Top 8 reasons to volunteer today

Why volunteer today?

“Don’t you have anything else to do?”, “You should get a job”, “You need to study more”, “Aren’t you lazy?” – all this is heard every day from year to year by people who are called volunteers. The main purpose of volunteering (which is what the word “volunteering” means) is to make the world around us a better place. But if a person doesn’t get paid for their help, do they have nothing at all to gain from it other than the embodiment of good intentions?

Young, carefree, unencumbered, with glowing eyes and an immense desire to help everyone around – if your imagination paints this portrait of a volunteer, then know that it is not quite true. Volunteering can be done by anyone: schoolchildren, students, professionals, business owners, mothers with many children, international stars, and even retirees. Yes, that’s right. According to statistics, every fourth inhabitant of the USA, every second inhabitant of Germany and every fifth inhabitant of Great Britain over 50 years old do volunteer work – they even invented a special term for such a widespread practice – “Silver Volunteering. As you can see, everyone can help. Generally everyone. The main thing is desire, and there are no restrictions. But along with the desire to do good, volunteers have many other reasons to spend their most valuable resource – time. Let’s go!

Reason 1 – Experience

Sometimes volunteering can do a lot to brighten up your resume and add real-world skills. Especially if the area of volunteering is related to your field. Often pediatricians go to disadvantaged countries to treat children, teachers travel the world for global education, construction workers help build homes for the homeless, and examples abound. So volunteering = a new, invaluable experience.

Reason 2 – Travel

Volunteers are needed not only in the neighboring city, volunteers are needed all over the world. So if you’ve been wanting to go somewhere for a long time, don’t miss out on the opportunity to come to a particular country as a volunteer. And sometimes organizations that hire volunteers pay for travel, lodging, and help with visas. The list of countries is extensive, and you may even travel to a distant island in the Bay of Bengal. Volunteering = the travel you’ve been dreaming of for a long time.

Reason 3 – language practice

Are you endlessly learning English/French/Italian/Korean/Swahili but don’t have the opportunity to practice? Welcome to volunteering! Choose the right program and country and go to do good and communicate freely with native speakers of the language that has already become your second mother tongue. For example, during the recent FIFA World Cup held in Russia, a lot of people from all over the world came to volunteer to improve their Russian, and volunteers with Russian citizenship, in turn, practiced almost every language in the world. Volunteering = effective language learning.

Reason 4 – New acquaintances

It’s no secret that often good relationships between people arise in the course of the work process, in our case, the process of making the world a better place. There are a lot of examples and stories of volunteers from different countries who have become lifelong friends, some have found love, some have found new partnerships, and some have found many new chances in life thanks to their communication skills, e.g. found a job in another country. Volunteering = new friends, strong relationships, unique opportunities for communication.

Reason 5. Increased life expectancy

Yes, we’re not making this up: according to a study published in Psychology and Aging, people who devote at least 2 hours a week to volunteering are 40% less likely to suffer from high blood pressure than others. Another study states that people who volunteer and do charity live a little longer: caring for others also implies a better attitude toward oneself. Volunteering = health and longevity.

Reason 6. Contribution to the economy

It’s a paradox: free labor makes a huge amount of money… to the economy. The global contribution of volunteer work is already comparable with major industries. In Russia, the global contribution of volunteers to the country’s GDP is about 2.5%, or several tens of billions of rubles. The reason for this is that the work is done, the results of this work are visible, and there is no expense on salaries, because the work was voluntary. Volunteering = positive economic indicators.

Reason 7. Impact on the community

As a volunteer, you can make a real difference and, moreover, help change other people by inspiring them with your example. Everyone knows the famous saying “Start with yourself and the world around you will change” – in the case of volunteering, this is really true. Sometimes volunteering is about inspiring other people to be charitable. Volunteering = changing society.