What is volunteering? Who's a volunteer? Are volunteering and charity the same thing? Why have I written the word "волонтёр" and set it against the word "volunteer"? Volunteering is a well-known phenomenon in European countries. It means helping people and doing any kinds of jobs that are valuable for the community. But! This activity is not paid. Volunteering has different forms. Some of them are environmental conservancy, patriotism (do not mix up "patriotism" and "nationalism"; in English they mean almost the same thing, but in Russian...one is good and another is very bad), work with elderly people and disable persons and almost any kinds of activity with children. According to the name of the phenomenon, a person, who has this activity, can be called a "volunteer". But to become a volunteer you must have an inner wish and aspiration to help others, to do or create something really important for them. You can be easily taught how to be a volunteer, but you must have an inner desire to be helpful. Now, let's speak about volunteering in our country. Here it's not as popular as in European states. In our society there are not so many people who want to help others gratuitously. We want to be paid and then we will work as volunteers. Yes, there are people who don't care about money and glory, they just go and help. But most people in our society are too mercantile. I think now you see the difference between English "volunteer" and Russian "волонтёр"... So, the last point of this blog. Volunteering and charity are different things. The first one is help without money using physical, intellectual and material (for instance, money, things or clothes) resources. The second one is only material resources. If you do charity it means you only use material resources without spending your time and efforts. There is one form of volunteering called "fund-rising". It is a search of investors and sponsors to get money for those who need it.
If you like this blog and find it interesting, I'll write some other articles about different forms of volunteering and something of this kind.
Volunteering has always been a feature of our society. It has always existed in the form of various social acitivities and actions. I guess the main difference lies in the social format and framework in which volunteering is done. European and American volunteering organizations are powerful agencies of change and positive influence. They are respectable institutions that provide social support to underprevilaged people. Volunteering and social participation are characteristic of developed countries whose economies make volunteering possible and effecient. I have an idea that will help you look at the issue in a rational way: Time Bank - is a volunteering project. It doesn't store money. It stores ideas, talents, skills, knowledge, help, material things, and many other things and concepts without which people cannot live. To get all of this done we need time. People come to the Time Bank and open up their Time accounts of different value - 1 hour a day, or a week, or a month or any other quantity that one can put on his/her account. This Time is then spent on doing different things for people who are in need. For example, I work a lot but I know that I can spend one hour every week doing something that I can do very well and absolutely for free. For instance, it can be teaching English or doing shopping or redecoration works in a flat. Oftentimes I don't know who needs my professional knowledge and other skills and I can't offer them. Besides, another variation is that the time you spend doing things for other people is counted and then "saved" on your time account like interest rates. For example 10% of an hour. You spend 10 hours on social activities and get a right for one-hour help in return for free. If the Time Bank has a good management scheme, the managers wil always know who needs what. Well, if you need more details, use any search engine, type in TIME BANK and you will get a lot of information on how to start such a project in our city or even in our university. I want to be a member of a volunteering organization like the Time Bank.
Time Bank is a very nice kind of volunteering, I think. Maybe I and my friends-volunteers will try to create such a project in our Uni or even city. But it needs much time and human resources. Thank you for this idea.
Well, after watching the video I know how to express my view of volunteering in the best way. You must have "a spirit of volunteering" to be a volunteer, it must be your trait of character, because you can't bring it up. But at the same time, volunteering is not just helping people on behalf of some organization. Volunteering is a kind of a rule, a sort of a principle which you follow each time you mix up with people. Even being attentive, polite, friendly and encouraging is the keystone of volunteering.
And if we consider the difference between Russian and English words, I tend to agree with Alexey, but only to some extent. I know dozens of people who take part in varios charity projects and volunteer services without even thinking about money. All in all, I reckon we should take into account our mentality and our traditions, our history and social situation. We've lived through hardships of the end of the 20th century when everyone had to fight for their own hand. Maybe (I do not insist) that's why the spirit of cooperation and willingness to do somebody good have got no soil to grow on... yet, I hope.
