MOMS Depends on Volunteer Efforts
Volunteering for MOMS is rewarding. You are helping people who need it most, which feels - and is - wonderful.
Our volunteers vary considerably and do different things. This creates a rich family who is united by a commitment to serving and educating marginalized women and bringing about improvement in maternity care.
Most people ask questions about volunteering for a teaching trip to Sierra Leone, so most of this page deals with that. However, we have many volunteers who implement MOMS Mission in less dramatic - and incredibly important - ways.
What are the criteria?
We are all professionals, skilled in our fields. The government of Sierra Leone, naturally enough, sets standards for anyone who wants to work in a clinic or teach. We submit the credentials of our volunteers for approval.
We require education, training, and experience appropriate to the role. For example, trainers must know how to train well: Perhaps they have taken classes in training, have a degree in education, or have experience as highly rated trainers in schools or corporations. If someone offers to help write a grant, we expect that person to know how to write a grant!
We require maturity. Maturity includes managing yourself and your responses to various situations. If you've not used buckets for bathing, cooked over a fire, and squatted to relieve yourself, you must learn these skills (and cheerfully!). If you've not watched someone die a preventable death, you must find internal resources for handling these terrible situations.
Will you take malaria prophylactics - every day? Will you drink only safe water - no matter how thirsty you are or how much you want to identify with the people? Will you maintain boundaries, and avoid romantic relationships?
You need emotional resilience and creativity - and MOMS must know you have these attributes, before we leave the US. You can create difficult, if not disastrous, situations which require us to try to rescue you, and may cost MOMS our reputation and money. In some cases, inflexibility or lack of coping skills can cost your health.
What about midwifery interns?
While we do include interns in our work, those traveling to Sierra Leone must work at a professional level as teachers, not as students. They must already have considerable academic and practical experience. They must have characteristics, like resilience and flexibility, that make them good candidates for working in a remote area in a different culture. Those volunteers working with us in a more administrative capacity need to have the foundational skills in place.
Interns may not work for MOMS with women who lack choices, until they gain experience with women who have freely chosen them as a care-provider.
ShaUna Dillard, now Astrid Grove, coaches a laboring mother in Mboro, Senegal. 
Our volunteers in Sierra Leone must ensure they...
- are in harmony with MOMS' goals and methods
- are in good shape physically and emotionally
- can gather support for their own airfare
- have demonstrated teaching, midwifery, or community development skills
Our volunteers seldom act as midwife at a birth, but teach and oversee others.
Chris McManus, President of the Board, cooking rice on a kerosene stove in Jokibu. 
Want to volunteer?
If this sounds like something you want to do, go through this website in detail to get clear on MOMS' approach, philosophy, and people. Carefully review the information in the links to Sierra Leone web sites. Then email us to start the conversation. Be sure to as lots of questions. We'll be glad to have you on board!
What volunteers do:
- Raise funds and gather supplies
- Conduct operational activities: writing grants, preparing newsletters, researching options, and many other support activities
- Prepare instructional material
- Train and administer the training programs
Volunteer Basic Info 2
Volunteer Application 2
Volunteer Waiver 2
Master lists
