On April 19, 2023, a Cameroon-based biodiversity conservation and sustainable development non-profit organization, Voice of Nature (VoNat) and the top 1 business school of Germany, ESMT Berlin, signed an agreement permitting five students from the school to volunteer at VoNat for one month. Shortly after their stay at VoNat, the postgraduate students jointly put together the following write-up about their volunteering experience at the Organization:
Our team had an enriching experience working with Voice of Nature (VoNat). We were impressed with the level of passion and dedication demonstrated by the organization’s founders and their commitment to promoting environmental sustainability and community development. The SIP programme and the collaboration with VoNat presented a great opportunity for us to make use of our knowledge and skill sets to support VoNat to achieve future successes.
VoNat showed us an effective and caring way of mitigating the impact brought by climate change. It was inspiring to work with such a mission-driven organization, and we learned a lot from the experience. One of the most significant learning moments for us was the importance of effective communication and collaboration. We realized that clear communication and collaboration are crucial to achieving project goals and ensuring everyone is on the same page. We also learned how to effectively manage a project with a remote team, which was particularly challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another valuable lesson we learned from the project was the importance of understanding the client’s needs and goals.
We worked closely with VoNat to ensure that our project deliverables aligned with their vision and objectives. This helped us to develop a comprehensive understanding of their organization, which, in turn, helped us to deliver relevant and valuable results. VoNat also showed us the way of fighting climate change which combined education of the youth and offered solutions to actual problems faced by households. As for the future, we believe that the outcomes of our project can be used to help VoNat achieve their goals and promote their mission. Our crowdfunding campaign guidebook can serve as a useful tool for the organization to secure funds and resources, while our report on environmental datasets can help them analyze and measure their impact.
We are really grateful to VoNat for the great opportunity, which trained and tested our skills of teamwork and problem-solving. With this experience, we believe that we can better perform with these skill sets in the future career. We hope that VoNat can continue to grow and expand their impact, and we are open to collaborating with them in the future.