Celebrating the week of Voluntary Service: “Why Not?”
“Why Not?” will be the title of an event organized by a group of volunteers from different European Voluntery Services (EVS) here in Craiova, Romania, active in different fields, such as ecology, social inclusion / disabilities, learning languages, etc.. The event will take place this Thusday, the 19th of May 2016, at the local bar “Vintage”, in occasion of the week of Voluntary Service. Also the volounteers from GAIA will participate.
At the bottom of this page you will find the name of the organizing associations and their websites, plus the facebook page of the event.
Volunteering is, according to Wikipedia, “generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain”. Let’s skip the concept of “altruism” for now. Volunteering means working without any financial income. Why on Earth should anyone make such a choice?
By checking online, you can have all kind of explanations on this regard. Sometimes, volounteering is connected with religion, so it’s a way to gain something, paradise or good karma or whatever. Sometimes, especially in case of volouteering with disables, people with special needs and emergencies, the statements of the volounteers are about trying to put theirselves in other’s shoes, arising their personal awareness about good health, respect towards family and friends, and so on.
At the end, the purpose of volunteers and normal workers is very similar: it’s using our time and energy, which is everything we really own, to gain “something” in exchange. In case you think gaining money should be everyone’s purpose, you might want to ask yourself what is this money for. Isn’t it supposed to higher your wellness? So, at the end there is not so much difference between volunteering and having normal salary. Of course everyone has a different story, but this choice could be seen just as a matter of tastes: the goal is to feel good, by following our individual tendencies, and according to our possibilities.
Nevertheless, voluteering implies often a certain loss of money, and not everyone can afford this kind of experiences. It’s true that it’s also a business, unfortunately. But some no profit associations just need some external support for their survival.
Eventually, it could be very expensive to offer our help in a distant country.
Luckily this is not EVS’s case, because with Erasmus Plus we are supported, and we can live our volouteering experience abroad with not even a worry: accomodation is provided, as well as an health insurance, plus we have a partial refund of travel and food expenses and a little “pocket” money. With the European Volountery Service, we have the chance to live a relaxing and useful experience abroad, while learning another language, meeting a lot of interesting people, seeing amazing places and building worthy skills.
At this point the famous question, “why to make this choice?”, becomes “why not?”.
The event is organized by:
GAIA CRAIOVA COMMUNITY (us)
With the support of:
For more information check the facebook page of the event at this link.
