Volunteering is easy. You just need the interest and the willingness to publicly speak about and work with issues of sex, drugs, virginity, HIV and AIDS, the body, relationships, intimacy, human rights, lesbian, gay, transgender issues and work with people living with HIV or AIDS, people of diverse sexual orientation and or identity and individuals involved in sex work, and many others, from across a gamut of professions and identities. Ok?

There are two main ways in which you can join us as a Volunteer:

1. You can work on a project for another organisation with Grassrooted. Say for example, a network of people living with HIV wants us to train their staff on sexuality, they come to us and we go to you. Through a coordinated process you work with us to train the staff, and in the process also learn about COJ, HIV, training and working with different people. This sort of volunteering is usually done through tie- ups with institutes/ groups such as National Institute of Social Development (NISD), but if you’re interested and have a skill set/ expertise you’d like to share, write to us at joinus@grassrooted.net.
2. The second type is all about mobilising and interacting with people, working on the ground and getting your hands and feet dirty. Grassrooted also organises events and programmes for people in different parts of Sri Lanka. Every time such programmes come up, we recruit volunteers to help us. The work would involve everything from mobilising people to designing to making banners to setting up tents to theatre and performance arts to translating in Sinhalese or Tamil to travelling out of Colombo to distributing flyers to conducting games and exercises to… well…get the drift?

As a volunteer you’ll also have to go undergo basic training related to the work you’d be doing. Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it.