Board member secretary

Job description:

As secretary, you are committed to the awareness of the projects and the vision of the foundation. You are responsible for the online presentation of the foundation and the communication between the foundation and partners and donors. Furthermore, you are occupied with incidental administrative tasks and you write necessary texts about the foundation / projects. For the rest, there is a lot of room to bring in your own ideas .

Desired qualities of the secretary:

• Interest in development issues and/or deafness;
• Motivated, independent working, and takes initiative;
• Can take responsibility;
• Is a social person with an interest in networking and making contacts;
• Can work well in a team and adheres to deadlines and agreements;
• Enjoys writing and is interested in social media.

Time spent:

• An average of four hours per week for own administrative tasks;
• Meeting once or twice a month (usually online), and a (half) annual meeting twice a year of approximately half a day where all board members are physically present.

Vision of the foundation:

Talking Hands aims to promote the social integration of deaf and hard of hearing people in Uganda, and also to create opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people. The foundation does this by:

a. to make quality education accessible and develop it for underprivileged deaf and hard of hearing people in Uganda;

b. to support information work on topics related to deafness;

c. to support the entry of deaf and hard of hearing people into the Ugandan labour market;

d. to contribute to raising awareness in Europe about the situation of deaf and hard of hearing people in Uganda.

The collaboration with our partner in Uganda, the New Hope School for the Deaf, is central. We follow a 'bottom-up approach' as much as possible. This means that the work is carried out by local employees who are 'empowered' to find solutions for self-identified issues from their own cultural context. The collaboration consists of filling in a common framework that New Hope for the Deaf and the Talking Hands foundation can agree on; jointly considering expenditures within the financial possibilities; following up on common agreements and evaluating the projects; and structuring the organization in Uganda.

The other side of Talking Hands' work consists of fundraising and providing information in Europe. In doing so, it is very important to us that there is no dominant negative image of the Ugandan way of life and culture. We believe that no culture is better than another, and that different cultures can mean a lot to each other. That is why we treat the culture of the employees and deaf people in Uganda with great respect. In our communication, we emphasize human dignity, and the knowledge, skills and opportunities of the people we work with.

For more information see:

• Talking Hands website Talking Hands website