Events

Cook Day is the Foundation’s community meal. Food is prepared in the open by volunteers and community members together, and served to anyone who comes. There is no register at the gate and nobody is asked to prove need.

It runs once a year and it takes a great many hands: cooking, logistics, serving, seating, water, media and documentation. It is the most straightforward day in the calendar to join if you have never volunteered before, because the work is physical and the instructions are simple.

Dates are confirmed ahead of each year’s event and announced here and to the community on Achebe Campus first. To take part, see the programme page or register as a volunteer. To help fund a distribution round, talk to us.

The Achebe Africa Digital Academy runs live sessions alongside its courses: training, mentoring, workshops and question-and-answer time with people who do the work for a living.

Sessions are rolling rather than tied to a term. A cohort starting now does not wait for a date in a calendar, which matters when someone is out of work and cannot afford to wait for one.

The live element is what separates a course from a video library. Being able to ask a question and be answered by a person is the difference between a learner who finishes and one who quietly stops.

Everything runs on Achebe Campus, so a session is reachable from anywhere with a connection. Enrolled learners are notified of each session; everyone else can see what is available through AADA courses.

Organisations that want to run a session, mentor a cohort or offer placements should read Partner with AADA.

Health campaigns take screening, consultation and basic care into communities rather than expecting people to travel to find them. For many of the households the Foundation works with, the journey to a clinic is the barrier, not the willingness to be seen.

Campaigns run seasonally and are planned around what a community has asked for and what our clinicians can staff. They depend on qualified volunteers — doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and community health workers — and on non-clinical volunteers to manage registration, queueing, supplies and documentation.

Details of each campaign are confirmed with the host community before it is announced. See the Community Health Outreach programme for what the work involves, volunteer to join one, or get in touch about sponsoring a campaign.

Orientation is the briefing a volunteer receives before a first placement. It covers what the role involves, what the Foundation expects, what a volunteer can expect in return, and the part that matters most: safeguarding.

Anyone whose role brings them into contact with children is taken through our Child Protection Policy and Safeguarding Policy — who to tell if something concerns them, and what happens after they have told someone. A volunteer who knows the reporting route is worth far more to a child than one who does not.

Sessions are scheduled as intakes are confirmed rather than on a fixed calendar, and dates go to registered volunteers first. To be included, register as a volunteer and tell us where you are based and how much time you have.