The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has a long history of colonialism and war. Yet since the 1970s when the Vietnam War ended, the country has not only been independent, but also peaceful. Hanoi has six million inhabitants and is the political centre of the country. “Solidarités Jeunesses” (SJ) Vietnam is a young international volunteering NGO based in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is a small organisation, set up for and by young volunteers. SJ Vietnam organises short- and long-term work camps and projects. These include actions to promote social integration, training activities, international solidarity actions and a small youth centre in Hanoi. The main objectives of SJ Vietnam are intercultural learning, justice, peace, solidarity and the fight against poverty and for a clean environment. Through the activities, SJ Vietnam encourages young people to participate actively in the society in which they live. SJ Vietnam was set up in 2004. The organisation cooperates with many global partner organisations and funding institutes, such as the World Bank, as well as local partner organisations and institutes.

The topic of this GLEN internship is volunteer management in a Vietnamese NGO. SJ Vietnam is a young and dynamic organisation and needs a proper long-term strategy for its staff. This might involve monitoring current working methods, observing and improving the staff’s capabilities by the use of training, team building, setting up a communication plan or a long-term oriented human-resource management plan for the organisation. The GLEN participants are expected to support this process. They deal with the recruitment of both international and local volunteers, their placement in a particular project and also the evaluation of their stay in the project. They will monitor, assess, evaluate and, if possible, support improvements of the human resource management of SJ Vietnam. Furthermore, the GLEN participants are asked to set up a long-term oriented human-resource management plan for the organisation.

The GLEN participants should have some practical experience in working with and educating people, e.g. holding workshops for adults, in particular in the fields of mediation, motivation, conflict management, development etc.

The scheduled time for the internship is July to September 2010.


The training and preparation seminars before the internship take place in English. The GLEN team will be composed of one German/Swiss, one Czech and one Slovakian participant.

Proposed by: Jessica Eguakun, Tomas Dopita (GLEN participants 2009) and Lai Thanh Hang, Do Thi Phuc (Solidarités Jeunesse)