International Volunteer Day is December 5th. Volunteers help others and do not want anything for it. They appear where they are needed. Everyone can be a volunteer! So maybe you too will decide to give yourself to others?

Contents:

  1. Volunteering - where do we have the most "helpers"?
  2. International Volunteer Day - December 5
  3. Volunteer - you need to be able to share
  4. Volunteering - what for? There is always someone waiting for our help
  5. Volunteering - there were always people who helped
  6. Volunteering, sponsorship
  7. Volunteering: help becomes fashionable
  8. Volunteer card

Volunteering - where do we have the most "helpers"?

The country where the most people voluntarily engage in work for other people and various social institutions is Norway. Almost half of the inhabitants are active there in orphanages, hospices, hospitals, charity points, animal shelters, associations, foundations and non-governmental organizations.

We have only one in ten Poles who have recently done something for others or participated in charity actions. Fortunately, there are people whose hearts are easily touched by the misery of others. That's when they selflessly donate their time, skills, and often money.

International Volunteer Day - December 5

On December 5, the International Volunteer Day is celebrated around the world. In Poland, almost 11 million people voluntarily help their compatriots in need, i.e. every third resident of our country. We can already speak of a real trend, which is additionally intensifying during the holiday season.

Volunteer - you need to be able to share

The very word "volunteer", or Latin voluntarius, means voluntary, voluntary. The involvement of a volunteer is therefore voluntary and results from his will, and not from some norms or orders. It can be an individual activity or an activity professionally organized within a group. The main feature that distinguishes a volunteer from a salaried worker is money-free motivation. When asked just about the motives of their actions, volunteers say that everyone would do so in their shoes that you need to be able to sharewith your time and skills, and most of all with yourself.

Because volunteering is one of the most noble attitudes of a human being. It is service for the benefit of others, concern for the fate of one's neighbor, work for the benefit of the most needy. It's like a gift of yourself. Today, such a person is most often described as an altruist or simply a social activist. He devotes his time to complete strangers, because he is not satisfied with helping his family, neighbors and friends. From the side, it may seem that the volunteer is doing nothing. And that's not true.

Touching every day misery and suffering, a person changes and enriches, he begins to appreciate what he himself got from life. And sometimes he gets so involved that he changes not only his world of values, but also his whole life. It is enough just to look at the activities of Jurek Owsiak or Janina Ochojska. On the other hand, volunteering is starting to be fashionable, especially among young people. This type of fashion should be followed, and although it may seem strange, it is worth entering your experience in volunteering into your CV.

For the employer it means that someone knows how to organize their time, work in a group, makes contacts easily, wants to learn new things and is sensitive to social problems.

Volunteering - what for? There is always someone waiting for our help

However, deciding whether to become involved in volunteering is not easy at all. Most often we ask ourselves the following questions: am I even fit for this role, do I have the right skills and not too many years old, and most importantly - will I have enough time? Because is a volunteer someone who helps from time to time or systematically, e.g. once a week at the same time? Sometimes it is these unresolved doubts that make us decide not to move.

And yet anyone who wants to can be a volunteer. Only not everywhere. You just have to adapt your qualifications and predispositions to the places and people among whom we will operate. And there are plenty of these, because there is always someone waiting for our help. And there are many activities that can be done: from caring for the sick to organizing fairs and giving legal advice. The type of job depends on the organization you choose and your skills.

Ask yourself a few questions. The answers to them will help you make your decision. Do you prefer individual or group volunteering, permanent or short-term, such as participation in activities such as packing purchases or transporting people once? It is also worth considering with whom it is easier to establish contacts: with children or with the elderly? And finally, what do you want to do as a volunteer, e.g. help toddlers learn, look after the disabled, do office work, and maybetake care of animals?

The second step is to choose an association and the first meeting with the volunteer work coordinator. He is a person who will introduce you to everything and explain the tasks ahead of you. It is important to find out who to contact in case of problems and if you feel tired, it will be possible to give up your voluntary service either permanently or for a while. Because volunteering is not an obligation you put on yourself for the rest of your life.

Volunteering is not for everyone and the willingness to act should result not from fashion or muse, but from deeper motives and the desire to do something of yourself. Sometimes it can be too difficult.

According to an expertAnna Jankowska-Drabik, coordinator for content programs, Jolanta Kwaśniewska's foundation "Communication without barriers"

Volunteering from the heart

There are misfortunes that fall on people like a bolt from the blue. This was the case recently when Poland was hit by a flood. It destroyed the heritage of many people's entire lives. Many families experienced unimaginable stress for the average person. But at the same time, many of these people received the best care at the time. It would not be possible without volunteers - people of different sex, age, education and social status, who from the very first moments engaged in helping those most in need. What they had in common was the willingness to change reality for the better, to help the weaker, especially those suffering from fate. Such volunteers and such volunteering that arises from the needs of human hearts allow us to look to the future with hope

Volunteering - there were always people who helped

In the history of our country you can see that there have always been volunteers, people who selflessly helped others, but in the past it happened most often in secret. Only from the 19th century did volunteers become more visible. Most often, they were women who helped care for the wounded in hospitals. At that time, such activities were associated with patriotism, as during World War II.

After the fall of communism, associations that organized support and activation of people of various backgrounds began to emerge in our country. It was then that the first provisions on volunteering appeared in legal acts regulating the rules of volunteers' work. Since 2003, the Act on Public Benefit and Volunteer Work has been in force in Poland, which defines a volunteer as a person voluntarily and without financial benefits providing services for those in need of help.

Volunteering, sponsorship

The importance of volunteering is evidenced by the fact that the United Nations 10 years agocelebrated 2001 as the World Year of Volunteering. There is also the International Volunteer Day, which we are celebrating on December 5 also in Poland. In the West, volunteering has another face. Trips into the world are popular there, but not to see monuments and admire the views, but to work in African villages or treat the wounds of the sick in the bush, organize schools for children in Azerbaijan, clean mountain trails and plant tropical forests or protect endangered species animals.

People just go on vacation, pack their bags and go to another country. Most often they are long-term trips, although sometimes there are trips lasting several weeks. For such a volunteer, the association pays for the trip and provides subsistence.

And he is supposed to act depending on his abilities. There is something else in Western Europe called volunteering, i.e. combining travel with helping those in need. Some organizations attract volunteers in this way, providing them with a good hotel and food, and free time for sightseeing and relaxation, and in return they require 3-4 hours of work every day. Volunteering is not popular with us yet, but this kind of combination of pleasant and useful will certainly come to us one day.

Formerly there was the term "benefactor", then it was replaced by "giver" and "patron". Now is the era of sponsorship, i.e. an effective form of promotion, but also shaping the company's image through various charity campaigns. The difference is that the patron supports, remaining hidden or not publicizing his actions.

Volunteering: help becomes fashionable

The opposite is the case with the sponsor. He is just informing the public about it himself and with the help of a sponsored one. How does this relate to volunteering? And so that companies finance various charity projects on a one-off or long-term basis and at the same time create an appropriate image of the company. This benefits both parties - sponsor and sponsored. As a result, what matters is that it is simply a useful form of helping others.

More and more companies are involved in charity projects, e.g. BOŚ financially supporting activities related to environmental protection, education, a he althy lifestyle, Nałęczowianka, which helps flood victims, or Cisowianka collecting money for the construction of a well in Sudan, suffering from a shortage of drinking water . In turn, Danone has been helping malnourished children for many years as part of the "Share your meal" program, and McDonald's organizes charity campaigns and collects money, which will then be used by sick children.

In the foundation that runs the volunteering program at TP SA, apart from the current employees, they also workalso those who have left the company to retire - look after national memorial sites and help people in difficult situations. At PricewaterhouseCoopers there is a foundation called Podaruj się. Its activity is not only material or financial aid from the company's budget.

The Foundation constantly engages employees to cooperate. Some have more time for it, others less, some feel comfortable advising on their professional specialization, others prefer to sit at the bedside of a sick child. And the PricewaterhouseCoopers foundation constantly comes up with new programs and ways to help. Because it just sucks you in.

Volunteer card

Each volunteer should follow the rules and standards set out in the Volunteer Ethics Charter. Here are some of her points:

  • I will complete all tasks related to my role.
  • I will be open to new ideas and ways of doing things.
  • I will use the chance to meet and learn new things from other people.
  • I will not make promises that I am unable to fulfill.
  • If I am unable to meet my obligations, I will inform the work coordinator.
  • I will be a person you can rely on.
  • I will try to be a very good volunteer.

"Zdrowie" monthly

Category:

Psychology