Volunteering

Youth-Volunteering- lessons for life

Volunteering is a a form of civic engagement, whereby the volunteer freely opts to bring in his/her resources to the service of society. Most of the volunteers to do through associations and/or organisations. Especially for young people, volunteering is often a win-win situation in the sense that the society or parts of it experience a “helping hand” and the volunteer in turn acquires some skills they need in later life.

While many volunteers apply for openings advertised by institutions, it is often always possible for each youth to define their own means of volunteering. Where there are no associations to organise and coordinate volunteering, like in many parts of Cameroon, the later form is the most aplicable and will be seen in detail in this article.

What are the advanatages of volunteering?

  • In the process of organising to take up a volunteering position the youth learns organisation and communication skills by doing. They make their first experiences with real-life conditions similar to those they would make, when they grow up and would be searching for a job.
  • Asking onsself, in which area he/she would like to volunteer entails reflecting about interest and areas of one’s later profession in life. The volunteer activity gives the young people more insight into the field they have chosen, helping to confirm the profession they wish to go in for or clarify the fact that it it not a suitable field for them.
  • During volunteering, one comes in contact with various aspects of professional life, among others, working in a team, working within given time phrames, planing, executing, evaluating and reporting projects, getting in contact with clients etc.
  • The exposition to a professional world creates links to individuals and institutions, that in future may help you find a job.
  • The theoretical issues learnt in school can be implemented in practice, thereby showing you of what relevance your efforts in school are.
  • During holidays for example some youths are idle and do not know how to use their time fruitfully. Volunteering keeps you active and occupied.
  • In certain cases, you may receive an allowance as a volunteer. This is a form of fundraising for your private projects or in contribution to your education (fees and other school needs), when holidays are over.
  • Volunteering is prevention from getting engaged in thing that negatively influence your life like smoking, consumption of alcohol and other drugs, sexual delinquency, laziness, stealing among others.

What are the disadvantages of volunteering?

Young volunteers often report of their underestimated role during the exercise. They haredy are given the opportunity to bring in their ideas, but often are expected to execute, what the adults tell them. One may end up doing odd things like cleaning, carrying things from A to B, unnecessarily accompanying adults to various destinations with the only reasonable thing being carrying bags of the adult etc. Before getting engaged in the volunteering activity, talk with the institution in question about your expectations and what they expect of you. If you do not agree on vital aspects, do not go in for the engagement.

Some adults may misuse the opportunity of you depending on them during the volunteering activity to abuse your rights as a youth, most expecially, youths must be alert, when it comes to sexual abuse. Although organisations offering volunteering openings often address these issues, in rear cases this still happens. The youth concerned must have the self confidence to address this aspect and if necessary with the help of a trustworthy adult. It is better not to have the experience during voluntary work than to be abused by an adult.

Some young people, who go in for vulunteering activities may be so much attracted to the work, that they think that they must leave school and get to working immediately. The disadvantage is the fact that without adequate qualification, you may never attain a salary you would, if you would pesevere in school and complete education before getting into the job world. So do not let any volunteering activity stop you from persueing your education to the best level.

Some examples of self-initiative volunteering without an Association/organisation:

In many countries like Cameroon, one does not easily find an association or organisation offering openings for students to volunteer. In such a setting, creating your own voluntary choices works best. The advantage you have as a youth in this case is that you can define your interests and choose a position that best suits your imaginations. In this section, we shall give some examples where one could organise to do voluntery activities in communities in Cameroon.

  1. Create a cultural group with your peers in the village or town.
  2. Organize a weekly clean-up Campaign in your village, school, quarter or church community
  3. Identify and assist old people in your community, who do not have someone to help them
  4. Organise holiday classes and literacy programs for children of primary school age during holidays.
  5. Opt to assist health personell in any health institutions around you- be it to clean the environment, to join in executing health sensitization programmes or to do house to house campaigns on particular aspects of health.
  6. Fetch for wood and bring to disabled or old people
  7. Join a carpenter (tailor, photographer, bricklayer…) in his workshop in form of an intership for 1-2 weeks
  8. Creat a club in school to focus on particular aspects of living together: examples could be an evironmental club, a writers club,  a debate club, a drama club, a science club, a choir or music group, a games club etc.
  9. Volunteer to create and take part in a radio program at a local radio station.