Sometimes we lack jobs and wonder what is going on. In Cameroon people see volunteering as a secret to having a job. The thought it is that when you finish volunteering, perhaps, the company or organization would just take you. This thought it true in a sense but limited in viewing the benefits of volunteering. Imagine an expatriate who would have been lonely and now is no longer lonely but has a less stressing time and opportunity to give their meaningful life to productivity and development of others and a community, do you think he is GIVING or TAKING?
Whatever your answer is, this article seeks to portray volunteering as TAKING. Even though it is a giving. Let’s examine what you Take (benefit) by volunteering: Just three (3) Solid points:
- Gain Employability: As people would want, yes, it’s true. 4 of 5 people interviewed in a UK Report showed that they volunteering increased their chances of employability. No doubt. Because it provides you the next benefit-new skills or practice of skills, teaching of skills. In fact, one Certificate that raises eye brows among certificates is always a volunteerism certificate. RADA has had more than 5 volunteers since its creation in 2017 and at least 4 have gained employment with credible organizations and are growing in happiness. This was before RADA took up fully on its mission. In volunteering, despite your lack of a job, you gain confidence, and improve on your abilities. See Point two below.
- Gain Skills: Once you are volunteering, you don’t just sit. You work, fully like someone who is self-employed or employed. Most people feel who do not have a job and seeking volunteering stagnating feel that volunteering is giving something. Volunteering is both giving and getting. Most times, you get based on your mindset about volunteering. When I worked at the CBC Health Services, foreign volunteers came in through the Bread for the World Volunteering and they did lab work, secretarial duties, carpentry, IT, health education, youth training, etc. They tried out many skills and learned these skills. When they go back to Germany, their experience helps them to make well informed decisions about their career choice. You may be a Medical doctor but you are a born and bred Medical M& E Expert or public health rather than clinical physician.
- Give meaningfully: Volunteering is giving: As mentioned above, when you volunteer, you soak into what the bible calls “Giving better than receiving”. You give to the community you serve through your volunteering and what else could be more meaningful than a gift given at the right time to support a community? You don’t only give meaningfully, you also receive. You meet people you would never have meet if you stayed with your skill, or with no skill, or if you just stayed put. You gain fulfillment in the achievement you make in a team and as you take on and succeed at great challenges. In Volunteering you basically have fun. Your mind is so free and you are in the best state of learning how to be a great employee or a great person of value and service.
To conclude, Giving time makes you feel you have more time. Why would you not have a longer life? When helping out? In a good heart? To conclude, Returns are always on true, selfless, committed service and a volunteer can get one of the greatest of all time. Sometimes, expatriates who are retired and lonely and don’t want to be lonely at their home volunteer abroad. They do so happily, after all, they have their money to keep up. But in developing countries, it hardly is the same. Volunteering is seen as an option for the unemployed. However, volunteering should be seen as GETTING, not just giving. It is the mindset of seeing it as giving that makes you not to discover the treasure in the fact that it is more blessed to give than to receive”. Those who just leave school and have learned all the book, and can or cannot get work, serve God, people and themselves if they hunt for opportunities to give services for free. They learn a lot, build themselves and above all, do something more meaningful, than something just Happy. Whether you chose 3 or 6 months, or more, make your commitment, calculation and classifications of yourself well, and then DECIDE: Good Luck with volunteering:
If you want to Volunteer with RADA, CLICK HERE
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