The House of Volunteers (HOV) is a student led, community based social development organization focused on devising low-cost but high-impact solutions to bring structural improvements to underdeveloped communities. The stage was set at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for students and professionals from all backgrounds and different institutes to be involved in devising innovative solutions for improving the quality of education in underdeveloped communities. HOV focuses on devising low-cost yet high-impact solutions to bring structural improvements to primarily the education and environment sectors (among others) in underdeveloped communities around the world. HoV encourages volunteerism and creativity amongst students and the youth in these communities through active partnership during all stages of the implementation of a project. The MIT based HOV chapter is the sponsor for the House of Volunteers BRAC University. HOV BRACU is one of the local chapters of HOV MIT in Bangladesh. The other local chapters of HOV MIT in Bangladesh are HOV Bangladesh, HOV IBA, HOV BUET and the newly formed HOV SUST (Shahjalal University of Science and Technology). Organize teams to design and implement education, environment, healthcare etc related HoV projects, either locally or internationally
b. Harness and utilize local resources to the maximum extent possible, to build capacity and ensure sustainability
c. Are efficient, effective and meets international standards
ii. Involve high-impact but low cost solutions
iii. Advance the processes of socio-economic development in underdeveloped communities
d. Facilitate dialogue, undertake discussions and organize conferences on education and environment related development methods. Along these lines, HOV is currently working on four projects in Bangladesh:
* Books for Bangladesh (Book Drive) - We intend to release the collective potential of Bangladeshi college students by providing them with free and direct access to new and used reputed academic books and journals. Around 10,000 such books and journals collected by HOV MIT from several universities in Boston USA are currently waiting in Dhaka to be distributed among several public and private universities in Bangladesh. This project is being implemented by HOV BRACU in coordination with HOV MIT.
* Computers for Bangladesh (CEP) - We provide a comprehensive computer based education program to teach basic computer skills and computer fundamentals to primary and secondary school students from rural Bangladesh, implemented in partnership with the BRAC Education Program, Medhabikash, under the coordination of the Center for Languages (CfL), BRAC University. This project is being implemented by HOV BUET in partnership with HOV BRACU.
* iSchool (E-Curriculum for Bangladesh) - We are developing and evaluating the use of interactive animated supplementary material to make the National High School Curriculum of Bangladesh more fun and effective.
*Project Renewal - Project Renewal is a large scale, multilevel community development endeavor that simultaneously addresses multiple issues like poverty, health, sustainability and water body development. The entire project is spearheaded by HOV BRACU in collaboration with One Degree Initiative and Finding Bangladesh is divided into four phases, three of which have been completed thus far:
i) Phase One - Research (Carried out city wide surveys of a multitude of people from different socio-economic backgrounds across Dhaka to establish the demand for clean lakes, thereby attempting to incentivize both the government and private institutions to actively step into water body management)
ii) Phase Two - Clean up (Cleaned large portions of the Gulshan-Banani lake as an exposure and consciousness raising activity for the volunteers and as a message to the world at large)
iii) Phase Three - Renewal (Successfully attempted the process of making recycled paper from water hyacinth ('kochuripana'), made 200 sheets of recycled paper in a day, and demonstrated the functionality of the paper by organizing an Art Competition with children from Utsho Bangladesh, a partner social development organization)
iV) Phase Four - Job Creation (We intend to pioneer a social business for the women in slum dwellers by teaching them how to make recycled paper from water hyacinth using the above process and prepare the paper for sale as cards, enabling them to reduce the negative effects of the presence of water hyacinth on lake water by using that water hyacinth to make the paper, sell the paper to improve their economic conditions and make the project itself self sustaining)
GET INVOLVED:
There is much you can do, whether you are on campus, or off. We're listing some of the things that we think would be of interest or relevance to you, but we'd love to hear of any other thoughts that you may have.
1. You can get involved in awareness and outreach initiatives through organizing and/or participating in:
* Information/Awareness/Recruiting booths
* Lectures about our activities by members involved, and by prominent personalities in the social development field
* Executive meetings to coordinate our activities
* General body meetings to gather suggestions from the community
2. Initiate New Projects -
If you have an exciting idea that you think will further the causes that HoV stand for, please share it with us! We welcome ideas at all stages of development, from a mere embryonic concept, to a full-blown business plan.
3. Work with Books for Bangladesh -
To help out with our attempt to spread knowledge, you can:
* Donate your own academic books and/or journals
* Encourage other individuals, libraries, book stores and other institutions to donate books they no longer need or want to keep
* Donate money to support the shipping cost of books to Bangladesh
* Become our contact for your college, university, institution or organization in the US
* Gather relevant contacts for academic institutions in Bangladesh
* Help in transporting, sorting, packing and mailing books
* Help devise sustainable funding strategies
4. Work with CEP -
If you'd like to help us spread the fruits of technology, you can:
* Help develop a better and more comprehensive curriculum
5. Work with iSchool -
* Create interactive virtual lecture series (animations of various concepts, integrated video clips of various experiments, processes, lab videos, video shots from interactive software etc.)
* iSchool compilation will be stored in video discs (VCD) for viewing purpose to the students in Bangladesh. This will require a VCD player and a television as opposed to the much more expensive alternative of using a computer
We look forward to hearing from you.
