Is there more to ROTA than just the projects?

In sociology class we study a variety of topics by scanning through the chapters. I found the recent class to be the most interesting class from the previous classes. I say this because I learned something new and interesting that never captured my attention. We spoke about Organizations in terms of Formal and Informal organizations. The discussion looked at Voluntary organizations and Utilitarian organizations.  ROTA is an organization that best defines theses two kinds of organizations according to Sociology. 

“Towards Education for all…Today, Tomorrow, Forever” is there priority mission statement. I am currently a non-paid worker for ROTA (Reach Out to Asia) and this experience gives me a valid explanation of judging the type of Organization it is in our society. The organization has a hierarchy of employees where some are paid to run the organization, while most do voluntary projects to create awareness of the illiterate people who are less fortunate or hard working laborers to get proper education. My job in ROTA is to educate eighteen cleaning staff members of Education City twice a week. These workers are mostly recruited from Sri lank and possess low skills in communicating with their colleagues or people in charge of them in English. They fail to understand certain vocabulary that is very important in order for them to do allocated tasks.

Therefore, I am an individual who gives 2 hours of her time to help these workers learn a few English words, so that their bosses and employers have an easier time communicating with them. ROTA is also a utilitarian organization. A utilitarian organization indicates that the organization has a specific goal/ purpose and implies that some members get paid for running the few aspects of ROTA and is usually a matter of individual choice. I can strongly say this organization is not a Coercive organization. The aim of ROTA is to increase access to educationalfacilities in a crisis situation. The chairperson H.E Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani and a few other Board members provide guidance and direction for the charity.

Since the organization is a utilitarian organization, this means they are Bureaucratic. A bureaucratic organization indicates that an organization has forms for everything, a lot of paper work, policies, procedures, and deadlines. This organization incorporates all of those attributes in order for an individual to be a non-paid employee, or part of a quick volunteer project. The organization strictly believes in their aim and ways to achieve that aim. The organization has to be bureaucratic because they are dealing with a large number of people of different knowledge skills and areas. They have to deal with the volunteers and the people who need the voluntary assistance. They have to try and get people to sponsor their notion and they work forward with that support and funding’s. Qtel and Vodafone are so far the most spoken about sponsors for the projects of ROTA.












ROTA is a non-profit organization, and thus there is a limit of trust and liability issues that have to be kept under control and supervised regularly. These benefits of having rules is a functional point of view, a positive way to see an outcome in every bureaucratic organization. There is an achievement, which is education that is given and received by a range of individuals.

Although, if there is too much bureaucracy pushed towards the organization, there tends to be negative issues with the organization called Social conflicts. The social conflict in ROTA is that there might be some Asian countries who do not get the privilege to receive the same sort of education everywhere. 

One reason to this is that they might not have enough students or people to do the voluntary work of teaching in those specific regions. Or, they might only get a visit of help once a year that has the possibility to hold an event of teaching. The picture of the Map above shows the different regions that ROTA has visited to help educate more illiterate individuals.

In Doha Qatar itself it becomes a social conflict because many Indian schools barely receive information about ROTA trips abroad or several local projects because the organization only picks people who have a certain amount of skills or study in Education City. Education City most of the time tries to get university or Qatar Academy students to participate in these projects, in order to build their Community and Service skills and approaches. The picture below is of a Carnegie Mellon University student teaching the cleaning staff of his University. As a teacher myself, I have noticed that there are no teachers from The College of the North Atlantic or Qatar University. The next picture identifies how serious ROTA takes their educational services because it shows the training sessions that occurred for all the upcoming teachers in Education City.

Visit this link to watch how Education city demonstrates enthusiasm for Reach out to Asia: http://www.youtube.com/user/reachouttoasiatv?ob=0&feature=results_main

“Make a Difference and take Action” says ROTA.

Moving Planet Organization

Formal organizations are created by the society, there are two types of groups, primary and secondary groups which can be broken down into different categories. Primary groups are formed based on strong emotions; the main elements that make up the primary groups consist of family members and friends, where they highly impact the result of the group. Secondary groups can be influenced by the primary groups; they are usually larger organizations which relate to the community. The three types of secondary groups are usually larger organizations which relate to the community. The three types of secondary groups are; voluntary, coercive and utilitarian.

350.org is an organization established in the United States by Bill Mckibben. The number 350 relates to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The current level is 392ppm (parts per million) which must be reduced in order to save the planet. "350 is more than a number - it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet". Therefore it is a voluntary organization aiming to fulfil one goal- to save the planet. The organization's members consist of individuals sharing a mutual interest with a non-profit goal.



350.org's organization has a vision to reduce the amount of CO2 usage, their mission is to raise awareness and head for a change in their everyday life. Individuals shape our society; the society can keep the planet safe. "We want to be a laboratory for the best ways to strengthen the climate movement and catalyze transformation around the world".

Using formal dimensions, 350.org gives individuals the freedom to establish events relating to climate change, "mass public actions are led from bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers". The dimensions are volunteer-generated norms where they can by pass or violate the organization's rules. 350.org is a non-bureaucratic organization, and its success depends on the volunteer's creativity.

The success of 350.org can by proven by the number of individuals involved in making a change to the planet. In October 2009, more than 5200 actions have taken place in 181 countries. Each country creates events relating to their culture. The study of the society plays a large role in the success of the event; they are usually influence by the primary groups where emotion is influenced by family and friends.

As a project for my senior seminar class, I created a poster for a fake event in Qatar; I planned an event relating to the Qatari tradition and culture, aiming to raise awareness on 350ppm. While thinking critically of an event, I asked the older generations of how they lived in the past, before the development of fossil fuels etc. Qatar was not a developed country at their generation therefore they could reflect on their experience. I had a conversation to fully experience and understand the way they lived and how they would get around in Qatar. I also looked at existing events and how to promote the awareness. Since we can't solve the issue, we can only raise awareness. I looked at the marathons and the impact they leave, I noticed that even though it does not solve, it leaves an experience. I merged both ideas, marathon and older generation's experience to create a marathon using our old means of transportation in Qatar. Using Dhows and camels, the participants would understand the society and actually live the society as in the past. This event should affect their thinking and help them preserve the fossil fuels.




Below are examples of different events in different countries.

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Voluntary organization is one that relies on occasional or regular volunteers for its operations, and may or may not have paid staff. A volunteer organization is characterized by (1) autonomy from the State, (2) self-governance through a board of unpaid trustees, (3) membership that is neither inherited nor prescribed, (4) aid from philanthropy, (5) benefit for or service to non-members, and (6) not-for-profit orientation (Business dictionary.)

Recently in Qatar, one of the biggest volunteer event occurred, it is The Doha Tribeca Film Festival. The Festival aims to bring people from all walks of life, cultures and backgrounds together through the universal language of film, evolving and transforming each year, but the essence of it is to exchange culture, stories, and perspectives (DTFF.)
The five-day celebration (October 25-29) had more than 50 films from 35 countries screened before an expected audience intake of more than 50,000 people, showcasing a culturally diverse cross section of comedies, family-oriented films, epics, political biopics, thrillers and documentaries (DTFF.)

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival could not happen without the dedication and hard work of the volunteers. Volunteering is often the first step for people interested in pursuing or advancing a career in the film industry. These positions are unpaid but provided priceless experience to the volunteers. The Doha Tribeca Film Festival had 1,100 volunteers, which shows how important this event is. Every festival department’s volunteer needs vary in numbers and there is a place for every skill level and experience. The volunteers ranged from students to mid career professionals that are available to help. The were many departments, that volunteered worked in such as Box Office, Broadcast, Communications, Content & New Media, Education, Family Day, Festival Operations, Guest Relations, Guest Services, Hospitality, Industry Events, Marketing, Merchandising, Production, Special Projects, and Venues(DTFF.)








Sources:

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/filmfestival/volunteer
http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/society-and-culture/section5.rhtml
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/voluntary-organization.html

Formal Organization- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

In order to fulfill the basic needs and promote diverse interests of people, a large number of organizations have come up with modern complex societies. These organizations are of two kinds-the formal and informal organizations. There are economic, political, educational, industrial and other kinds of formal and informal organizations. Due to the growth and demand of the societies, the number and size of the formal organizations have increased tremendously. A formal organization is a group that is deliberately constructed to achieve the objectives through explicitly defined roles and specified rules. One such organization is the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent(IFRC). This organization belongs to the sub category of voluntary organizations (aka voluntary associations) that draws people who give time, talent, or treasure to support mutual interests, meet important human needs, or to achieve a not- for- profit goal.

Every organization, whether profit or non- profit have a definite purpose or goals which bring individuals together to establish a definite pattern and a system of interaction. The IFRC vision: to inspire, encourage, facilitate and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activites by National Societies, with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering, and hereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world. They have seven fundamental principles which guides the actions, attitudes and behaviors of individuals and the organization as a whole. Below is a video that states these seven principles.



The IFRC have come a long way. It was born in 1859, when Henry Dunant, a young swiss man, came upon a bloody battle where 40,000 men lay dead or dying on the battlefield and the wounded lacked medical attention. Below is a short film combining animation and images, which brings life to the history of Red Cross Red Crescent from Henry Dunant till today.

The IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. Their strategy in the future aims to save lives and change minds.

An International Cultural Meeting of Youth

Cultural mediation helps local and foreign citizens relate better with each other. It helps them understand their different backgrounds and interact positively with each other. “The main characterizing elements of cultural mediators are communicative competence, empathy, active listening and good knowledge of both the hosting country and country of origin (culture, laws, traditions, etc.)” (“What is,” par. 1). Cultural encounter is the experience of meeting and interacting between people in a cross-cultural visit from different cultural backgrounds. My first cultural encounter occurred when I volunteered in the first International Cultural Meeting of Youth, which happened in March 2011 for the first time in Qatar. There were around 15 to 20 French students who took Arabic and came to learn the language better, and some of them wanted to work in Qatar. My social role was to guide them during their visit and host them through this voluntary organization.
When they arrived we greeted them and asked them, “ What do you want to see in Qatar, and what did you hear before about Qatar?” They told us that they didn’t know about Qatar until their Arabic professor told them about it. They visited, and they were thinking that Qatar is so boring with sand and that they came only for an educational purpose. Also, they came because of the big attention that Qatar has for sport. Perhaps they were feeling some cultural shock.

We took them to several places in Qatar because this meeting was supposed to exchange cultural values and norms. We took them to Katara, The Pearl, the Islamic Museum, Fanar, Cultural Village, malls, Doha Land, and Souq Wagif. While we were doing these tours, social interaction happened between us because we were presenting ourselves as a model of Qatar society, so they started to ask questions about our customs, traditions, symbols, and why we do certain things. They were really open-minded and smiled and said hello to everyone. When we were in the bus some of the girls opened the window and said hi to everyone in the other cars, so the others (young boys) understood their greetings differently and chased us, and we had a big problem. I explained to the girls that we don’t do this here in Qatar because it will be understood in not only friendship but as an odd invitation because our cultural expectations are different.

The French people really loved Souq Wagif the most because it combines many different things: shopping, entertainment, showing different performers, and it is multicultural where there are many things from outside Qatar. Souq Wagif represents the cultural heritage of Qatar. This imaginative place has an awesome scene for taking pictures. While we were there some of them took pictures of us, and we told them not to put our pictures on Facebook but to keep them for themselves, yet we weren’t really comfortable with that. They were violating our private boundaries. One week after they went back, all our pictures were in Facebook, and we are not allowed to put our pictures on public display, so we told them to remove them. It was really trying because it took a lot of time to check on every single one of the 35 of them who were displaying our pictures. If our parents had known about it, we would have been facing a big problem because we save our pictures, and no one can view them online. The French people didn’t understand that because our public and private boundaries are different than theirs.
They really enjoyed their time, and they were shocked that we are really kind comparing to the other people from other countries, but I really find them kind, also. I think they still have some wonders and unanswered questions about our country. They didn’t understand the cultural structure because I think they stayed for a short time. They had many questions for me about Qatar, about our society. There isn’t enough education outside about Qatar. That’s why our cultural exchange showed them that Qatar is really a beautiful, unique country. In addition, we spread our cultural religion, identity and showed the right picture of Qatari people.


Work cited:
“What is cultural mediation.” Immmiweb. n. d. web. 2 Nov.2011.

"The walk for life", Formal organization with a cause

In sociology a formal organization is defined as being a type of secondary group which people create as a coordinating mechanism to achieve a planned outcome. They are viewed as such because they bring together people and resources that when worked together will achieve the desired outcome.
People all over Qatar shed their regular attire for bright pink t-shirts, as they took part in a walk along Doha’s Corniche to raise breast cancer awareness in our Qatari community.

“The walk of life" channels human activity toward achieving an outcome which supports a mutual interest and meets important human needs, all for a non-profit goal. First of all, it was a voluntary organization. People attended the walk to donate their time and effort in achieving the ultimate goal of raising awareness  to the masses. The people who attended the cause were a mix of everything from different nationalities to different social statuses. This was definitely a secondary group because of the fact that everyone gathered for a specific purpose which was to take part in the walk that would use that awareness to aid in the prevention, early detection, and treatment of breast cancer.

However there were many differences that the walk of awareness had to formal organizations. It might be apparent but people walked together in large groups which even though the majority didn't know each other they were brought together by a common purpose. The notion of “McDonaldization” was not put into the extremes since the walk was to raise awareness unlike a production line of creating products as efficiently as possible. Efficiency and how fast or slow people walked was up to the people themselves since everyone who joined the walk was there voluntarily.