Essay - Volunteering Germany by Laura & Ann-Kathrin
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 05 March 2017 17:27
- Written by germany
Volunteering in Germany
by Laura Pfeil, Germany
You finished school and don’t know yet what to do? Helping you to orientate and find your personal skills, there is the possibility to make a Voluntary Social Year(Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr or FSJ) in Germany. A lot of students take this precious chance to gain experience, get an image of working life and form their character.
It is a period of time, generally from six to 18 months, spent doing voluntary work in the German social sector. Participants are fully integrated into the culture of their placement, gaining valuable experience and education, with the pedagogical support of the institution. They have to be at least 18 and maximal 27 years old.
Some examples of where assignments can be undertaken include working in nursing homes and hospitals, with ambulatory services and people with disabilities, in youth welfare and kindergartens or with children from difficult family backgrounds.
One of the most famous institutions is the German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz or DRK) which provides humanitarian aid. If you would like to absolve your Voluntary Social Year at the ‘DRK’, you assume responsibility for other people and recognize how important your assignment can be.
I have already talked to people who did after their graduation such a year at the ‘DRK’ and they were absolutely thrilled. Working in teams together, getting to know a lot of different people, gaining new perceptions and knowledge and assisting a paramedic or a nurse: experiences you will never forget!
Apart from all this impressions, a Voluntary Social Year looks good in your CV and gives you social skills which you will need in your future life and job.
I personally think that volunteer work is necessary for our society. Generosity and philanthropy are two important values which build up our social cohesion and prove humanity. It provides participants with practical experience and the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the world around them, and the people in it.
-Volunteering in Germany-
Talking about volunteering in Germany, we've got a lot of opportunities. From a so-called "FSJ" (which is volunteering in the social sector in your gap year) to the federal volunteer service, which we call "Bundesfreiwillgendiest", you can basically do everything from working with children in a kindergarten or old people in a nursing home to working in a hospital, with disabled people or even on culture issues, e.g. in a museum.
The project I got most interested in is a new project the German government made possible by passing a new law in December 2015. It's part of the federal volunteer service with reference to refugees. The law creates 10.000 new jobs per year until the end of 2018. The special feature for this type of federal volunteer service is that not only non-refugees can apply, but also refugees with a very good perspective of staying in Germany or refugees who already have the residence permit can apply and help other refugees. With helping the refugees the project thinks of assisting in refugee camps (which, e.g. means the distribution of food and water or donations in kind like toys for the children), helping them to integrate in society und organizing their new everyday life, making sure that everyone gets the chance to learn German and also the refugees that want to participate in the federal volunteer service get the opportunity to learn/improve (their) German during the project. If one is interested in sports one can also take care of refugee children during sport events that are also a way of integrating the children in society, you see that there are a lot of things you can do only in THIS volunteering project and there are so many more.
Personally, I feel that the chance of volunteering is a great one. You can not only get an insight in different job fields but also get to meet a lot of new people and especially the federal volunteer service with reference to refugees provides the chance of meeting new people from whole different cultures. This can be I think very inspiring and broaden one's horizon. I think it will also change peoples' minds about how well or bad their living standard really is and appreciate their lifestyle way more. Besides the interesting aspect of the project I think it is also very important to have volunteers because the organizations and associations that are already working with refugees are not enough people to make integration for refugees as good as it could be. These volunteers can make a difference whether refugees will be integrated in the future or not.
Ann-Kathrin