Sierra Leone Marathon: Volunteer
- Benefits: Volunteer role (Accommodation, travel and expenses paid)
- Location: Based in Makeni, Sierra Leone
- Start date: February 2023, in country from Feb 2023-May 2023
The legendary Sierra Leone Marathon returns for its 10th edition! We are seeking adventurous, highly-organised, patient leaders to play a key role in safely and brilliantly delivering all aspects of this unique event – working alongside our local Race Director, in-country staff and Street Child UK teams. This is a unique, and prestigious, volunteering opportunity – to be a key part of delivering a national event, attended on two previous occasions by the President of Sierra Leone, and a flagship component of Street Child UK’s fundraising calendar.
This position plays a key role in delivering both the key components to the Marathon ‘overall event’. First and foremost is the Marathon day itself which sees hundreds of locals, expats and overseas visitors take part in the full, half, 10km & 5km runs. Secondly, there is the co-ordination and execution of all aspects of the experience of the overseas runners – travel, accommodation, food, Street Child project visits, in-country corporate sponsorship and beach party for around 75-150 runners, typically staying 5-7 nights.
‘Marathon week’ is 26 April – 3 May 2023. We need volunteers on the ground by February 2023. You will be based in Street Child accommodation in Makeni. The role will require occasional travel to Freetown, for stakeholder meetings, and to Street Child project locations to plan runner-visits.
To succeed in this role, we need someone with:
- First-class inter-personal skills - able to interact with an incredibly wide range of external stakeholders and colleague in Makeni, Freetown and internationally
- Excellent logistic and organisational abilities
- Enormous levels of patience, pragmatism and good humour
- A passion for Street Child’s mission
- A commitment to high standards – SLM has been described by Runners World as the ‘world’s most worthwhile marathon’, won ‘Best International Event’ in the 2017 Running Awards and had rave reviews in numerous global media outlets
This role is voluntary. Food, accommodation, and flights are provided by Street Child.
To apply
Please send your CV and a covering letter as a combined/single document (max 3-pages) to [email protected] by the 27 January. We will be reviewing applications as they are submitted so interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
About Street Child
Street Child believes that every child deserves the chance to go to school and learn. Our projects focus on a combination of education, child protection and livelihood support to address the social, economic, and structural issues that underpin today’s education crisis. We partner with local organisations and communities to deliver our locally rooted programmes, using evidence to drive learning and the refinement and scale up of programmes to create maximum impact for the most children at the lowest cost. We pride ourselves on being willing to go to the world’s toughest places where others won’t, including remote, hard-to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Since 2008 we have helped over 750,000 children to go to school and learn and supported over 35,000 caregivers to set up businesses so they can afford the cost of educating their children.
Street Child is committed to the safeguarding and protection of the communities we serve, our partners, our volunteers, and our staff.
As part of this commitment to safeguarding, volunteers will be subject to appropriate background checks, including a criminal records check.
