School Affairs Guide
Volunteer Activity
Volunteer work is an unpaid service that voluntarily devotes your ability and time to the development of others and the local community, and those who participate in the service are called volunteers. In this perspective, Volunteer work is not limited to a special activity for any specific person or group or only for those who have the time and material resources, but an activity that anyone can participate in.
Volunteer work has many characteristics such as persistence, pioneering, and social solidarity. Among them, representative characteristics include voluntary, public, and unpaid.
voluntary
The term volunteer means that individuals participate in volunteer work with their own free will and independence. In other words, this is an activity where you voluntarily participate in difficult works that require your help. Anyone wants to do a good action. However, the most important thing is to take the initiative in a volunteer manner.
Public
The activities without welfare or public interest are not volunteer work even though they have sufficient volunteer will. For example, the hobbies of someone, such as Go or fishing, are not included in volunteer work. In the case of cleaning, you should clean public areas, not private spaces to meet the public interest.
Unpaid
volunteer work is not a profit-making activity because it starts with the desire to help society, others, or the environment without being paid in return. volunteer work does not require any material reward. Occasionally, some volunteer work provides minimal expenses such as transportation or meals, but volunteers do not pursue such expenses.
Social volunteers must have the right attitude and mindset to perform their roles accurately.
Therefore, it is recommended that social volunteers develop the right attitude and mindset for volunteer work.
The basic attitude of a desirable social volunteer is as follows.
For volunteer work, you have to start with the area that you are good at and like. This is because things, in which you are not interested, make your volunteer work boring. Therefore, social volunteers should start with what they are interested in and continue their volunteer work.
There are many places in need of social volunteers. It is recommended that you choose your volunteer work that is close to your living base. This is because you can easily identify changes in your volunteer work schedule to participate in a timely manner, minimizing the time and cost of traveling to it.
Volunteers should have a good attitude to keep their promises. Keeping promises is the key to your volunteer work. The social volunteers who fail to keep their promises will be hesitant to do their next volunteer work because they feel sorry. Those receiving the volunteer service also become distrustful of them and get hurt. Because of this issue, you may never be able to volunteer again. Therefore, you must make an effort to keep your promise, and you ask for understanding in advance if you cannot keep it unavoidably.
Social volunteers usually work with people. You may bring bad results in your volunteer work when you misunderstand the intention of those receiving your service even though you have a good intention.
Volunteer work is no sympathetic charity. Sympathy, the opposite expression of superiority, is a humiliation for the recipients. Volunteer work without sincerity may hurt the recipients. Therefore, social volunteers must watch out for discriminations that recognize volunteers are superior to recipients based on petty sympathy.
Volunteer work makes it easy for you to unintentionally neglect your family or work. Therefore, you basically need to ask for understanding from your people before starting your volunteer work. Volunteers who pass on their responsibilities to others and participate in volunteer work are not desirable. Social volunteers should be sincere to themselves before starting volunteer service.
Volunteer work is a voluntary activity. Therefore, volunteers must take responsibility for themselves and make the best effort for the given task.
Some still view volunteer work as a self-display activity that those who have enough time and money conduct. You should always try to have a humble attitude, thinking that you are representing the entire social volunteer group. Social volunteers experience the richness and satisfaction of life and the joy of sharing with others through volunteer work. Therefore, they should be always thankful to those providing this opportunity.
Social volunteers need to objectively grasp their strengths and weaknesses.
Volunteer work does not pursue any reward. Volunteer work participation is based on the unpaid principle, so volunteers should not pursue any reward. We all should take responsibility for the poverty and disadvantaged resulting from the structural contradiction of our society. Volunteers should take care of others and show their neighborly love. You should expect any reward in return for your volunteer work.
Social volunteers who have a long relationship with volunteering institutions and facilities often get to know their secrets. If social volunteers reveal these secrets, such institutions and facilities will be in trouble, thereby making it difficult to continue volunteer work and giving a negative image. Therefore, volunteer workers should try to keep the trust of volunteering institutions and the recipients.
Modern society is changing rapidly. Since the field of volunteer work is also becoming specialized, social volunteers must have an attitude to learn.
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