becoming a better volunteer in the face of crisis
Haiti needs your help
Over 200,000 people have been confirmed dead in the recent earthquake that hit Haiti, this means that the already enriched city (graveyard/cemetery) will further be enriched with potentials that have been rendered stillborn. NGOs all over the world have been sending in their aid as the country is in dare need of help.
This is the time that the world needs more people that will serve as volunteers than ever. The only problem is that people with the needed skill are in short demand and something needs to be done about this to increase the number of people equipped with volunteering skill and that is why I have come up with this article.
Who is a volunteer?
A volunteer is a person that willingly dedicate him or her self to service humanity without any material reward (there could be other benefits and reward, peace of mind is one of such rewards). One big mistake that people make when they set out to become volunteers is to have it at the back of their mind that there will be some kind of financial reward associated with volunteering. This is why you find so many unmotivated and unhappy volunteers. To be a better volunteer, you need to be armed with certain knowledge and skills.
Characteristics and skills of volunteers
One of the things that you must do in order to be a better volunteer is to develop a mindset of helpers. Helpers have people’s welfare at hand and this makes their job fun and enjoyable. Having the mindset of helpers will get you motivated to learn the missing skills needed to be a better volunteer.
Volunteers ought to be people that can take decision and stand by it. You may face a number of challenges that will require you taking decisive action in the course of you being a volunteer, and only those with the right decision making skill will make a better volunteer. So, you may want to hone your decision making skill in order to become a better volunteer.
Volunteers are people that believe in themselves and their intuition. There are cases that will require one to make use of his or her intuition. Your ability to call on your intuition under uncommon situations makes you a better volunteer. Formal knowledge sometimes doesn’t help in volunteering work.
Volunteering most times goes with operating one equipment or the other. Take the case of Haiti for instance, certain equipment like crane need to be operated to help rescue some people that are trapped in collapsed building.
Also, having a working knowledge of first aid administration will help make one a better volunteer. Emergencies like this (Haiti’s earthquake) surely will make knowledge of first aid an indispensable skill. How can you resuscitate an unconscious person when you don’t have an idea of what first aid is all about?
Better volunteers are risk takers. They risk their lives just to save that of others. Chances are that a volunteer may loose his or her life while trying to save (an already cracked building may give way while volunteers are still under it rescuing people.
A proper stock of ones self need to be taken before joining a volunteering team to save lives. If you are confident of yourself and wish to engage in the humanitarian service, then make Nike’s run off line your motivating will power- JUST DO IT!