What is volunteering?
Volunteering is voluntary assistance in solving, mitigating or preventing socially important problems. Anyone can take the initiative to join the volunteer movement, realizing that this initiative is free.
Volunteering is an investment of one’s time, skills and talents in solving social problems. Every volunteer invests in the future they want to see: for example, if you are concerned about the environment, you will most likely want to volunteer in the eco-direction; if you are not indifferent to the fate of children left without parental care – you will definitely join volunteering in orphanages; If you care about lonely seniors or people with disabilities, you can volunteer for a charity that helps this social group. It is important to look for volunteering that resonates with you personally.
We often hear questions or requests to clarify: is volunteering and charity the same thing?
Volunteering is a form of charity in which a volunteer invests his main resource – time. Volunteers have something to do – organize or join a charity event, help with site design, translation of texts or software.
Charity works more broadly: it can be supported financially, by disseminating information and by talent. Being a donor is also a charity, but organizing other people to donate blood is volunteering.
Wikipedia states that Charity is a selfless help to all those in need. In view of this, we can say that volunteering is one of the types of charity. Volunteers give the most precious thing that people have – their time. They do so for free and unselfishly, but with a sincere desire to join the creation of a changing society. They invest their skills and strength to help and create opportunities for support and support for others.
Why is volunteering important?
Answered by a student of the Volunteer Center, and our intellectual volunteer Novikova Lisa
Today, as we live in the 21st century, in times of scientific and technological progress and digitalisation, volunteering is becoming more common, and unfortunately not always with good intentions. Some people make videos on Tik-Tok, which is the most popular social network today, in order to spread good intentions and moral qualities in society, and some for the sake of subscribers on social networks, ie for popularity, which can help earn a good income in the future.
Volunteering is a form of charity and one of the foundations of civil society. If we consider volunteering not only from the point of view of true altruism (providing useless help), but also from others, we can get the next motivation – new acquaintances. It is no secret that good relations between people often arise, including during the work process, in our case – the process of improving peace. There are many examples and stories when volunteers from different countries became lifelong friends, some found love, some new partnerships, and some gained many new chances in life due to sociability, for example, found a job in another. country. Volunteering – new friends, strong relationships, unique opportunities for communication. It is possible to continue the list of motivations to start volunteering for a long time, but in my opinion, true, honest, true volunteering begins with a sincere desire to help someone, not waiting for something in return or gratitude, motivated and inspired by what really helped and made life at least a little, but better, isn’t it a miracle?
The most important task for a volunteer is to develop moral qualities. It is work on oneself, one’s idea of voluntary work for the benefit of society. It is necessary to gain experience in solving socially significant problems through participation in social, environmental, humanitarian, cultural, educational, sports and others. projects and programs of the volunteer center.
As a volunteer, you can really change something and, moreover, help other people change by inspiring them with your example. Everyone knows the famous saying “Start with yourself and the world around you will change” – in the case of volunteering, this is true. Sometimes charity is about inspiring others to do charity. Volunteering = change of society.
Volunteering is important for all humanity today, because we use this word to unite people for good deeds / to achieve common goals, and now it is rare for one simple reason that people like to shift responsibility to anyone (president, neighbor, injustice of life), thus making others guilty in their life situations, to start at least with themselves instead. If we take the original volunteering, then in this case it can move any titanic plates of the wrong social order, again, if people believe in it, their potential and do everything in their power!