Two years after the activation of the "milONGa" volunteer pilot platform, more than 80 young people from different parts of the world have had a volunteer experience and more than 15 social organizations are connected to the program.
Although we are still in the pilot phase, milONGa has had a great impact on both the young people involved and the organizations we work with. We have received more than 160 volunteer applications, of which around 80 have been completed. The average age of the children who have had their experience is between 22 and 24 years and the duration of the volunteering is between 1 and 3 months.
One of the most important elements of milONGa is the training process that takes place before, during and after the volunteering, and the relationship that we want to have with the volunteers from the program. More than 100 contact and / or training skypes were carried out with the volunteers and in some cases there were face-to-face or virtual training days, when there are several young people who carry out their experience in the same social organization.
Our proposal focuses on the constant accompaniment of the volunteer and the NGO, in order to generate an experience that is not only social, but also intercultural; an encounter with the local culture. Those who arrive and those who welcome can experience this planetary exchange of fraternity that is enriched by the accompaniment and formation that takes place before, during and after each experience.
By 2019 we hope that many more young people will join us. In recent months we have participated in several national and international meetings that have allowed us to spread the program on a large scale, so we have started to receive requests for information through the different means of contact with which we have.
In addition, we have begun the process of expanding the milonga range of action both in Latin America, Europe and in Africa and Asia; in this way, young people who want to do a volunteer experience will have different options where they can serve, depending on their interests, needs, studies and so on.
For the milONGa team it is a great satisfaction to take into account the results and progress that the program has had so far, and to have the opportunity to face the challenges that arise to achieve that many young people and organizations continue to add to this exchange proposal. social and intercultural fraternal.