Work for a cause, not applause

Social worker says students should volunteer during vacations .

KARACHI:

Volunteer work not only helps society but also develops personality, said Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and Indus Hospital volunteer Seep Akhtar Channar.

She was speaking at a session, titled ‘Can You Spare a Few Hours a Week? How to Become an Effective Volunteer’, at the WOW festival on Sunday.

Social work is a big responsibility, she remarked. “One has to take care of what they are doing, like giving juices and water in heatwave itself needs responsibility.”

“If one thinks of volunteer work as their job, then it will be easy to take out time and stay motivated,” she said.

Channar, who is the youngest of seven siblings, believes the only way to manage volunteer work is with family support.

Speaking about how students can work as volunteers, she said they can work during their vacations.

“You can play music or enjoy with kids in children’s ward at hospitals or listen to elders at old age homes,” she suggested.

Everybody likes to help but some people simply give money, said journalist and community school volunteer Zubeida Mustafa.

Sharing her personal experience from childhood, Mustafa said one of her neighbours asked everyone in the neighbourhood to work voluntarily and clean the streets.

The neighbour also approached Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to pick up garbage regularly.

Speaking about how a structured volunteer system functions, Channar informed that institutions such as SIUT, Indus Hospital and Darul Sukoon induct volunteers after much scrutiny of their basic information forms.

A person might not be interested in volunteer work and perhaps joins these programmes to get certificates, she said. However, after seeing the ground realities these volunteers realise the main idea behind it.

What these systems give volunteers is safety, facilitation and moral support from seniors, she added.

Edhi Foundation director Faisal Edhi, one of the speakers, was not able to attend the session.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2016.