Title: Trek Coordinator
• Reports to: Trek Manager and Country Director
• Schedule: Monday – Friday, Weekends during Trek
• Location: THIES, Senegal
• Start Date – Immediate
• Application Deadline – April 5, 2024.
Join the movement!


Who We Are?
buildOn is a not-for-profit organization working to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education. We’re not a charity, we’re a movement.
In the United States, we run intensive service-learning programs in under-resourced, urban high schools in six major cities. Through these programs, buildOn empowers youth to transform their communities through high-impact service. Over the last 27 years, buildOn has empowered more than 100,000 urban youth to contribute more than 2.3 million hours of service that has touched the lives of more than one million people living below the U.S. poverty line.
Globally, teams of students from buildOn programs fan out across the world to help build schools in the economically poorest countries on the planet. We have now built over 2000 schools in Haiti, Nicaragua, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Malawi, Nepal, and Guatemala. More than 2.8 million children, parents, and grandparents have attended these schools so far, while more than 200,000 attend buildOn schools every day. At least, 50% of these buildOn students are girls or women. Most importantly, community members have organized leadership committees and contributed more than 2.8 million volunteer workdays to build their schools.
We hope you’ll consider joining our team!


Who We Want
buildOn seeks a Senegal Trek Coordinator, whose primary focus is coordinating, preparing, and supporting buildOn’s Trek for Knowledge program. You will also be responsible to prepare English reports on buildOn’s partner villages. Trek for Knowledge is a cross-cultural immersion program, consisting of mostly American high school students, college students, families, corporations, and/or individuals. buildOn sends 400+ participants per year to buildOn project countries (Haiti, Mali, Senegal, Malawi, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, or Nicaragua) to assist in the construction of primary schools in rural villages while living with host families. The Senegal Trek Coordinator will work closely with the Trek Manager, Trek leader, and the buildOn Country Director from Senegal to manage logistics and ensure a quality experience while simultaneously managing participant safety and minimizing risks for all Treks to Senegal.



What You’ll Do
Before the trek
• Participate in the selection of school sites and Trek villages
• Complete and distribute Community Profiles and photos of selected villages
• Work with Trek Staff to arrange all logistics: safety plans, transport, lodging, food, etc.
• Prepare the local communities to welcome & host the Trek Team
• Work with buildOn staff to organize the visit to a finished school
• Organize and lead interviewing and recruiting of translators, cooks, and drivers
• Advise the Trek manager regarding cultural sessions based on the culture, values, and traditions of the Senegalese people
• Facilitate, translate and support the Trek manager during the set-up preparation of the trek
• Take care of additional logistics for Trek Teams as directed by the Country Director, Trek Manager, or Trek leader

During the trek
• Support all Trek activities (i.e., purchases at the market, market day travel, etc.)
• Support any potential health, safety, or security emergencies.
• Travel between host villages to ensure quality and safety
• Assist the village and Trek managers in organizing cultural workshops
• Give advice to the visitors regarding culturally appropriate behavior
• Act/serve as a translator


After the trek
• Advise Trek Manager on Trek processes and provide feedback on Trek managers
• Support the construction effort
• Complete Community Report and selection/take pictures to be distributed to donors.
• All other tasks that support buildOn assigned by the Country Director, Trek Manager, or Trek leader


Ongoing
• Maintain Trek Supplies inventory, and purchase supplies as needed
• Notify Country Director and Trek manager of any issues prior to, during, and after Treks
• Prepare fund requests and manage Trek budget
• Facilitate the completion of all donor reports


What You Bring
• Relevant Degree – education, community development, etc.
• Experience living and working in rural communities
• English, French, Wolof fluency required. Sereer fluency is preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership and organizational ability to balance and coordinate multiple projects, people, and assignments simultaneously
• Track record of taking initiative and requiring minimal supervision while completing complex assignments
• Strong organizational skills are essential
• Ability to communicate clearly, effectively, and persuasively both verbally and in writing
• Sound judgment and decision-making.
• Ability to remain calm in crisis situations, to think critically under pressure, and handle cross-cultural communication sensitively

What We Value
We’ve identified a set of core competencies that you’ll need to thrive at buildOn.
Leadership: Ability to empower community members and Trek volunteers to make sustainable changes in a hands-on way and with humility.
Planning & Execution: Proactively manages multiple projects simultaneously to achieve collective objectives with strong time management and organizational skills.
High Expectations: Holds self, teams, and community members jointly accountable to best-in-class programs
Donor Stewardship: Powerfully engages donors in buildOn’s impact through immersions, storytelling, and data.
Risk Management: Manages safety of group amid intense and dynamic changing environments.