info@recdev.org
Way-In Nkwen, Bamenda, Cameroon

RADA Welcomes 1st set of Volunteers

On June 9, 2020, RADA’s first set of full time volunteers were welcomed. Moses, Lodence, Christabel, Irene, Eric, Lipsia and Joy. Selected from a cohort of 35 applicants, these volunteers will enjoy the benefits of learning from practical projects and activities within RADA.

The CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, says, “When you graduate from university, work in a start up organization. That’s where you learn passion because nothing in life can be accomplished without passion”.

Volunteer Orientation Session- 2020

It is our hope that these volunteers will exhibit the skills they have learned as most are fresh graduates from school. This is a peculiar set of people as volunteering is hardly part of the current culture of most youths. We wish them a successful period of volunteering.

Our next cohort will be launched in September 2020.

Writing Your CV

The Session on Writing Your Curriculum Vitae was attended by up to 25 participants, it focused on What a CV is, Who reads it, Creating a ‘CV dumping Ground’ for yourself, What do do before applying for a Job, the Format, Structure and Content of a CV.

A Curriculum Vitae called CV or Resume is a document that one uses to convey work related information about his/herself. It is used to apply for a job. It is a marketing tool and the aim of it , together with the other components of an application is to win an interview with the prospective employer.

The CV is important when applying for further education, international conference, fellowship, workshop and grants opportunities that require such details regarding one’s background. It is the first Impression: At least, Before or After, and /or Complementary to your Cover letter or application.

There are several people who could read one’s CV when it is submitted. These include the CEO, President, Director, Technical Staff in the domain of interest, Human Resource Manager, Administrative Officials under assignment to study CVs for selection or Hiring Managers who are contracted to pre-select for companies, from a stockpile. The key thing to remember about whoever is looking at your CV is that “THEY ARE BUSY PEOPLE”. I know this first hand as I have gone through more than 450 applications/CVs in my 7 year career as at the time of writing this article.

The best place to start a CV is from your ‘CV dumping ground’. This sounds harsh but there is not better word for me to describe the place where you keep everything as you grow and have different experiences. Make sure you have a paper, book, laptop, desktop or somewhere to keep every meaningful involvement from volunteering to jobs to experiences that speak to your skills and abilities as well as work experience. After you get your standard CV, the one in which you have everything, you can then tailor a CV for each opportunity you encounter.

When you find a job that matters to you, the first thing is to cast out any fears, pride, complexes etc, and do research about the opportunity and the organization or company from where the opportunity comes. Research the mission, vision, and other details of the organization. Before going to drop your CV, (Not having yet been called to an interview), be confident. Do research on the organization’s need, rational and expectations in this revolution.

As far as format of your CV is concerned, use Ariel, Tahoma or a simple font. Also use a simple color, especially, black text, background white). No Photos or Images (Greatest need – Skill convince to those reading: Not Photos unless modeling etc.). Bold the Topics and make in blocks and maintain appropriate spacing (Words/paragraphs) •Use Existing Templates

As for the Structure:Consider the following:

•Contact Details: Don’t hide these details. Everyone wants to see this clearly. Put it at the top of the page. Add Location, Telephone and Email Address. Date of Birth, church, marital status, detail address are not as important. The most important things in your CV gear towards your skills set and what you really have to offer. So, make sure you use a professional email: Not some “angellight@gmail.com”. Use a responsible email address for yourself.
•Personal Profile: This second aspect of your CV is like your head. When you stand in front of a Mirror, yes, you see your whole body but you see your head. It is from your head that you are recognized. Facial recognition is on the head. So, this is introductory for you. It contains your purpose. Your highest vision in relation to the role you are applying for. It is the highest point of your CV that should attracts or gets attention and gets the reader to decide if they want to dedicate more time to your CV or not. In a concise, succinct summary, it should contain your key “stand out Achievements /Core Skills; In/Out of school that can get attention. Your Education: Schools you’ve been to, Grades you’ve got or Certs, that are clearly going to bring attention to you from the employer. It’s like a peak place. Use it. So let it show who you are from an Experience point of strength too. in summary, Your personal profile should reflect your education, type of results relevant and your life aspiration/objectives in line with the role. Highlight any soft/hard skills or achievement that clearly shows you to be what they probably need in that role. This is why your research is also important.

The next section is your Achievements /Core Skills. This is a bullet point place where you put your core hard and soft skills. These are tangible and intangible skills respectively. Hard skills such as professional skills e.g Medicine, Law, Research, etc versus soft skills such as team work, leadership, ability to work under pressure, etc. Don’t just put these, know you will prove them further down in your CV when talking of your experience. This is called coherency. So, keep words in three to display these skills well. E.G business Administration, Customer Management. This section is a great tool in your hands, to make the reader not to skip over your CV. Bring in role specific skills. That is, the skills that relate and are important for the role that you are applying for. This also includes the role specific qualifications, language skills, IT Skills (Don’t just write “IT skills”- be specific, and role specific). This is an interesting section and you should meditate on it well before allowing or removing skills sets from there. Remember, keep the bullet point and not sentences. Words of two or three!!!

WORK EXPERIENCE: The Next Section is Your work experience. Put this work experience in reverse chronological order. Less details in order roles and more details in recent roles. An employer wants to know how best you are especially in relation to the most recent achievements or endeavors. Add Voluntary roles. School placements, for example, as a student, you might have done internships at very key places that do great work. You should be able to reflect it here. One key thing here is that you should use the right tenses. In roles that you still occupy versus roles that are in the past. Also, put the dates of employment, name of employer, role title, and introductory line that shows what the role was all about(provides context for the reader) and then lastly, add the responsibilities using the right tenses. This is the place where you show how you got the wonderful skills you have indicated in bullet point above. You don’t go about explaining the skills here: You reflect the great skills here by showing your responsibilities you have/had, mixed with achievements that show how you impacted the employer positively, e.g improved targets, increased costumers from yyy to zzzz, started yyyy, etc. This reflects how important you are by reflecting how useful and industrious, conscienceless and focused and achieving you were. It increases your chances of getting employed. Don’t miss putting numbers when mentioning your roles.

Education: Most people feel that their CV is about their education. NOPE!! As already mentioned, it is about conveying relevant information about what you can do. Your work and abilities so that you get an interview appointment and, boom! get your ob (If you are qualified). You MUST show that you are qualified and mean it. Showing is not the same as begging. So, when it comes to your educational background, as important as this is, it is there to provide information about the schools you’ve attended, subjects you studied, maybe , the grades you achieved (If you are happy and proud to put them there; modules and projects and even extra Curricular Activities. If you are a candidate with so much education, summarize it properly and not write two pages only of education. Convey as much as is relevant for the job, from your background with respect to education.
•Hobbies/Interests: This is where you put the icing on the well prepared cake. Here, don’t bother. I will share a secret of this section with you that most people don’t know. This is the secret….this section communicates certain skills louder than people perceive. This section can shout about your dedication, and team work, character and priorities more than many people realize. So, select well targeted hobbies that show what drives you. That show what meaningful yet, enjoyably things you spend your free time on. Your sports pursuits are a great hobby to put here. They greatly show dedication. Sports cannot be done without team spirit. If you were even awarded the best in your sports domain, think about putting it there. It’s not ust about sports, or that you are bragging, it’s about the fact that you have qualities that are not useful only in sports. So, my one word is, Target impressive relevant hobbies that can show that you are driven and someone who stands out. If you are applying for a communications position for example, and you love writing, and you have a blog, or an active social media (properly active), consider showing these aspects as proofs of hobby but you know what, they are also proof of how driven and productive you are.

What else do you want me to say? That you should sign up and donate to RADA once you get your job? No. Go and do your best in identifying an opportunity you want to apply for. Take your time and meditate on this article, approach your CV and then, apply. You can reach out to us using the contact section of the website, and then, we can also support your application process.

This session was the first under education and we will be doing more and writing more articles that can help youths to thrive and become of more value to our society. The Session Q&A was energized by answers to intriguing questions including on how to include information for persons with disabilities. Inputs was jealously obtained from an expert in disabilities who also attended the sessions and in the end, congratulated the team for organizing the session. Mr. Benuh Ezekiel was gracious as he provided the later inputs and closing remarks.

Thank you for reading. Please watch the Session Video: Here:

Why Should I Volunteer?

Sometimes we lack jobs and wonder what is going on. In Cameroon people see volunteering as a secret to having a job. The thought it is that when you finish volunteering, perhaps, the company or organization would just take you. This thought it true in a sense but limited in viewing the benefits of volunteering. Imagine an expatriate who would have been lonely and now is no longer lonely but has a less stressing time and opportunity to give their meaningful life to productivity and development of others and a community, do you think he is GIVING or TAKING?

 

Whatever your answer is, this article seeks to portray volunteering as TAKING. Even though it is a giving. Let’s examine what you Take (benefit) by volunteering: Just three (3) Solid points:

  1. Gain Employability: As people would want, yes, it’s true. 4 of 5 people interviewed in a UK Report showed that they volunteering increased their chances of employability. No doubt. Because it provides you the next benefit-new skills or practice of skills, teaching of skills. In fact, one Certificate that raises eye brows among certificates is always a volunteerism certificate. RADA has had more than 5 volunteers since its creation in 2017 and at least 4 have gained employment with credible organizations and are growing in happiness. This was before RADA took up fully on its mission. In volunteering, despite your lack of a job, you gain confidence, and improve on your abilities. See Point two below.
  2.   Gain Skills: Once you are volunteering, you don’t just sit. You work, fully like someone who is self-employed or employed. Most people feel who do not have a job and seeking volunteering stagnating feel that volunteering is giving something. Volunteering is both giving and getting. Most times, you get based on your mindset about volunteering. When I worked at the CBC Health Services, foreign volunteers came in through the Bread for the World Volunteering and they did lab work, secretarial duties, carpentry, IT, health education, youth training, etc. They tried out many skills and learned these skills. When they go back to Germany, their experience helps them to make well informed decisions about their career choice. You may be a Medical doctor but you are a born and bred Medical M& E Expert or public health rather than clinical physician.

     

  3. Give meaningfully: Volunteering is giving: As mentioned above, when you volunteer, you soak into what the bible calls “Giving better than receiving”. You give to the community you serve through your volunteering and what else could be more meaningful than a gift given at the right time to support a community? You don’t only give meaningfully, you also receive. You meet people you would never have meet if you stayed with your skill, or with no skill, or if you just stayed put. You gain fulfillment in the achievement you make in a team and as you take on and succeed at great challenges. In Volunteering you basically have fun. Your mind is so free and you are in the best state of learning how to be a great employee or a great person of value and service.

    To conclude, Giving time makes you feel you have more time. Why would you not have a longer life? When helping out? In a good heart? To conclude, Returns are always on true, selfless, committed service and a volunteer can get one of the greatest of all time. Sometimes, expatriates who are retired and lonely and don’t want to be lonely at their home volunteer abroad. They do so happily, after all, they have their money to keep up. But in developing countries, it hardly is the same. Volunteering is seen as an option for the unemployed. However, volunteering should be seen as GETTING, not just giving. It is the mindset of seeing it as giving that makes you not to discover the treasure in the fact that it is more blessed to give than to receive”. Those who just leave school and have learned all the book, and can or cannot get work, serve God, people and themselves if they hunt for opportunities to give services for free. They learn a lot, build themselves and above all, do something more meaningful, than something just Happy. Whether you chose 3 or 6 months, or more, make your commitment, calculation and classifications of yourself well, and then DECIDE: Good Luck with volunteering:
    If you want to Volunteer with RADA, CLICK HERE

Self Care: The Six Dimensions of Resiliency

Times like these are those in which even leaders who are looked upon to care for others and give direction tend to need care. It was in this spirit that I manned up to benefit from the Self Care Workshop organized by RADA which focused on the 6 dimensions of resilience. I am glad to share these touching points I received:

The Body
Take time and appreciate your body because there is a spirit that lives in it. Take care of your body. One explanation for death is that we die when the body cannot sustain the spirit inside because it is too ‘butchered’ so to say. We can cause our body to be resilient by eating healthy diets, involving in physical exercises, and sleeping/resting for 6-8 hours a day to function properly. “If you don’t eat food as your drugs, you will eat drugs as your food”.

The Emotions
Emotions are the feelings we feel. If you don’t feel, then probably you are not human. But through circumstances, feelings without control can wreak havoc into our bodies and minds. Asking yourself how you fee is helpful, accepting our emotion especially negative ones and then managing them through self-talk or self-control. A little smile and humor sparks the right mindset toward great comedy of crisis around us.

The Mind:
It is the engine. An even better description is that it is the steering of all directions we drive to. Our minds harbor our thinking. Which is informed by our beliefs. Our beliefs inform us and motivate our actions. That is why as a man thinks, so he is. The key to a resilient Mind is to Re-set your mind. For instance, to depart from negative to positive thoughts.

Security:
We all do need security no matter where we find ourselves but it is highly needed by those in high crime wave areas and conflict embedded environments. When you are faced with fears, you can research about the issues and make an informed decisions such as changing your environment, fortifying your compound with a fence etc.  When you are secure, you feel calm, jubilant, hopeful, happy energetic etc but when insecurity comes in, you feel lonely, sad, fearful, frighten, etc. These are emotions provoked by how secured you feel during a time of crisis and you can managed by your action.

Relationships:
Life is all about networks. Relations are really important for self care resilience. Family, friends, loved ones, mentors colleagues, etc. are gold!  Having them bring more light to your life and the fear of losing them can demoralize you. So enjoy them now because you know they are vital part of your life. Relationships can meet your needs and give you hope to continue moving on like you never imagined. It might even happen in ways you have no idea about. No man can survive as an island. Use whatever unhealthy relationship comes to you as one more stone to build a house that stands firmer. When you feel lonely, you can contact someone in the community of your relationships and receive the support that only fellow loving human can provide. This includes communication, video talks, games, and fellowship with husband/wife, father or mother, brother or sister, friend, colleague, church members, etc. this is the beauty of relationships. Fellowship in online groups that work for you. Enjoy the goodness of friendship.

Purpose and meaning:

You cannot strive to be resilient when you have no purpose for which you want to win.  Your purpose is what drives you and gives you direction for ways out when obstacles mount on you. Be ready and not be found without a life of meaning or purpose each morning you wake up.

The session ended with general summarized and itemized tips on how to take care of oneself. These included Physical Exercise, Socialization (get in contact with friends, families, CEOs, mentors, counselors etc), and Relaxation (meditate, entertain yourself and don’t be a workaholic, take break from COVID-19 news etc).

The Following resources were provided for those who could check them out:

 

Why Resilience is hard
Ted Talk

Beating COVID – 19 and NCDs

What you should know and do to continue preventing NCDs and COVID-19?

The latest evidence from epicenters of the Corona Virus show that persons living with Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) -like diabetes, Heart disease, Cancers, etc. and older people are most at risk of contracting the virus and experiencing more severe symptoms, compared to those without preexisting conditions.

 

This adds to the burden that health care workers, families and caregivers face in the global response.

The WHO note on COVID-19 and NCDs does not only bring to light this sad reality. It highlights how the already existing NCD and mental health challenge has been further aggravated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Mental health is a significant concern.  Despite great work at the front lines, we have heard about  the suicide of Nurses, Doctors, and a Minister of Finance  attributed to the pressure related to the response. What about new NCD cases that are emerging because measures taken such as quarantining, lock-downs, etc, are significantly, hampering NCD prevention activities in unprecedented levels. The World Health Organization has been clear about the need to protect persons with preexisting conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or cancer in prevention calls. I am even more concerned about the fact that two weeks of Quarantine or lock-down will have a major impact on the health decisions a person makes, including how to exercise, stay mentally healthy and cope with the COVID -19 situation in your country.

You may already be wondering how you can stay healthy during this time of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There are a few ways you can stay healthy during this difficult time.

  1. Self-Care: Self-care is a concept in holistic leadership where you learn how to balance work and health and family. You should take time to treat yourself with courtesy. If you are already living with an NCD, know that the world is with you. Many people are thinking about you. Negotiate with yourself on what to do, how to do it, and when to do it so that you prioritize what is most helpful to you. It’s important for your health. Your health is your real wealth. If you are a leader, and wish to learn how to navigate these changes in your life and lead well, you could join dialogues  that allow leaders to discuss challenges and support each other to lead well and be strong during this time. RADA is running self care online sessions that you should watch out for on our spaces. In Self-care, you simply reward yourself as you do both what you MUST do and what you should do to stay human, strong and enjoy the life you have.
  1. Exercise: How are you exercising during this time? Exercise helps your mind, brain and even your feelings. This does not have to be a hard hit on you every morning. Frankly, a five-minute teaser can raise you to 10 minutes and before you know it, the routine of 5 minutes will afford you a 15 minutes workout session once a day whose importance and assistance you will love. It helps you stay fit and assists you to remain mentally strong, ready and capable of managing stress. There are lots of short videos on you tube on ways to stay active at home or in small spaces. You can Click Here  for a great combination from World Athletics specifically to support you during this global challenge: You can use some of these to follow personally in your small space. 

 

  1. Mental Health; Build a team: If you do not have access to a few people even while observing social distancing, how would you manage to stay connected to others? The above online session mentioned on Self care is an example of how you can connect with others and navigate the changing and even stressful time. Social media has its good and bad sides. But with proper use of social media, one can stay connected with working teams and do better; feel better, stronger and lead effectively. We all need that human connection. Technology has been criticized for not being able to provide us such human connection as reality does, this is a best bet at this time. After all, they are human beings. But also, don’t miss a chance of fellowship, playing, talking, discussing, dialoguing with others around you as long as you all are safe. In fact, stay as reasonably connected to humans as possible. Workaholics don’t seem to get it. If you are like me, you will discipline yourself with breaks of 5-10 minutes, singing (if you like singing to music), Dancing and other aspects of meaningful distractions. Seek psycho-social care/counseling if you feel the kind of mental stress or confusion that you feel you should talk to some counselor or a dependable psychologist. Avoid alcohol. The solution in the bottle is not the solution to the problem that is out of the bottle. That’s nothing but a strong temptation to ruin the heart, lungs, liver and brain for you. Harmful use of alcohol should be avoided. This is same with smoking. In times of stress, smokers feel that this helps them. But what does it profit for smoking to temporarily “help” you and introduce you to a new pain and suffering?
  2. Prayers: Really? Yes! It is amazing how prayer moves mountains. As Christians put it, and as is written in the bible, be careful for nothing, but make your request through prayer, known unto God and His peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is an important example that meditation, reflection, proper thinking and prayers are helpful to stabilize you emotionally and other wise, so that you remain strong and healthy and can be a force for good, not for evil within this period.
  1. Eat Healthy: At this time, staying at home becomes a risk for eating more than we should and sleeping more as well. Reason should prevail and you can ensure that you eat at the right times, rest at the right times, work at the right times and play the right times. Eating habits die hard. But you can target to eat good food if you have. If you don’t have, reach out for assistance depending on your community humanitarian networks. In Cameroon, RADA has created the Rapid Community Mutual Aid Response program. This links those in need of livelihood support to those who can support. You can find it here. But unhealthy dieting is the number one risk factor for developing NCDs. You don’t want to develop NCDs after escaping COVID-19 because you don’t control or take special care of your diets. Don’t fall on junk food and processed foods. As much as it depends on you, try to remain with healthy foods.

Please listen to my friends Brian A. and Ronnel V.’s music below to comfort us as we pass through this moment.

See you at the Top!!

About the Author:
Ferdinant is currently, the Secretary General of the Cameroon Civil Society NCD Alliance, President, Reconciliation and Development Association (RADA) and a member of the Core Team of the African NCD Network. He is an Astrazeneca Young Health Scholar/One Young World Ambassador and Community Solutions Fellow.

Some References:

  1. John Hopkins University information site
  2. Global NCD Alliance Compendium of NCD & COVID Resources
  3. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/coping-with-stress.pdf?sfvrsn=9845bc3a_2
  4. https://www.worldathletics.org/be-active/lifestyle/lockdown-exercises
  5. Https://psychcentral.com/blog/what-self-care-is-and-what-it-isnt-2/
  6. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/mental-health-considerations.pdf

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS- 4 – Jan- 2020

About RADA:

The Reconciliation and Development Association (RADA) is a young organization that started in 2009 with a focus on youth development and became legalized in 2017.  From 2017 –  2019, we excelled in promoting youth productivity through seminars, workshops and summits, and with a Full time CEO in 2020, engaged fully into our mission to promote community development.

Our vision is driving sustainable solutions to community development by building bridges to sustainable solutions in the domains of health, education, agriculture, technology and peace.

RADA Volunteer Program (RAVOS):

Started in May 2020, with 7 volunteers, RADA has succeeded to continue supporting youths by building their capacity through volunteering opportunities. This second batch is looking for volunteers who can contribute their time, skills and knowledge to create a positive impact and be a significant force for promoting community development in our focus impact areas, as they also learn from our impact strategies.

Please see the different specific areas in which volunteers are needed below and a brief description of responsibilities, qualifications and other requirements.

AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITIES:

  1. Communications Offers (Journalism backgrounds are encouraged)
  2. Public Health experts /practitioners 
  3. Secretariat Duties
  4. Video/Photo Editing and/or Graphics Designing  
  5. Finance Experts
  6. Web Designing
  7. Food Sciences Volunteers
Details:
  1. Communication Related Roles: Managing RADA’s monthly Newsletter content, website Design and functionality and content maintenance, appropriate media, reports on  events, and manage social media content and posting with designed media graphics.

  2. Public Health Related Roles: Public Health Volunteers will assist in Public Health Awareness campaigns, and in the design, collection and entry of health data related data and reports as well as support Health related advocacy efforts in the domain of both infectious and non infectious diseases. N.B They Must have at least an MPH in epidemiology or other public health discipline, a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion or other health related discipline such as nursing or Medical Laboratory Sciences OR have a Sciences University Bachelor Degree.

  3.  Secretariat Duties: These Volunteers will support/assist in performing secretariat duties. Should have at least an HND in Secretariat duties.

  4. Food Sciences:Volunteers in this domain will:

    –Support Geological Agricultural initiatives
    -Support a City Food systems Collaborative initiative
    -Technically Assist Farmers in production of healthy organic fresh produce

    N.B     Food processing, Crop production, Agricultural engineers and Environmental Engineers are desirable.- Support awareness on healthy feeding practices. They will also support:

    – Awareness on the negative impacts of unhealthy diets
    – Advocacy on healthy food procurement and access policies

Volunteer Benefits: The Following are some benefits to volunteering with RADA:

  1. A Certificate of Volunteerism: At the end of the Volunteering period, RADA will issue Certificates of Volunteering and a Letter of Recommendation based on the work of the Volunteer
  2. Hard Skills building while working: You will build your hard skills in the area of volunteering interest.
  3. Soft Skills building: You will learn how to work in an organization, and better prepare yourself for employability
  4. Employability: For those who need employment, you will increase your employability with RADA or other organizations through RADA’s internal capacity building initiatives.
  5. Meaningful engagement: We are pleased to invite people to join in doing some meaningful work for the community during their period of volunteering. Thereby being part of an impact that is being created in the community.

General Requirements: All applicants must meet the following criteria.

  1. Be 18 years and older
  2. Holder of a university degree or a relevant Technical Diploma
  3. Complete and submit the online application form using the link provided below, specifying the role you wish to volunteer in
  4. Work experience is not a requirement
  5. Good working knowledge of English language (French is an added advantage).
  6. Commitment to the internal policies and regulations of RADA as well as to the values and principles of volunteerism.
  7. Commitment and willingness to work with people in teams as well as in the community and to respect the values of humanitarian work.

Duration: Volunteers MUST chose to volunteer for a minimum of three (3) Months to a maximum of Six (6) Months.

Deadline: The deadline for Applications is Septemeber  30, 2020.

Selection: Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview on the first week of October. They shall be expected to come along with Copies of their Credentials and a National ID Card.

Successful applicants will be invited to begin their service by the second week of October 2020.

NOTE:  This is an unpaid volunteering Call. The Volunteering positions are all based in Bamenda, NWR, Cameroon.

RADA shall not be responsible for lodging of volunteers.

 

Click here to Apply

For any inquiries, please email info@localhost or whatsApp +237674733730