Short term projects are ideal for volunteers who work with Veerayatan for one week to a month. The following are provided as samples of potential short term projects.

Short-Term Projects (up to one month)

Mobile Hygiene Unit

In many parts of both rural and urban India, disease is often engendered and spread through poor human hygiene. Open defecation in streets and alleys, uncovered sewers, litter and general filth have led to many community problems, including swarms of mosquitoes and the spread of infectious diseases.

As part of its mission to provide first-class education in Kutch, Veerayatan is committed to spreading awareness about health and hygiene. Two or three volunteers will work on the creation of a mobile hygiene unit, which will travel to various slum areas and rural areas in Kutch to conduct classes and seminars on hygiene. Veerayatan will provide necessary staff and vehicles.

Volunteers can also work on putting together fun, culturally appropriate skits that contain messages of health and hygiene. The volunteers can then perform these skits in slum areas and villages, or they can recruit other actors and actresses.

Furthermore. volunteers can also put together pamphlets in Gujarati, Kutchi and Hindi (with the assistance of translators) to promote hygiene awareness.

Volunteers are challenge to convince parents to allow their young daughters to attend the classes, while remaining culturally sensitive. These daughters are usually confined to household chores. Veerayatan School - Rudrani is outcome of tremendous efforts of volunteers in convincing the parents and breaking the age old custom.

Volunteers must be creative, inspirational and persuasive. Though the project can at times be tiring and challenging, the end result is enough to gratify one’s soul. By teaching one child to read, you will have opened up a world of possibilities for them.

Veerayatan will also help volunteers who wish to start tree-planting programs and reforesting initiatives.

Additionally, volunteers can work through Veerayatan staff to organize programs, workshops and lectures with government officials to ensure long-term, sustainable ecological impacts.

Administration and Management

All projects undertaken by Veerayatan need careful management and support. Project Office will entail being involved with the administration of various projects so that they are executed in the most efficient manner. This may involve creating cost sheets, drafting letters to necessary donors and project participants, maintaining key databases and general management and administrative tasks.

Medium Term Projects (beyond one month)

Medium term projects are ideal for volunteers who work with Veerayatan for at least one month. You can set up the basis for the project and see it being carried out in its initial phases. Veerayatan staff will ensure that the impact of your project is sustainable and can provide you with updates after your departure. The following are provided as samples of potential medium term projects.

Video Update

The first video documentary that Veerayatan produced immediately following the January 2001 Kutch earthquake was well received both within India and internationally. However, since then, Veerayatan has accomplished much more and our supporters around the world have urged us to update this video.

Thus, two volunteers will be assigned the task of writing a new script and story line for the video. This script should encompass Veerayatan’s latest successes on its Jakhania as well as Rudrani campus.

Volunteers can work with a camera crew traveling to various Veerayatan sites at Rajgir, Licchuwad, Pawapuri, Jakhania, Rudrani and Navalveerayatan Pune to obtain video footage. They can also narrate the video, interview students and staff, choose an accompanying musical score and design necessary graphics. Finally, volunteers can also work on promoting and distributing this video abroad.

These children stay with Veerayatan completely free of charge or at a highly subsidies fees. Veerayatan’s “Sponsor a Child” programmeis presently taking care for a little more than 100 children. This number will grow to 500 in the coming years. All of these children will live on Veerayatan’s permanent educational institution in Jakhania.

Veerayatan has started a sponsorship program for these children, whereby supporters worldwide can fund the educational and/or living expenses of a child for one or more years.

Two or three volunteers will work on this project, which includes creating a database of these children with information on their names, ages, personal backgrounds, stories and so on. Volunteers will also research other similar programs that exist (e.g. Christian Children’s Fund, Save the Children, and so on) to identify necessary components of such a project. Volunteers can also work on donor schemes, such as “gift donations” (i.e. donating in honor of someone's birthday, anniversary or other life event), or “group donations,” whereby groups can sponsor groups of children.

Veerayatan would like interested volunteers to conduct advanced English classes on its campuses. In the weeks preceding the volunteer’s arrival, Veerayatan will publicize these classes in local newspapers. Based on interest, Veerayatan will then screen potential students for skill level. The volunteer will be provided with necessary materials (classroom, chalkboard, etc.) to conduct classes in spoken and/or written English.

NOTE: TEFL qualified applicants preferred

Video Testimony

Each of Veerayatan’s 10,000 beneficiaries in Kutch has a story to tell, and we want to hear it!

Among the most touching of these stories are the personal accounts of the boys and girls who live in Veerayatan’s residential hostel. Many of these 100+ children have lost both or one parent during the earthquake, or are otherwise economically disadvantaged. Veerayatan has assumed a sort of guardian role, providing food, clothing, shelter, education, stability and love in their otherwise chaotic lives.

Veerayatan would thus like to record these heartwarming stories, so that well-wishers and supporters all around the world can become inspired by the amazing people of Kutch.

Two volunteers will work on this project of documenting, through video footage and interviews, the stories of these children, men and women. They will travel to all Veerayatan sites throughout Kutch with the camera crew from Life Video, along with necessary translators. Additionally, they will review and display touching letters and emails received by Veerayatan. Finally, volunteers can narrate the video and can also work on promoting and distributing this video abroad.

Handicraft Marketing

There are many handicrafts and other products made by local women in various villages in Kutch and in Veerayatan’s vocational classes. In an effort to provide economic stability and self-sufficiency to these women and families, volunteers can develop a program which will allow these people to build a market for their goods to be sold. Veerayatan will provide the volunteer with contacts of other local NGOs who have long-standing experience in this area, such as SEWA.

Public Relations

In order to succeed in its objectives, Veerayatan must sustain constant contact with the world at large. Using their marketing knowledge and skills, volunteers would conduct marketing campaigns to create awareness of Veerayatan’s activities and to meet the requirements of its donors and supporters worldwide.

Long Term Projects

Long term projects are ideal for volunteers who seek to establish a long term relationship with Veerayatan. These projects are ones that may be carried out in your own locality, or while working with Veerayatan on its campuses in India. The following are provided as samples of potential long term projects.

Proposal Writing

Generating funds is critical for the advancement of Veerayatan’s current projects, and to provide support for new ones. Skilled volunteers can compile proposals and memorandums of understanding for the new and existing donors, whether it be individual, corporations, trusts or governmental bodies.

Donor Relationship Management

We are very grateful to our existing donors for the contributions that they have made. In order to honour and show thanks for their generosity, we must keep in timely contact with them and provide them with updated information, progress reports, pictures and other materials. Volunteers can interface with Veerayatan’s donors to establish long term relationships and contacts.

International & Domestic Liaison officers

To ensure the smooth running of the organisation and consistency throughout, Veerayatan would like to take on long-term volunteers to develop awareness of Veerayatan on a global scale. These volunteers will build and maintain the Veerayatan global network through various communicative and marketing methods.

Vocational Placements

If you are interested in practicing your vocational skills in one of our sites, there are many opportunities for volunteers to serve. Veerayatan has potential placements for volunteers in the medical field who are interested in offering service in Veerayatan’s N.J.S.M. hospital in Bihar as well as on site in Kutch.

Establishment of Sub-Centers

Veerayatan Vidyapeeth already hosts a network of 16 sub-centers throughout Kutch which specialize in vocational training, and most specifically computer training. We are always looking for communities who are interested in hosting additional sub-centers. Volunteers can survey villages in the region of Kutch as potential sub center sites. This will involve a detailed assessment of the types and numbers of potential students in the area, the success rates for potential classes and research of potential sources for funding.

After a sub-center location has been assessed and funding secured, Veerayatan staff will provide necessary resources to see that it gets off the ground.

Event Organization and fundraising

Wherever you maybe in this world, you will be able to help Veerayatan. One method would be to organize and host events to raise funds for Veerayatan’s humanitarian work. There are plenty of ideas for this and Veerayatan would be more than grateful to lend its full support in organising worthwhile events.