Lentera Sahaja PKBI DIY Program concerns about the dissemination of information on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and safe sexual practices for teenagers. One thing that differentiates PKBI from other NGOs in Indonesia is that Lentera Sahaja PKBI DIY has consistently kept its volunteers as top players in their program. Volunteers are the most effective agents of social change to disseminate reproductive health information to the public. It is effective because it not only disseminates information, but also the values that come with them, such as gender equality, open mindedness, diversity, and many others.
Every year PKBI DIY recruits volunteer candidates. In 2000, there were 50 students that applies to be volunteers. At that time, only 30 volunteers were needed in six working divisions, which were counseling, street children, gays and transvestites, high school teenagers, media,, and domestic helpers. The first recruitment step was that a volunteer must complete a registration form and write a paper on the following topics: free sex, abortion, prostitution, and homosexuality. The next step was to interview and role-play. The most important principles in the recruitment process are the willingness to be open-minded and the time commitment as a volunteer. Then, the 30 selected candidates were given three days of basic training on reproductive health and HIV/ AIDS. Three days of intensive training was sufficient for the knowledge transfer process. However, for deeper understanding on values like gender equality, open-mindedness, and supporting beneficiaries group, volunteers need to interact intensely with the beneficiaries group.
After the training, volunteer will self-select themselves naturally – there will be volunteers who stay and those who will not. Volunteers usually drop out because they have graduated from university and return to their hometown, need time to focus on their thesis, or they get employed. Five to 10 volunteers usually remain by the end of the year. Then at the beginning of the New Year, a new volunteer recruitment process starts again. This is the in’s and out ‘s of volunteer recruitment at PKBI DIY. In the modern human resources management paradigm, drop-out volunteers are the loss of an organization’s investment. At the beginning, seeing volunteers come and go can make us feel exhausted and frustrated. However, if we look back to the organization’s goal to educate people about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, then drop-out volunteers are effective agents of social change in families, neighborhoods, colleges or work environments. Although they are no longer volunteers, their support on reproductive health issues and HIV/AIDS still continues and they can continue to educate people around them. Finally, we agree that every volunteer is an asset to the sustainability of an institutions’ mission.
In Lentera Sahaja, there are two types of volunteers:
1. Volunteers recruited from the public. In Lentera Sahaja, this type of volunteers is dominated by university students. The benefit of this type of volunteer is that they have good cognitive ability to absorb and communicate information on reproductive health. They are also free from the beneficiary group’s interest. This makes their position neutral and acceptable to all beneficiary groups. The weakness of this type of volunteer is the limited time commitment and high turnover, as a result communications with beneficiaries are not intensive. Their motivations for being a volunteer include searching for social activities, seeking inspiration, gathering data for their theses, or seeking a place for self-actualization.
2. Volunteers recruited from the beneficiary group. This type of volunteer is usually one of the beneficiary group’s active members, oftentimes personally close to the institution and then recruited as a volunteer. In a different context, they are called Peer Educators, but in the organizational structure are volunteers. The benefit of this type of volunteer is their high sensitivity to these issues and dedication to the beneficiary groups. The weakness of this type of volunteer is that they are easily involved in a conflict of interest at the beneficiary group level. If you think “using” volunteers could mean “savings” in your program budget, then you are wrong. Volunteers do not receive salary, but they receive transportation or meals reimbursement. If we take a look closer to the cost that we have spend to maintain volunteers, they are equal with amount that we allocate for the salary of “full-time outreach worker”. Why is it so? “Voluntarily” means management cannot force volunteer to fully spend all their thoughts and energy for the organization. To compensate, the management should give rewards that will be needed by volunteer, for example, capacity building, self-empowerment, and flexibility for volunteers to develop in the organization. The high turnover also requires extra costs for the recruitment process and training. In addition, the amount of time could programmatically be longer because of the project handover from the old to the new volunteer could create an extended cost. Volunteers are chosen to be top players in Lentera Sahaja because volunteers have added value compared with full-time outreach workers, which are idealism, new energy, new ideas, and youth. These characteristics match with the target of Lentera Sahaja’s beneficiary group – teenagers. But, of course, not all community development programs could benefit from using volunteer. It also depends on the program and organization’s character.
Handaru Suryo Putro – used to be a volunteer at Lentera Sahaja, PKBI DIY and Coordinator for Sex Education Program in High School, Lentera Sahaja PKBI DIY. He also worked at AJI Indonesia as an Office Manager.
