receives dozens of overseas volunteers who come to help the centre carry out its valuable programmes for working children.

Between 40 and 50 volunteers work at the centre at any one time, supporting CENIT’s 35 permanent Ecuadorian staff. Without the continuous flow of new volunteers, the centre would struggle to keep all of its programmes operating, particularly the Street Outreach scheme.

CENIT recognises the value of its overseas volunteers and with this in mind has introduced a new application process for individuals wishing to volunteer at CENIT. Future volunteers will now be required to fill out an application form well in advance of their arrival in Quito, to ensure they are matched to a suitable programme at CENIT.

“Each day we working not just for our children and families in need, but also to give the best experience possible to our volunteers,” explains volunteer co-ordinator Betty España.

CENIT relies heavily on the work of overseas volunteers.

“We really want our volunteers to to feel comfortable, useful and pleased with the work they’re carrying out,” adds Betty. “We want them to feel they sure that they are offering a good service to the children and their families – that way the volunteers will have a good experience at CENIT.”

“We’re now working with an application form that CENIT volunteers must fill out and send back at least a month before they come,” says Betty. “It’s ideal if they can send it back even earlier as this will give the future volunteer a greater range of options for working.”

Once the volunteer co-ordinators have received the form, they will go through it with the aim of finding a compatibility between the skills the volunteer has and the needs of the different programmes at CENIT. If accepted, the volunteer will be sent a timetable and information about the type of work he or she can expect to be doing.

Betty stresses that although she will endeavour to place volunteers in the programmes that will most interest them, she has also to consider the needs of the centre. “We hope our volunteers will be flexible and willing to adapt to the needs of the work,” she says.

CENIT’s volunteer co-ordinators believe that this revised volunteer admissions process will be beneficial both the volunteers and to the children and families CENIT helps.

“The aim is that we never have volunteers who feel useless or who don’t have the skills to carry out the work effectively,” says Betty. “By bringing together a pool of volunteers who are more qualified and better prepared, we can make sure each of our volunteers leaves having had a highly positive experience.”