Volunteering can simply be described as an act of charity where people use their time and services to make an impact in the lives of others for little or no cost at all.
While volunteering is very prominent in the Western world, it is not a foreign practice in Africa either. Historical accounts tell us about the practice of brotherhood and good neighborliness in many African communities.
In many developed countries, volunteering which is sometimes called community service has been an effective way of improving their social welfare system and it works. This is because citizens have been able to develop the mindset of viewing the country’s problems as theirs and they want to be a part of the solution whether by making donations or giving their time.
Modern volunteering in Africa is beginning to gain waves but sometimes, it seems like the bulk of it comes from charitable services from Westerners. On many volunteering blogs abroad we see posts about coming to Africa to help “save lives” and while this is not particularly a bad thing, Africa has the capacity to bring herself out of her current situation if only more people, especially professionals see how volunteering can be used as a tool of upliftment and of development as in other countries abroad.
Abroad, the concept of volunteering has really been incorporated into the system such that the government supports volunteering activities. In most Western countries, as punishment for certain offenses, people are made to perform mandatory community services.
These acts of selflessness as little as they are, have greatly helped to improve their system, and to make the government more accountable and more sensitive to the needs of people in society. In Africa now, volunteering has become something that we embrace but usually as a way of building work experience and not specifically as a creative tool for development.
Despite the increasing number of social entrepreneurs, NGOs, and social initiatives to help provide solutions, more still needs to be done in taking volunteering as serious as possible. Not just the youth, but everyone should be involved and should contribute their own quota towards making Africa better in various areas and fields such as health, sports, arts etc. And so in practice and in theory, volunteering has a lot to offer us as regards the growth and development of Africa. One of the challenges I think that we face in taking volunteering to a higher level is the fact that many people, professionals especially still follow the saying that “time is money” and they will not necessary want to engage their services or time for free. However, to go forward, we need to begin to understand that people no matter what position they are in, can actually change the present conditions of Africans in Africa.
This is because the people form the government and if we want things to change socially, economically, in the health sector etc., it needs to start from us.
We need to be able to build ourselves into a community where everyone feels like they are a part of the development of the nation as found in western countries.
There everyone sees their country as their responsibility to change, improve, and develop. This is something that volunteering can help us to achieve in terms of giving us that mindset of giving, of improving, and of solving a need. Conclusively, by volunteering we are exposed to the harsh realities of people, we become sensitive to their needs, we start to see potential in the African continent and with the knowledge that we can make a change, we ignite a fire and zeal to do all it takes to make the African continent greater than it already is.
Written By: Lauretta Onwuegbuzie
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