Group Discussion Presentation

Group 1
Presenter- Ato Kiros
Discussion question 1
. As soon as the volunteers come, we introduce them to the other staff. That solves
communication problem.
. Arranging office space with all needed facilities.

Group 2
Presenter- Dr. Mengistu
Group Members – Ato Tsige Baye
- Ato Temesgen
- Dr. Dejene Gemechu
- Ato Fraol Lemessa
1. Challenges – Being unable to provide office space for volunteers in the desired time and
quality
- Language barrier- not being able to communicate with the staff.
2. Safety issues- There is house prepared for university staff to live in. But we heard that it’s
against KOICA’s regulation for the volunteers to live there. Therefore, they are living
outside the campus on their own, which might cause safety issues. We want to have a
standard regulation regarding housing.
3. Many people are getting Korean language training. The demand is so high that we had to
limit the number of students that take the class. We ask KOICA to put this into
consideration and do something so that more people can take the class.
4. There are night shift students. But there is safety issue for the volunteers to stay late.
Therefore, we made arrangement is made to drop them home when it’s late.
5. Many volunteers adapt quickly to the language and the community.

Group 3
Group members – Ato Kedir
- W/ro Ejigayehu
- Ato Gemechu
 We need to improve volunteers’ working conditions in order to increase satisfaction of
both volunteers and host organizations.
 We can arrange some program to introduce the volunteers to the locals.
 Safety- When problems arise, we should inform the police authorities, KOICA office, …
Recommendations
  Language barrier – It would be good if the volunteers assigned here would be good at
English.
 There should be close monitoring of the volunteers by the KOICA office.
 Focus should be given to primary education.

Group 4
Presenter- Ato Getahun
 Volunteers should get to learn the local language.
 It would be good if volunteers spend some time as assistant teachers until they get used to
things.
 Volunteers should be introduced to the school community and also participate in staff
meeting.
 Volunteers should be assigned according to their field and profession.
 Local staff should be aware of the volunteers’ culture.
Recommendation
 KOICA should introduce the Korean culture through the media.

Group 5
Presenter- W/ro Sosina
 We noticed that there is difference among volunteers with regards to communication and
adaptation skills to the local culture. Some are fast and some are a bit slow.
Recommendation
 Volunteers should be informed about the region that they’re assigned to.
 Volunteers should have the desire to learn the local language.
 Volunteers should not get offended when people think they are Chinese as it is because
the people don’t know. They should instead explain to the people that they are not
Chinese.

Group 6
Presenter- Ato Muluken
 There should be experience sharing among different regions.
 Still more volunteers are needed and we would like to have some more volunteers sent.
 On the job language training should be given to volunteers.
 There should be equitable distribution of volunteers among different regions. There are
many in some regions and none in others.
 Not only representatives from Zone and Woreda offices but also representative from
regional offices should be invited to participate in such meetings.
Group 7
Presenter- Ato Abiyu
 Experience sharing should be bilateral. It would be nice if representatives of host
organizations should also get to experience Korea.
 There is limited geographic distribution. Such dispatching of volunteers should also be
distributed to other regions.
 It would be good if volunteers are selected based on their language skills.

Group 8
Presenter- Ato Jemal
 There should be polite communication with volunteers.
 Volunteers should keep themselves safe.
 The programs should get confirmed before the local community is informed about them.
It’s not good if the projects get cancelled after giving the people high expectations.
 The volunteers should submit their job description and their qualifications when they
come. Otherwise the host organizations might not know where to assign them.