Essay - Volunteering Germany by Laura & Ann-Kathrin
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- 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
Preparatory work
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- Created on Saturday, 04 March 2017 08:06
- Written by Super User
Is volunteering worth it? Please ask your students to prepare a report on what experiences of volunteering they are familiar with in their local contexts and why they should volunteer. Are there any signficant benefits for the volunteer? Can volunteering increase opportunities of success for future studies and jobs?
When writing reports, students could debate about the following:
citizenship and philanthropy
Respect
Responsibility
Compassion and generosity
Justice and Fairness
trustworthiness
Volunteering in Poland
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- Created on Saturday, 04 March 2017 08:05
- Written by poland
Charity is the main indicator of a healthy society. There are many people and animals depending on our help all around the world. Differences in the distribution of wealth make it even worse and the problem will probably rise even bigger in the near future. Man-made and natural disasters lead to famine, suffering, degradation and cause a great loss of lives. Humanitarian aid is needed in poor and wealthy countries.
Empathy is a complex feeling which gives rise to amazing actions and make all of us humans. Poland, among other countries, has amazing movements providing help for those in need. A big part of these movements is volunteering. They provide financial and logistic help.
In Poland there are a lot of charities that try to help and save the people. You can find signs of charity campaigns everywhere, it’s always some old leaflet or a poster. So, we guess, now you are curious what volunteering here looks like?
In our school in Elbląg we have lots of forms of volunteering. We collect food for poor families from our school before Christmas. We collect mostly needed food items like rice, pasta, flour, salt and also we collect household detergents. We also collect blankets and food for dogs and cats which are left alone in the animal shelter. All students in our school collect plastic bottle caps for diseased children in our country. Everyone is collecting them so that it is possible to buy a wheelchair or to pay for the medical treatment.
Also students can provide educational help for younger children. They help them with doing homework or give them extra lessons in subjects they are good at ( for free, of course). That is really helpful. In Frombork, the small town we cooperate with, volunteering service is not as popular as in bigger Polish cities. However, there is Caritas Youth Centre of Warmia Archdiocese. Caritas Youth Centre consists of a youth hostel, which ensures accommodation for children, youth and adults.
There is also a Self-Help Center, which is a place where people with disabilities learn to perform daily activities. Caritas also provides Occupational Therapy Classes and an eating place for fifty people. Other type of volunteering in Formbork is school volunteering. In Frombork there are a primary school and a secondary school where children do lots of different things as part of volunteering, like collecting food or money for various charities, e.g. Great Orchestra of Christmas Aid, which is the biggest, non-governmental, charity organization in Poland. Once a year it engages thousands of volunteers all over the country, regardless their age, to raise money into small boxes, giving them a red heart-shaped sticker instead. All the money is then spent on buying medical equipment for hospitals, mostly children hospitals.
While trying to compare charity in both cities Elbląg and Frombork it’s important to remember about the differences in the number of population. Frombork and Elbląg have different problems because of that. While big organizations like Great Orchestra of Christmas Aid or Caritas are present in the whole country, acting in large cities and small villages, smaller movements tend to try to go more public in neighbouring cities. It’s not easy for a town to support and maintain an animal shelter or help the homeless and on top of that gather money for the poor.
Because of that it’s really important to volunteer wherever one lives. Many schools are trying to involve students in charity, teaching pupils to participate in special interest groups. Besides the fact that a simple act of help brings smiles to the faces of children, students can also learn some useful skills. Cooperation and learning how to act in a volunteering group are one of the most important abilities. Nowadays parents encourage children to help each other. It’s an amazing thing.
We think that we live during the biggest rise of awareness. We understand the importance of charity. We’re really thankful to be part of those movements and we think that we should constantly improve in that field.
by Ola, Karolina & Wojtek
Voluntary work
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- Created on Sunday, 26 February 2017 21:13
- Written by austria
Sophie Etzl
Volunteering is really important for us in Austria. The majority of inhabitants is at least member of one organisation. It is normal to start volunteering as a child, they help in the church or join the fire brigade, I think in small villages it is really important to know hat everybody would help you and to know that even when the people are not interested they still will help.
The fire brigade is in my opinion really good organised and a lot of young people want to be a member of this organisation.
A radio station organises together with some schools a 72 hours project where the students help other people for example one time we spent the 72 hours with old people in care or the next time made a garden for refugees we had to ask different companies if we can have flowers or something and then we designed a new garden with the things we got.
We also have a lot of social organisations like the caritas or the red cross. Also there are some random people which help to integrate the refugees. For example retired teacher which teach now refugees German and a few others which organise events where you get to now the other culture.
To rescue the environment we have organisations like Greenpeace and also private people which organise a few people to collect the litter in the nature and give workshops about recycling and things like a small global footprint.
I would like to work with caritas I think personally it is it is a good way to help people and I am really interested in other cultures, because of this I would like to work with refugees and teach them German or work with the underage kids which came here without their parents.
Work voluntarily in Austria
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- Created on Saturday, 25 February 2017 18:44
- Written by austria
by Mirjam Brait, Austria
Austria is a country where many people work voluntarily in their free time. In many organizations you can already start as a teenager, or even as a child, like at the fire brigade. It doesn’t matter whether you prefer working with people or helping to protect the environment. Among all the organizations, there is for sure one for each of you!
You are a very social and open- minded person and like to help other people? Well, then you can choose between a variety of different organizations. The most commonly known ones are the Red Cross and the Caritas. You have a wide range of possibilities where you can help: transport of sick or hurt people to the hospital, work in a refugee camp in hard times or social services and healthcare.
Other common social activities are working at the fire brigade or ORA international, but one can also seize self- initiative and take over, for example, visiting services in the old people’s home.
If you prefer doing something for the local people in your village, you can either work in the church or in the local council.
Other groups, such as Greenpeace or four paws, are working for a better protection of the environment and nature.
There is also another organization, called AFS, which is a bit different from all the ones mentioned above. AFS is an exchange organization and was found over 100 years ago. The difference between AFS and other exchange programs is that this one consist almost entirely of volunteers, and just a few people in every country are employed.
Last year I made an exchange with AFS and since the beginning I’ve loved this system because you know that every volunteer really likes his work, even so much so that he does it in his leisure time.
After my time abroad, it was clear to me that I also want to be a volunteer, so, about two months after my return I completed the basic training to become one. Of course I don’t have much responsibility yet, but I am still at the beginning.
In this organization you don’t help needy or sick people, but you discover and understand new cultures and reduce prejudices, and in my opinion this is also very important.