Volunteer services to help orphanages. Volunteer work: Where to start and what to be ready for
Volunteers are people who provide assistance on a voluntary and non-repayable basis ..
The volunteer movement is very popular abroad, and everyone joins volunteer organizations: from schoolchildren to businessmen, from students to people in high positions. As for our country, volunteering is just beginning to gain momentum, but today you can join the ranks of volunteers and start doing good.
Our site wrote about options for volunteer practice abroad in. And today we'll talk about where and how you can realize your desire if you want to become a volunteer in Russia.
"Why do I want to become a volunteer?"
Sooner or later, people come to the idea of volunteering who feel the need to help their neighbors.
You help your mother, sister, friend, other people close to you and now you want to become a volunteer in order to also help those who are unlucky in life, who are in a difficult situation - seriously ill people, disabled people, homeless ...
Before deciding to volunteer, make sure you understand the essence of this work. You must be objective about everyone in need. You cannot help one person and refuse to help another because you did not like him or you think that he is not worthy of your attention.
By helping your neighbor, you feel that your life is not so bad anymore. It is possible and necessary to join volunteer organizations not only when you are in a good mood, but also when a heap of problems has piled on you.
By doing good, you will feel how your well-being improves, your self-esteem rises and your life is filled with new colors.
By caring for retirees in a nursing home, you will learn to appreciate your parents. Helping children in hospices and orphanages will help you understand that your problems at work are nonsense.
How do I become the RIGHT volunteer?
And now the site will tell you where to start for those who want to become a volunteer.
The list of organizations that recruit volunteers is quite long. Orphanages, temples, animal shelters, nature protection and other organizations need help. Extra hands won't get in the way anywhere.
It's another matter when you already have certain skills.
For example, you have been caring for a sick grandmother for a long time. You are already familiar with the nuances of this difficult occupation, so your work will be more useful, say, in a nursing home.
Or you are a veterinarian by profession - then it is advisable to use your knowledge, helping animals and in your free time from work.
But it also happens that a person thinks about how to become a volunteer, precisely in order to distance himself from the events that occur in his life, then it is worth trying something new.
Remember that free help has never been denied anywhere, so you will be accepted into any specialized organization that needs volunteers. You can do both physical labor, for example, cleaning the city of garbage, and mental labor, teaching children in orphanages.
I want to become a volunteer in Russia: where can I go?
If you are seriously thinking about how to become a good volunteer, then the following sites will come in handy.
- vd-spb.ru is an Internet resource public organization located in St. Petersburg. Doctors to Children is a volunteer school that will help you transform your kindness and ability to communicate into real help. You have to communicate with children who live on the street, with difficult families, with children with some developmental disabilities, and those who were born with HIV infection.
- homeless.ru - this site will accept help from those who are not limited only to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Regional Charitable Society "Nochlezhka" is engaged in the fight to reduce the incidence of homelessness and improve the quality of life of people living on the street. The homeless are provided social assistance protecting their rights and drawing public attention to this problem.
- children's hospice.rf / volonteram.html- the site of the children's hospice. The number of "little" patients is constantly growing, so for those who wondered how to become a volunteer, there is always a place for a helper in such a center. The hospice conducts trainings and implements training and education programs for volunteers.
- spbredcross.org is an independent and non-profit organization called the Red Cross. If you want to become a needed and in-demand volunteer, then you are here. Anyone can become a Red Cross volunteer. Make a donation, donate blood, or join a volunteer organization and you will give hope to the people who need you.
- club-volonterov.ru is a club of volunteers and those wishing to become volunteers, which brought together like-minded people who decided to help orphans. Yes, you cannot replace their parents, but you will make their life happier by giving attention and showing that they are not alone.
It is easy to find on the Internet by keywords and other addresses of organizations engaged in activities of interest to you or geographically located close to you. Using one of the links, you can find a place to apply your physical, mental and spiritual strength.
You will have the opportunity to help those who are unable to help themselves. Remember that kindness is a quality that is valued dearly, but it is easy and pleasant to show it.
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Text: Irina Letyagina
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE JOB, but you have not yet decided what profession you want to master, if you want to go to the ends of the earth, but finances sing romances, if you took a pause between leaving your old position and leaving for a new one, if you are a philanthropist at heart, you can become a volunteer. Moreover, in a crisis, working for food is not so bad.
What is volunteering and what is it like?
Volunteering is work that is carried out on a voluntary basis and does not involve monetary compensation. It is impossible to establish the exact date of the origin of this approach: formally, even one of our ancestors can be considered the first volunteer, who helped light a fire for his neighbor from a nearby cave, without expecting anything in return. If we approach the issue more formally, volunteering, or voluntary assistance to those in need, in Russia is rooted in the work of sisters of mercy, the creation of orphan schools maintained at the expense of alms, the activities of doctors who worked for free in hospitals during the numerous wars of the Russian Empire, in the activity of the Timurovites and vigilantes. In the United States, the popularization of voluntary unpaid labor began in the days of Benjamin Franklin, when the first volunteer fire brigade in Philadelphia was created. The Americans began to massively participate in volunteer work later thanks to the Red Cross.
All over the world now there are many volunteer organizations where you can work in exchange for room and board. You give your work and experience - you are fed for it and provided with a place to sleep. Sometimes for volunteer work you can get some kind of nice bonus like a ticket to a music concert or a "temporary loan" - the opportunity for an hour to engage in various activities such as swimming or learning a foreign language. Some are turning volunteering into a way of life, earning little pocket money and moving between cheese farms, construction sites and schools where local children learn English.
Volunteering can be temporary or regular. Temporary volunteering is popular at events like the Olympic Games, “ Formula 1", Various marathons. Eco-and educational projects, as a rule, also imply a certain period of work agreed in advance with the organizers. At the same time, the volunteer has the opportunity to become a participant in the events and see the life of the project from the inside: you can, for example, accidentally meet Usain Bolt in slippers in the Olympic Village, look at the tires of a smoking car on a test drive, help turtles get to the ocean or harvest oranges somewhere somewhere in the Spanish wilderness.
But if you want to be, for example, a clown doctor or a volunteer of the Give Life Foundation, in order to work in a hospital, you need to be ready for regular work... It is preceded by selection and preliminary preparation, which can take from several weeks to several months.
Where to begin?
First you need to dream and honestly ask yourself what you want: working for free in a job you don't like is a dubious idea. Perhaps, as a child, you dreamed of becoming a clown and delighting children, or you wanted to ride horses and take care of them, but your parents forbade them? Or have you long wanted in Italy to speak Italian like Adriano Celentano? Or maybe you want to cross the oceans? Or do you want to learn how to grow potatoes and tomatoes or build houses, even though you've only built LEGOs in your life? Or are you tired that garbage is lying around in a nearby park, and you would be happy to wave a rake at a clean-up day?
If working in the fields is not your strong point, you can try creative projects- for example, to work in museums (for example, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Hermitage, the N. Roerich Center-Museum and other large Russian and foreign museums and galleries are looking for volunteers), at Russian and foreign festivals - music and film - and participate in other projects. There is work to your liking for everyone. By the way, some are hired in pairs, so you don't have to take your vacation alone.
When you are dreaming enough, you can start taking action. It should be borne in mind that often at large-scale and popular events where many want to go (for example, at the Olympic Games, Burning Man, Oxford Film Fest), they become volunteers only after selection, and you may also have to undergo training. In such cases, applications must be submitted strongly in advance - about six months to a year before the event: for example, recruitment for volunteer vacancies for the Rio Olympics began two years before the competition. The same rule applies to projects that require special skills - for example, to work with people with special needs special training... Plus, you need to set aside time for obtaining a visa and buying tickets - as a rule, you need to do this yourself.
If you want to be a volunteer abroad, you can find a project for yourself or contact aggregator sites that collect volunteer vacancies from around the world. In the second case, it is worthwhile to save up some money for the registration fee ($ 20-60), register for volunteers and volunteers - for example, Workaway - visit more often group where travelers post volunteer vacancies in Russia and around the world. Many projects have a Facebook page, through which you can also contact the organizers. For volunteer vacancies in Russia there is no special a single platform... But at the same time, finding a project to your liking is easy: there are many national parks, farms, non-profit organizations that need volunteers.
At the same time, the volunteer has the opportunity to see the life of the project from the inside: for example, by chance meet Usain Bolt in slippers in the Olympic Village
After all these simple manipulations, you can send requests to your favorite projects. Do not hesitate to ask about working and living conditions, find out if you need to bring special things like raincoats, gloves, work clothes (not in all projects the organizers are ready to provide them). If you sent a request and no one answered within ten days, you can send it again and try to contact the organizers through other channels - via Facebook, Skype or the form on the website. If there is no response from the organizers within three weeks or a month, most likely there will not be one. It's not scary: with the thought that the project has lost great opportunity to work with you, look for other programs.
After you agree with the organizers about the date of arrival, you can take tickets and apply for a visa, if needed. As a rule, they do not help with obtaining visas and tickets, but a regular tourist visa for volunteer work is quite enough.
If you're worried about security, then you are doing the right thing. There is no guarantee that everything will be fine, systems with a selection of volunteer vacancies are not responsible if something happens to a volunteer or organizer. Let's not panic, just recall the basic security measures that are needed not only for volunteering, but also for anyone. Study the reviews of other volunteers about the project, search for information about the organizers on the net. Never list cash not specified in the terms of volunteering, to the organizers of the project. Consider Plan B if you want to leave early. Trust your instincts - this is very important. Some volunteers do not agree to participate in the project if at the moment of negotiations they do not feel trust in the organizers or if there is no information about the project on the network, it does not have a website, and the organizer asks strange questions in correspondence. Tell your relatives and friends the address and name of the project, get in touch. In general, keep your powder dry. Read more about volunteer instructions and safety measures on the Workaway and Couchsurfing websites - they know how to strike a balance between trust in the world and common sense.
What to expect from volunteer work?
If, according to the terms of the project, you are not the only volunteer, get ready to communicate a lot - and with the most by different people... In ecovillages, for example, people with experience of work in large corporations can meet, who have traded office and management of subordinates for cheese production in the quiet village, retirees who do not want to spend days within four walls in a noisy city, students looking for alternative ways of life, single mothers who want to raise children in harmony with nature, and just eternal travelers wandering from one project to another. You will be able to see firsthand how many different ways to live life there are on this planet.
Volunteering allows you to gain experience of working outside the office and living outside the apartment. You can temporarily transform into a farmer, conservationist, baker, lumberjack, guide, restaurateur, physician, teacher. You will have the opportunity to live by the ocean, in the jungle, in the permafrost or in the steppes, settle in a tent, yurt, house with a history or a bungalow, sleep in a hammock or even under the open sky - it's like a children's camp, only for adults.
If you have to work with land, build or care for animals, be prepared for physical activity. Collecting hay or brushwood, digging the ground, taking care of the trails in national parks are not the easiest, but very rewarding things, and most importantly, the result of your work is immediately visible, and you feel that you have contributed to positive changes. Remember to stretch.
Get ready to learn something new about yourself. Perhaps you will discover a talent for baking or find out what you have " light hand”When you plant trees. You may enjoy milking cows and washing in the morning in a mountain stream, you may want to become an oceanographer, polar explorer, agronomist or construction worker, study maritime science or a foreign language. This knowledge about yourself cannot be obtained simply by reading books about the profession and dreaming of changing jobs.
You will be able to live outside the “commodity-money-commodity” system, use in your work not only professional, but also personal qualities, such as mutual assistance and compassion
Volunteering again “humanizes” work. developed a personnel motivation system based on a detailed study of the talents of employees who are to work together, which allows them to use them most effectively. Volunteers can learn more about their talents without qualifying for a large corporation team.
You will be able to live outside the "commodity-money-commodity" system, employ not only professional, but also personal qualities such as mutual help and compassion. Money motivation has become familiar to us, so the experience of life outside of it can be especially valuable. You will work without wages and profits, but at the same time you will not have to spend money on transport, meals in office canteens or restaurants, things that correspond to the dress code and the status that you occupy on the public ladder.
Also, volunteers realize in their work a valuable desire to be kind, to see in their volunteer colleague, first of all, a person, and not a function that he performs at work. V volunteer projects company directors, project managers, paralegals, retirees, students and doctors can work together to lay the foundation for the future school building, and no one cares about who has achieved what in everyday life.
Difficulties of volunteering
Do not expect comfortable conditions - perhaps you will live in a room that you do not like, eat unusual food, get up early, do “dirty” work, some of the other volunteers may annoy you. It is not always possible to understand all the nuances of working, living and participating in a project before it starts, so if you do not wait for heavenly conditions, it will be easier to cope with the discomfort.
You need to be prepared for the fact that you will have less personal space and will have to share your life with other volunteers. It will be difficult for someone to live in a room with strangers. of different ages, nationalities, religions and with different expectations from life. Conflicts also happen - especially if volunteers stay in the project for a long time. Routine, fatigue and difference in goals can lead to disagreements when you have to defend your opinion. This happens in any team, and it is impossible and unnecessary to protect yourself from conflicts: the experience of communicating with different people in any case will be blessed. And you will surely learn more about yourself: you will either enjoy life in a commune, or you will appreciate more privacy.
Don't expect someone to organize your free time - you will most likely be on your own, unless the organizers provide excursions, yoga classes and cooking classes as bonuses.
In the case of volunteering, it is better not to have overestimated expectations - then all the failures and surprises that will surely arise will be easier to survive, and there will be more joy from the good moments of the project. If you are ready for adventure and new experience - a backpack in your back and go! If volunteering doesn't fit into your lifestyle, you are most likely reading other material already.
"Good Moscow" is a project aimed at helping in the socialization of orphans and children left without parental care. Volunteers conduct master classes that give the pupil the opportunity to acquire skills for successful socialization and self-realization. Particular attention is paid to classes aimed at vocational guidance for children. Pupils are introduced to the world of professions through excursions, lectures, and discussions with experts. Kind Moscow works with 3000 children from 20 orphanages. The project involved 1,500 volunteers.
"GRANDSON." - Public volunteer movement to support the elderly. Social grandchildren, volunteers of the movement, help disabled and lonely elderly people. Volunteers meet with pensioners, help them buy food and medicine, and clean up. If necessary, make minor repairs. Accompany their wards on trips to cultural events. Within the framework of social movement there are projects: "Granny Blogger" - an educational program for teaching older people computer literacy and work on the Internet. During the year of the program implementation, 315 pensioners were trained.
"Volunteer School" is an open educational platform for those who want to develop, increase their personal potential. It aims to raise awareness of volunteering among the participants. The educational program is designed for active young people interested in self-improvement and mastering new areas of activity. Volunteer School trainings are held at the most popular venues in the city of Moscow. For 3 academic seasons, 2000 participants attended the trainings of the "Volunteer School". The permanent asset includes 100 people. A club of alumni actively involved in volunteer projects was created.
The Sports Volunteer Training Center recruits and trains volunteers for major sports events. They conduct educational programs and international internships. Volunteers take a special English course and study sports industries. The Sports Volunteer Training Center took part in the creation of volunteer teams for the 27th International Summer Universiade in Kazan 2013, the Russian Athletics Championship, the Rugby 7 World Cup, the IAAF World Athletics Championship, the Olympic Torch Relay, the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games at the transport hubs of the capital and other competitions. The Center has launched the program "This is the norm". it modern approach to comprehend and master the practice of a healthy lifestyle in the metropolis. Within the framework of the program, anyone who wishes has the opportunity to: weekly engage in CrossFit and athletics with a professional trainer, watch and participate in master classes and videos on healthy way life. The center's permanent assets are 1,500 people. In total, 12,000 volunteers worked at the center.
The project aims to help environment... It will allow everyone to gain eco-knowledge and contribute to the greening of the surrounding space. The project includes thematic lectures, master classes on ecology, events on the theme “second life of things”, as well as collection of clothes and books for those in need.
ZOOexit is a volunteer platform organized with the support of the Department of Culture, designed to find a home and family for stray animals. Volunteers also make life easier for the animals in the shelters. The guys spend time with the residents of the shelters, give them their love and affection. Also, the goal of the project is to popularize loyalty to homeless animals, organize visits to shelters, and organize various charity events and campaigns.
Donors are people of different professions: teachers, students, businessmen, rescuers, officials, programmers, designers, artists and so on. These are people of different religious and political beliefs, social status, age, hobbies and outlook on life. But they all have one goal, to help save the lives of other people. By donating blood, a person gets a chance to save someone's life, and it is this noble desire to become an incentive for the development of a culture of donation in our city and country. The goal of the project is to promote and popularize blood donation. According to its social significance blood donation is in one of the first places among all the problems of mankind. In Moscow alone, every day up to 1000 patients need blood transfusions, and sometimes the donor's blood is the only chance to return a person's life. Every month, a campaign is carried out aimed at replenishing the blood bank. We make sure that donation is regular and free of charge, and not a one-time act during tragic events. Resource Center for Development and Support volunteer movement of the city of Moscow "Mosvolonter" is working on the development of gratuitous donation, as important factor preserving the health and life of people, fostering in each of us the readiness to give a particle of our blood, the warmth of our heart in the name of saving people.
