Igniting the voluntary spirit

As Executive Coordinator of United Nations Volunteers Ms. SHARON CAPELING ALAKIJA firmly believes in voluntarism. This, she tells K. KANNAN, is the only way to usher in a meaningful change in society....

To put the promotion of voluntarism on the global agenda is the avowed mission of United Nations Volunteers (UNV) which believes that social workers all over the world are bound by a common belief in human development. Voluntarism, according to protagonists of this new global awakening, permeates everything we do as people and is not confined to the social sector alone.

``While civil society has to play a major role, meaningful change can be ushered in only by government policies that support and encourage voluntarism,'' argues Ms. Sharon Capeling Alakija, Executive Co-Ordinator of the Bonn-based UNV. ``Voluntary spirit is not dead. But it requires inspiring people to ignite it,'' she says.

Here in the Capital recently in connection with the supervision of the India activities of the International Year of Volunteers' 2001, Ms. Capeling had a glimpse of the voluntary effort initiated by ``We for Yamuna''. ``This is obviously not going to clean the river,'' she admits. ``What this is going to do is to make people understand that this river is their future.''

Efforts like these, she argues, creates a solidarity among people wanting to initiate the process of change. ``It also sets in motion a willingness to get in there and be a human symbol of a process that has to go on. Of course, it is going to take an effort by people at all levels to bring about a change.''

As for promotion of voluntarism at a national and global level, Ms. Capeling feels that ``inspiring leadership, effective training, rigorous evaluation and an infrastructure to support voluntarism'' are the critical requirements. ``Leadership is the key,'' she avers.

While this year's goal is to promote voluntarism, Ms. Capeling is well aware that it does not happen without recognition. ``We all need recognition,'' she points out. ``After all, the work of volunteers is taken for granted. There should be a systematic way of recognising the everyday heroes whether it is through words or specific ceremonies.''

In this context, she feels national campaigns for recognising local heroes should be drawn up and at the same time, ``we should look at what is working globally and network the best practices''. Extending her support to voluntary efforts here, she says, ``We want to tell people in India that they are not alone. People in Canada, El Salvador and many more are with you''. The UNV's role, she adds, is ``to take what is local and make it global''.

Arguing that there is an economic value attached to voluntarism, the UNV Executive Co-Ordinator says every effort made by boys and girls or scouts and guides across the world counts. ``I used to be a leader in the women's movement,'' she says, citing her own example. ``I learnt a very important lesson -- if you do not value it, it does not count.''

Also, according to Ms. Capeling, the means to facilitate and support voluntarism are equally important. ``There should be tax incentives for the private sector,'' she says. In this context, she feels encouraged by the fact that institutions like the Confederation of Indian Industry are beginning to organise the corporate sector around the whole area of corporate social responsibility. ``Companies should start programmes to encourage their employees to take time off from their hectic schedule and do voluntary work,'' she feels.

Further, finding ways to facilitate voluntary effort was equally important. ``Governments should have better policies to promote voluntarism. Campaigns on radio and television should also be drawn up,'' she says.

Ms. Capeling opines that economic and social action are not two separate things. ``Breathing in is economic, but breathing out is social,'' she observes. ``The number of poor people will keep rising. It is in everybody's interest to contribute to the development of the social sector.''

In conclusion, Ms. Capeling says people should ask themselves ``What is the use of being rich and then living in a slum?'' This will lead them to the realisation that ``investing in the social sector is beneficial in the long run''.

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