Starter Kit. Idea 368 of 500. Cluster 18
Skilled-volunteer months for professionals abroad on leave: an accountant to a co-operative, a teacher to a district school
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
The first step
Ask 3 co-operatives or district schools what one skill they need for a month: accounts put in order, an English teacher, a plan for a new building. Write each as a one-page brief with dates. Then post the briefs in 2 professional groups for Sri Lankans abroad and ask who could take leave to do one, paying a fee for the arranging and the stay. One professional who completes a month, and a host who asks for another, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A professional abroad with leave to use, who wants to give a skill rather than money and will pay for the month to be organised properly.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankans abroad send money home but rarely their skills; a month of work leaves the skill behind.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask which co-operatives and district schools in the division most need an accountant or a teacher.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what consent is needed to hold volunteers' details and share them with hosts.
Check before you spend
A written plan agreed with each host, background checks for anyone working with children, and who covers the volunteer's insurance, travel and room.
Find out these three numbers
- Would a professional abroad pay a fee to have the month arranged?
- Which hosts will say plainly what they need done in a month?
- How many professionals abroad take a long leave each year?
A comparison from the book
Switzerland. Chapter Sixteen
"bring the second generation, the Swiss-trained tradespeople of Sri Lankan origin, into Sri Lanka's training centres as instructors and examiners"
Skills learned abroad can come back for a while, teaching at home, without anyone moving back for good.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.