THE IMPORTANCE OF VOLUNTARY WORK AND IT’S ASSESSMENT IN KOSOVO

“Volunteer” – a person that contributes their time to helping the community in general, without gaining financial or any other kind of compensation.
So what does a volunteer get out if it? – Their benefit is an increase in self-confidence, increase in tolerance, sympathy and empathy towards others, socializing, work experience, enrichment in knowledge, etc..

 

 

 

 

 

I have practiced volunteer work ever since elementary school up to now, as a high school student. It helped me a lot in personality and character formation.
As a volunteer in Kosova, and a young activist, I believe that our country needs volunteer work, and fortunately the interest in such activities has increased visibly in the past years.
The awareness our youth gets from volunteer work, helps in the acquisition of knowledge and development of different abilities which can be further applied in different positive aspects towards ourselves and our country.
The presence of volunteer work brings a difference because it creates solidarity and reciprocity between people, which brings a stable development that plays a big role in our society, as volunteer work has an impact in the country’s economy, bringing a lot of benefits, especially in the more developed countries where volunteer work is established. According to an analysis from Learning to give, “the economical impact of the volunteer work sector (also known as nonprofitable or third sector) is large but impossible to be calculated”.
Some kinds of volunteer work are highly valued in developed countries, but unfortunately we can not say the same thing about our country. Civil society plays a role in this evaluation, because the work done and the initiatives from volunteers are not appreciated and highly evaluated from the public opinion, which led to a decrease in the level of interest of volunteers here. This concept is concerning to a country that is characterized by a relatively young population.
What should we undertake in order to increase this level of interest? – Work evaluation needs a big turn in Kosova, starting with the youth itself and how it perceives the importance of volunteer work, and then the change of public opinion and other institutions towards the creation of the needed mechanisms.
The thought that “volunteer work is just a waste of time and has no values” should be taken down, because the work brings a change in us and has a positive impact on the country too. I, as a young volunteer in Kosova, have received a lot of criticism from people that did not value my work in the amount it deserved, but this never stopped me from contributing for my country. Thus, I advise our youth to participate in volunteer work regardless of how this work is perceived from the others, because every beginning with small steps leads to an evident development. Our institutions should take their initiatives for evaluation, such as the approving of a rulebook on volunteer work, the establishment of volunteer ID-s within the respective municipality, the possession of volunteer certificates and the work done in that city, a decrease in prices and enrollment in private universities, etc. These small initiatives are considerable, because they increase the level of interest our youth has in volunteer work. 

In Kosova, we have a digital platform for volunteers: “Kosovovolunteers.org”, which serves for the registration of volunteers in Kosova and forms a connection between them and different organizations.
“This platform is a free platform where nonprofitable organizations can post volunteer work opportunities, and where passionate and skillful volunteers can find the opportunity to donate their talent and time. Also, besides the union between volunteers and recruiters, the platform offers sources to aid the development of programs for community inclusion”, this is what it says in the description of this platform on its official Facebook page. However, this webpage turns out to not be very active.  It has only one publication of volunteer work in the year 2022, while on the web the page appears to be out of function. Nevertheless, this is an initiative that is taken for our youth and its interest, if other initiatives were undertaken too, then their impact in the level of interest would visibly increase and bring a grand change to our country. Our youth’s problems would be decreased and a new generation with fulfilled needs and information on the European mentality would be created.

I, a 17 year old volunteer from the republic of Kosova, make a call to our youth to not give up or stop applying for volunteer work in our country, increase your interest in this work and your education, because if we want to see a difference in our country, then this change begins from us, we are the ones that can change every problem we face, get what we want. It is enough for us to work together towards the greater good of our country and the negative effects will disappear once and for all. 

 

About the author: Shyret Hoxhaj,  17 years old from Prizren, she goes to “Ymer Prizreni” High School

 

This grant is supported by Austrian Development Agency