Fondasyon Mapou's Intern and Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers
When you volunteer with Fondasyon Mapou, you provide valuable support to get the job done and help spread the message of hope for Haiti to others. For example, volunteers may help prepare for upcoming events, organize lobby day, organize educational session about Haiti, and organize a fundraising event to support our work; assist with in-house mailing, contribute articles or analysis for our website, and give technical support such as maintaining the website. There is always works to be done!

Interns
Working as an intern at Fondasyon Mapou gives you an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in political organizing, lobbying, advocacy works, and involve in educational activities sponsored by the FM and other local & national groups. You will become an integral part of the FM’s crucial work to support the Haitian people’s struggle for democracy.

Each intern works to promote some of the mandates of Fondasyon Mapou. Your responsibilities may include:

  • developing, coordinating and publicizing educational events;
  • researching and writing educational publications;
  • researching, interviewing and writing articles for the FM publication and the media;
  • participating in coalition and organizing campaigns;
  • creating leaflets, posters and banners for political demonstrations;
  • organizing and staffing literature tables; and
  • Word processing, data entry and other administrative work.

As an intern, you can work with a specific targeted area. However, we believe in letting our interns and volunteers develop ownership over their work, you are encourage to develop projects of your own. Some of the qualities that we look for in an intern are as followed:

  • strong interest in promoting participatory democracy, economic and social justice issues,
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Support the rebuilding process and reforestation of Haiti
  • Support sustainable development and fair trade for Haitian peasant farmers
  • commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression analysis and work,
  • willingness to learn about political issues that affect Haiti
  • Support the reparation for Haiti and cancellation of external debt

Internships are 15 or more hours per week (part- to full-time), and are unpaid at this time. Please feel free to write us at info@fondasyonmapou.org with your questions, or send a cover letter, resume and a writing sample to us at the address above.

Below is a number of internship/volunteer "job descriptions" outlining various intern/volunteer positions. Note that these are guidelines for interns/volunteers and the person may take on responsibilities for more than one internship/volunteer position. A number of the internships/volunteers positions below can done at a remote location other than the DC Metropolitan Area, unless otherwise specified.

Assistant Policy Coordinator:Develop and maintain a weekly one pager to inform members and staffers about new development in Haiti. Stay abreast of the various legislations that are being introduced regarding Haiti and other legislations that might affect the Haitian community in the U.S. Perform analysis of the language containing in the legislation. Create educational materials and action alert for the Haitian community regarding those various pieces of legislations. Establish and maintain contact with staffers on Capitol Hill. Work closely with staffers to schedule potential hearing and brief on Haiti to educate the elected official about Haiti and Haitian community needs in the US - Intern must be in DC at time of the internship.

Public Relation Assistant: Assist in drafting press releases and media advisories, as well as preparing white papers for the media to counter the misinformation campaign and the negative press image about Haiti. Compile a list of Haitian and international press contact for FM use.

News Commentator: Seek Creole/French/English speakers to help maintain the Haiti Weekly News update. Compile and translate a summary of news event pertaining to Haiti as portray in the international and Haitian media for FM’s weekly segment.

Translation/Interpretation Assistant: Seeking fluent Creole/French/English speakers to translate FM’s website and educational materials in Creole or/and English. As well as translating documents for our Haitian partners on the ground.

Registered Voter Coordinator: Seeking someone who is familiar with the United States voter registration system to educate the Haitian-American community about their rights to vote. Organize town hall meetings throughout the communities to emphasis the important of their vote. Build a network with regional and local organizations that handle voting, gather support, and materials for the Haitian communities use. Organize voter registration drive for the community to register. Appear on community radio shows and television programs to spread the word about the importance of voting. Organize a petition signature campaign requesting that the voting registration card be translated into Creole to facilitate the Haitian community ability to vote. Work closely with local elected official offices and Haitian constituents to generate support for this work. Create a campaign which appeals to young Haitian-Americans to register to vote.

This is a Seasonal internship -- Intern must be in the DC metropolitan area at time of the internship.