A volunteer, or a volunteer, is a person who, of his own free will, is ready to spend his strength, time and talent for the benefit of society or a specific person, without expecting a reward. Today, volunteer activity is finding more and more supporters. The spheres of activity in which you can see the unpaid work of volunteers are truly numerous and diverse: from helping animals and beautifying the territory to educational talks, charity concerts and environmental campaigns or participation in the elimination of the consequences of natural disasters. It is pleasant to realize that our society still retains the potential for good deeds, aimed at creation.
Volunteering – in our opinion – is, first of all, co-creation in the general symphony of the world, it is an opportunity to do interesting work and gain experience, it is the realization of oneself and the opportunity to be rich. After all, as one wise man said, the rich is not the one who has a lot of money, but the one who can share something. It doesn’t matter what – even a smile or a word of understanding – and just one sadness on earth will become less.
Volunteering is an opportunity to forget about your problems and at the same time become useful to someone. The volunteer movement allows you to realize the need for communication, find new connections, and feel your usefulness.
Although a volunteer does not work for money, he can receive any material benefits in one form or another. By engaging in volunteer activities, people can travel at the expense of the organization, receive interesting books and films, an Internet resource, etc.
Often it is in the volunteer movement that certain abilities are revealed, for example, leadership or organizational skills. You can express yourself in various activities, regardless of age or already existing profession – journalism, teaching, management or design.
This word has its own meaning for everyone, but there is no doubt that if you do a good deed from a pure heart, it will return to you – this is confirmed by many years of experience.
When you come to a volunteer job, you don’t need to worry that you don’t have any knowledge or skills. But during the activity, you get invaluable experience that can be useful to you in your work and communication with people. It only takes a little – to find free time in your schedule, an activity that you like, and go to an unknown world.
International Day of Volunteers
Aware of the enormous role of volunteering, the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1985 proposed celebrating the International Volunteer Day on December 5 every year. The UN constantly calls on states to take measures to raise awareness of the important contribution of volunteer service, thereby encouraging people to join volunteer activities.
Volunteering in different countries of the world (According to the Internet)
In America, about 60% of women and 50% of men are engaged in voluntary activities, devoting about 3.5 hours a week to it. In 2004, according to the contracts concluded, 48.8% of the adult population of the United States devoted an average of 4.2 hours per week to volunteer work (in addition to their main job).
Most often, they work in the service sector, hospitals, religious organizations, educational institutions, NGOs. It is impossible to list the entire list of useful things that volunteers do: they teach English to immigrants, organize various groups, studios for children, etc. Recently, “virtual” volunteering has gained particular popularity: creating and maintaining websites, conducting online research, and providing technical assistance to non-profit organizations.
Volunteers in the USA are people of different ages and professions from different spheres and layers of society. In some families, there are whole dynasties of volunteers. The majority of interviewed volunteers in the USA, when asked why they volunteer, answered that it brings variety to their lives and brings satisfaction. In the United States, as in some other countries, volunteer work is counted in determining seniority in the same way as paid work. About a third of Canadians (27%) volunteer
in Canada , devoting an average of 191 hours a year to volunteering. This time is equivalent to 578,000 full-time jobs.
About 33% of adults in Ireland volunteer, 72% of whom believe that volunteers do something that could never be done by paid staff.
In France, 19% of the adult population participated in volunteer actions at least once in their lives, and 11% regularly participate in volunteer work, giving it more than 20 hours a month.
Every third German allocates more than 15 hours a month to help in associations, projects or mutual aid groups.
In South Korea in 2001, almost four million people devoted more than 451 million hours of work time to volunteer activities. The economic value of volunteering exceeds $2 billion per year.
A quarter of Japanese people have volunteering experience. Of them, 48% are sure that voluntary work is very useful for personal growth and society as a whole.
The Swedes are world champions in terms of the number of voluntary societies and associations. Half of the country’s adult population participates in them. Most of the volunteers work at sports and cultural events, are busy collecting funds for less developed countries, helping in the rehabilitation of alcoholics and drug addicts. The largest group of Swedish volunteers is women of pre-retirement age with higher education. Their favorite activity is social work close to home.
Every year, more than 100 million people of the adult population of the planet dedicate their time to volunteering. About 70% of volunteers participate in volunteer programs in order to gain a new perspective on life, people, and work.
