VOLUNTEERING AS A CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
You can find success, motivation, new knowledge, socialization, knowledge, confidence, pride, love all together in one place. The answer for these is volunteer work. Being a volunteer means to help the house, neighborhood, community or city for a certain issue without material gains.
Illustration: Argjira Kukaj
Maybe for a majority of our country volunteer work is something that doesn’t require a lot of work and commitment, we think that what we do is simply passing free time. But in fact being a volunteer requires a lot of energy, willpower, support and time. So, not everyone has knowledge on the importance of volunteer work and its benefits on a personal and wider level. According to a study conducted by the organization “Democracy for Development” in the year 2018, about volunteer work in Kosovo, says that the scale of volunteerism during 2017 climbed to 15 percent. This number is very small and surely shouldn’t be considered satisfactory, even if it’s different from states of the region by a small percent. In this study, titled “The state of volunteerism in Kosovo: Challenges and perspectives” the importance of volunteer work is also noted and it’s said that “volunteerism as a priority on the basis of youth politics is a way to treat youth unemployment, since volunteerism can equip volunteers with the skills necessary to find a job”.
According to this study it’s also concluded that volunteerism changes on the basis of gender.
“The gender gap is visible on all age groups. For example, 16.3 percent of men compared to 11.1 percent of women, reported having volunteered in the last three months of the year 2017”, it’s said in the study, while the age group of volunteers is mostly from the age of 18 to 24 years.
Regardless of all of us wanting to live equally, in equal conditions, in harmony and love, few of us are ready to be part of this journey for change. And to arrive to this change, each one of us must commit. With volunteer work we can at least contribute to achieve such a thing in the place or area where we live. Except for positive changes in the community and raising collective welfare, volunteer work also helps us in our individual journey. And I can best prove this on a personal level. I started doing volunteer work in my primary school as a need to help my friends in school who had started to drop out of school. There my enthusiasm and love for volunteer work started, not having stopped even today. It as a special feeling when you see that you were part of a process and with your commitment you managed to change the mind of a person for them to not give up on school.
My commitment to the community through volunteer work, today is also part of my success as a young entrepreneur, not yet 18, and is also opening roads toward studying abroad.
So it’s very important to create conditions for commitment to volunteer work. The support for volunteer work should come not only from family, but also educational institutions, professors and school directors to contribute to the community and not denying it. They should congratulate and celebrate for every success student achieve with volunteer work.
If each one of us gives only a bit of importance to their free time and contributes in the community, does good things for the neighborhood, school, society then the impact can be noticed in the whole city or village where we live. In this way, we can become the change we want in society.
About the author: Leona Jahiri is an 18 years old girl who attends studies at the Competence Center in Ferizaj.
This activity is supported by Engagement for Equity Program – E4E, financed by United States
Agency for International Development – USAID, and implemented by Advocacy Training and
Resource Center –ATRC.
