Offering volunteer opportunities

Across the world, aid organisations need volunteers to work on projects that help communities prepare for and cope with disaster. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative, rolled out in 2015, enables EU citizens to get involved.

The initiative is open to a variety of profiles, from newcomers to established experts. It provides for a training programme before volunteers are deployed on humanitarian operations. Only humanitarian aid organisations that meet European standards for the management of volunteer teams can host and deploy volunteers. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative will also provide many opportunities for capacity building in local communities in order to help them better withstand future disasters.

The initiative is expected to deploy 4 000 individuals to humanitarian projects across the globe by 2020. Also, 4 400 people from local organisations in non-EU, disaster affected countries will be trained and 10 000 online volunteering opportunities will be offered. EU Aid Volunteers will not be deployed to areas affected by conflict.