Rather than start theoretically, I'll trace my own evolution of volunteering and the way it has shaped my perspective.
Growing up in a small country town in Australia, I didn't really have a concept of the word volunteering - not because it didn't exist, but because it seemed so integral to the fabric of the society that it didn't need a word- it was just what people did. The word volunteering suggests some people do and some people don't - but I don't think it occurred to me not doing it was actually an option.
My father mowed the nuns' lawn for as long as I can remember. I enjoyed going up to do it - they always made us fantastic lemonade. My mother made sponge cakes for fundraising street stalls, my grandmother would make chocolate fudge, and my aunt sultana slices and light fruitcakes. Everyone had their specialty. Mrs Whitney's cakes were the best. Mothers were rostered on school tuckshop duty - for either cooking or serving. Now that I think about it there were mothers that didn't participate - but they had reasons and I doubt it was ever an issue or source of tension. Tuckshop duty was a social outing as were street stalls, the agricultural show, the rodeo, and other town events - which always relied on volunteer effort.
"Volunteering" has a long history in Australia - in my hometown, of 1000 people, growing up we had the rescue squad, the country fire brigade, the parents associations at schools, the Red Cross, CWA, the Hospital Auxiliary, Rotary, Lions, Apex, the Returned Soldiers League, Rugby Union, Rugby League.... it seemed very normal.We were always raising money for something both for things inside and outside the town.
If the town wants, for example, a swimming pool it needs to be local momentum that gets the project going. The fact that almost every town in rural Australia has a pool is testament to the spirit.
I went to Sydney for high school & the philosophy was similar we raised many thousands of dollars (which was a lot of money then!) for a sister school in India. We did the World Vision 40 hour famine. As as a boarding school I was disconnected from it though and help was always for people "out there". Even at that time this troubled me. I thought the school should have opened its facilities to the community on the weekend - it seemed for such a privileged school we should have been doing more. A couple of friends and I set up a branch of both Amnesty International and St Vincent de Paul. The school in a surprising degree of openness allowed us to go into the city on Saturday nights to join patrols handing out sandwiches and coffee to the homeless people in the city centre.
As an undergrad, I was hopelessly disorganised - remembering where and when my classes were after 6 years of having every moment of my time planned for me was a challenge and the extent of my volunteering was within my residential college. After working for several years and doing nothing for anyone besides myself... other than the occasional donation to St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army or Youth off the Street, I figured it was time to pull my finger out and give back a bit...I was well aware I was very fortunate.
I spent a year teaching at a university in China - paid well by local standards - but about 280$ US per month at the time - by Australian standards it was close to volunteering.The year in China in someways took me back to my childhood - just doing things because you should - but it was very different because I was rich and most of my students were far from it (there were a few exceptions). I don't see being poor perse as a problem that needs fixing. But I do see injustice as a problem. (an overdeveloped sense of justice is a family curse that saw my siblings & I winning the principles before popularity award on prize giving day...... ) Where people's situation excludes them from heath care, nourishment, education and opportunites, I believe it's incumbent on those who can, to do something to help.
In China this was tough.... some of my students were desperately poor - one girl even her classmates said she didn't have enough to eat because she was working to pay her fees as well as her daily life. She survived on 2 meals a day. Class handouts were to be photocopied and charged to students... but how could I possibly add to financial stress.... students from the countryside had minimal chance to improve their English listening because even if they had a walkman, there was no listening library and a book tape set was a days wage for a teacher, a student who developed a brain tumour whose family already had no money from his father's cancer. My 280$/month salary...wasn't looking so high anymore. But money is tricky too... they had pride and giving handouts would have been met with understanable hostility. One boy was telling me he would go to Shanghai to do labouring work through the summer. I asked if he'd considered applying for a scholarship - there were 6 means tested scholarships in each grade and he would have qualified. He looked at me with penetrating steely eyes and told me emphatically he would rather die than beg. Dignity is integral to volunteering / helping people. Doing things on their terms, not on yours. Not coming in, creating divisions and leaving.
Far better to have dinner with students at the little street stalls outside the uni gate from time to time than give them money for food. It was very easy for them to accept the line that when I come back to visit them when they are working, they can take me to some where much more upscale. It was win-win - they could practice English, I learned more about them and China and they were better at ordering food than me. Volunteering doesn't have to mean doing something extra.
When I arrived at the university they had magically found extra classes for me - teaching company classes. I was not impressed. They were making a tonne of extra money which I was seeing none of. I was able to negotiate that they paid me for the classes and that I would use the money to start a listening library- the speed with which they agreed made me realise I set my price way to cheap..... Students came and borrowed tapes with tape scripts - it was a way of motivating them with the English and to equalise the social discrepencies. I was to learn a bitter lesson about it when I left.
I was sorry not to be staying in China longer, I figured since I had no money to speak of in Australia, it was not really realistic to spend years in China and create my own poverty....I can't do much for others if I can't look after myself... As I left China I wanted to do something .... some of the students had improved so much - mostly through listening and repeating tape scripts - very old fashioned in terms of pedagogy but the ones that had improved most had huge motivation. Some people have a sense that money is inferior to actually doing something. I couldn't disagree more. Doing something when there are things to be done is absolutely critical, but it doesn't make money any less of a worthy contribution. Before I left China I decided to pay the fees of a couple of students who were particularly hard working, and had particularly difficult economic circumstances. Two of them cried and cried and told me though appreciate it, they couldn't accept it because they couldn't repay me. In my mind I was their teacher not their banker... I made them promise when they were teachers (it was a teacher's university) that they would look out for students that needed help, and that they would try to help in the best way they could - and that didn't have to be money. They agreed that this would be fair repayment.
I got an email two years ago from one of them to say the mother of one of his students had died and that he organised the school to help her financially and academically. I could feel his joy in the email. I was so proud of him. This is where the heart of volunteering lies for me - the purpose is to make the world better by helping on a small scale. If by doing something unbidden, it inspires other people to do likewise, then the volunteering has truly achieved something.
I saw on NHK the other day that New Orleans had sent a whole lot of brass instruments to Kesanuma (I think) because after Hurricane Katrina Japan had done the same. Volunteering isn't really about reciprocity on an individual or even national level, it's something that is at the level of humanity.
TBC
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