Volunteering literally means, involving people willingly, working without any compensation to achieve a cause. It looks a simple job to be a volunteer but, in reality it is not so. Volunteer does not mean working whatever is asked to you. It needs dedication, understanding and being sensitive to the cause. Volunteering is all about giving – intellectually, physically and emotionally. Volunteering is not to make the seeker dependent on others to spoon feed but it is meant for giving directions and showing the right pathway.
Now a day it is very commonly heard about people doing volunteering services. There are many ways of doing volunteering services including donation for a cause, physical help, helping via your skills like teaching guitar and art and crafts things, giving time and other resources like clothes, books etc. Most of the people feel dissatisfied after donating money as they are not sure where and how their money is being used. But, for the people who are busy and do not have time to give their physical support, for them this is a better option to help. However, the best way of volunteering is serving that involves your interest areas and skills.
Why to be a volunteer??? Most of the people do have reasons for volunteering the services. Reasons vary from internal satisfaction, utilizing the leisure time for a cause, social appreciation or some times even for certificates. Few among of us feel since, we are social animal and live in society; we do share a responsibility towards betterment of community. However, even though there are many reasons behind it but, it demands for other things also.
The feelings during volunteering do contribute a lot to the inner-self. Work done with a noble cause always gets an appreciation. During volunteering, a person tends to learn a lot of things. He learns patience, humanity, self realisation, content, inspiration, task management empathy and acceptance. It is rightly said, no one on this earth is perfect. It is every one’s responsibility to do something for the betterment of society to bring it close to perfect.
There are many things that contribute for the successes of volunteer-ship. The success depends on the motive behind the volunteering. Peer pressure, social appreciation and certificates are the reasons which don’t need commitment as volunteer for a longer period of time. So, there are more chances that the volunteers may not turn up for the next activity.
As earlier stated it is not a simple job. As a person cannot do all types of job, similarly he can’t be good in all different kind of volunteer opportunities. So, before adopting a project for volunteer-ship a person should know about the target population, culture and language of population, kind of volunteering services, sensitivity and time management. The most important is being empathetic. For a day volunteering is different from long term volunteering. Sometimes people get associated with a single kind of volunteer-ship depending on their personal experience or interest, like getting associated with blind schools or orphanages. It is always advisable for the volunteers to be focused and work in a single area so that they can learn a lot for that particular issue and can perform better.
Many a time volunteers become frustrated because of less knowledge about the issue, dedication, limited choices, peer pressure, or expectation of fun. So, the volunteers should prepare themselves prior about the issue and outcome of the services. Later he should sit and assess his volunteering skills and learn from them. He can improve by talking to the professional, acquainting themselves for the knowledge from various resources like internet, professionals and the target population.
Perfect volunteer can bring a difference.
Posted byNeeti
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10:45 PM
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Hi neeti,
thanks for the informative article on volunteering.The info that volunteer shd be focussed on a specified area as per his/her interest was a realisation for me,i thnk this is one of the key elemnt of volunteering.also it striked me well that" he should sit and assess his volunteering skills and learn from experience"
indeed perfect volunteer can make a difference !.
Great post - Good background information for those considering volunteering as a donation, rather than giving a specific $ amount.