Housing project enabler and volunteers buddy

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Organization Name: Drishtee Foundation

Organization Description: Drishtee is a social organization working for rural communities of over 6000 villages in various states in India, with a strong presence in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. We also have our presence in parts of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, M.P., Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and some other North Eastern states. Drishtee aims to develop and nurture more than 500,000 sustainable rural livelihoods in next 5 years, in partnership with local communities and external stakeholders. This entails the role of a catalyst for community building and an in depth understanding of rural life and businesses for forging partnerships.

Progress and development of villages is possible only when families realize and accept the need for coming together as a community for fulfilling their basic common needs. It is important that they realize that their economic unsustainability may have external influence but the core of the solution lies in their aggregation. Drishtee is betting on the willingness of rural families to invest, sacrifice and contribute towards this common cause. Once the village embarks on the path of organizing themselves, the focus is on identifying their skill and resource gaps which needs outside support. There are capacity building needs, capital needs and above all requirement of channel support for accessing markets. Drishtee takes these needs to stakeholders such as local government, civil society organizations and CSR of large corporations seeking partnerships on behalf of these community organizations.

Vision : Drishtee envisions a world where all communities are empowered to achieve shared prosperity.

Mission: To engage and collaborate with marginalized communities to develop and nurture 500,000 rural livelihoods sustainably by 2020.

Volunteer Opportunity Details:

Job Title for this position: Housing project enabler and volunteers buddy@ Saurath , Madhubani , Bihar

Job Function: Volunteers Team Manager: Enabler, Translator, Guide and Buddy

Language Requirements: Hindi and English: Mandatory

Project Description:

Gharaunda is a sustainable - low-cost, inclusive and eco-friendly - housing project for the low-income villager of rural India. Made through the harness of the local value chain and their natural resources it aims to create new sustainable livelihoods and a broader standard of the minimum living requirements.

It is a tailor-made housing paradigm, created along with the young villagers of Bihar, that contemplates the whole production cycle - from diagnosis to conceptualization, creation, businesses, labour conditions, funding, sales, maintenance.

Gharaunda aims for an easy scalable model by being attractive for the rural villagers (for its very low cost, fast/methodic construction process, suitability and the broader standard of the "minimum living requirements") and for the financing entities (low & controlled budgets, tested housing model). Gharaunda team is striving to achieve a balance between tradition and change, aspiring to co-create together with the local villagers conditions to encourage young staying in rural areas, by choice, with dignity and pride of its rural identity.

Description of Opportunity:

We are looking for someone to manage, guide and support a team of international volunteers that is immersed in Indian villages. Someone passionate about Indian culture, its customs, food, history, language... Someone keen to proudly show it to international people, but as well willing to get to know their culture. Someone understanding and interested in helping to meet the volunteers needs.

Should also be someone used to live in rural areas, aware of its constraints, challenges and blessings, ready to make the best of it.

Gharaunda is created and ruled by a multidisciplinary and intercultural team. Moreover the project counts on several international volunteers that immerse in the villages. Yet, Gharaunda is a project made specifically for the Indian villagers and one of the main goals is to create a house model that respects their culture and customs.

The Indian citizens’ knowledge about the subtleties and particularities of the Indian culture, invisible or incomprehensible to the outsiders, it’s vital for the project and for the international volunteers’ inclusion and their understanding of the place. For this reason, we are recruiting you!

Volunteers with different backgrounds (mainly architecture, engineer and economy/management) join Gharaunda with specific technical missions. The candidate selected for this position will not have specific tasks on the project but will follow up the work of all volunteers, helping them with cultural, linguistic or other barriers, making their work possible, teaching them and learning with them.

Desired Skills and Expertise:

This position does not require a specific graduation, however it’s imperative that the candidate speak English and Hindi fluently . Besides that, should be:

• communicative,
• practical,
• hands-on,
• resourceful,
• ingenious,
• attentive,
• understanding,
• willing to help and keen to learn.

Location: On site: Saurath Village, Madhuani, Bihar

Number of Volunteers for the Opportunity: 1

Stipend: None

Opening Date : 5 th May 2017

Closing Date : end of May

Preferred Date of joining : May/June