What is Volunteers? Pay Attention To These 4 Tips Before Contributing
Volunteer is someone who does work without pay or voluntarily. A volunteer contributes time, effort and talent to a need, goal or mission without expecting financial gain.
Volunteer activities can be mutualistic that provides benefits to the organization and the volunteers themselves. This is an important force in promoting positive and sustainable growth in society, while improving social relations, mental and physical health, and employability for volunteers.
Are you thinking about experiencing the benefits of volunteering, but are clueless and not sure where to start? There are many ways you can get involved in volunteer work to helping others. But for you, and the organization, to get the most benefit, it's most important to find volunteer work that matches your skills and interests.
Get to Know More About Volunteers
Volunteering is about how you can donate some of your own time to help people in your community or around you. Volunteers support communities in unique ways, using their own skills, knowledge and experience to make them even better. This activity is action focused on social and collective well-being. These are activities based on civic, cultural, educational, scientific, recreational or relief purposes.
Why Should You Become a Volunteer?
Volunteers are those who help reduce problems that affect communities, such as social inequality, violence, climate change, and others. It's a way to donate our time to the people and organizations that need help.
Beyond that, volunteers are a medium that helps us become better people. Through volunteering, we can broaden our knowledge of the world and develop empathy, recognizing needs that are greater than our own individuality.
Volunteering has many benefits such as giving people confidence and fulfillment, social contact, the ability to use previously acquired skills or develop new ones, the chance to follow your passions, and the possibility of starting a better job.
Volunteering or community service is quickly becoming an important and prominent part of a resume. Employers seek evidence of commitment, loyalty and a strong desire to contribute to the success of society, all of which is demonstrated voluntarily. Volunteering is flexible and the results will match your current commitments.
Types of Voluntary Works
Here are some examples of volunteer work that is generally carried out by volunteers as follows:
- Social Work
One of the volunteer jobs is social work which aims to meet the needs of people in vulnerable situations. Examples include accepting victims of violence, donating clothes and food, emotional support during/after disasters, and so on.
- Environment
Environmental volunteers will connect with nature, including animal shelters. Examples of volunteer activities include restoring degraded areas, putting out fires, rescuing animals, cleaning riverbanks or beaches, planting trees, and so on.
- Activist
This volunteer work focuses on social action related to activist activities. Usually, you can connect with NGOs and movements that are fighting for a desired cause. Examples include human rights, anti-racist struggle, protection of women, and safety of children.
- Educatif
In addition, another activity of volunteers is teaching subjects or sharing special knowledge. There is no age limit, it can be for small children, teenagers, adults and the elderly. As a volunteer in this field, you can teach math, languages, some physical activities, crafts, and more. -
Online Volunteers
Online volunteer work has gained a lot of momentum since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is usually related to educational projects, but also fits into welfare work, support for activist groups, or even administrative activities that you can do remotely. -
Voluntary Trip
Traveling as a volunteer is one way to practice sustainable tourism. You can travel overseas as an exchange student looking to learn a new language and also use this time to support a cause. Or, you could travel with a focus on immersing yourself in a new culture while contributing to the community that lives there.
One thing to remember, volunteering means offering your support and contribution, not changing the world in a week. All your help and contribution will certainly make a difference, and let you learn from every experience.
Wahana Visi Indonesia has opportunities for those of you who want to become volunteers through the available volunteer programs. Visit our website right now to get more complete information only at https://wahanavisi.org/volunteer/
