The bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia of Asia Minor Saint Basil once said, “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” Here, Saint Basil the Great wisely tells us the surprising benefits of good deeds.
Research indicates that good deeds such as volunteerism produce several benefits for the volunteers and the beneficiaries. Young peoples who engage themselves in the community service grow to be more responsible citizens with prudent self-esteem and well cultivated skills.
In Ethiopia, there are about 14 Rotaract clubs established by youths who are between ages of 18 to 30. The members are composed of different professional and educational backgrounds and are defined neither by religious nor political motive.
Abugida Rotaract Club is one of those clubs. For the past 16 years, the club has been doing voluntary activities. Having over 100 volunteers, of which 50 of them are active, the club has been involving in various charitable activities.
The club’s members are drawn from various sectors such as teaching, aviation, engineering, and health sectors and so on.
The club is working on many projects, said Nardos Seleshi, former president of the club. Including blood donation, which is one of its primary missions, the club involves in various areas that could benefit the public. The blood donation is now on its 47th round, she added.
The club’s ‘Berana Project’ aims at delivering educational materials for students. “The project has been running for over 10 years and currently we are encouraging more volunteers who are keen to take part in the program and fill the gaps that our societies face,” Nardos said.
School feeding program, extending love, delivering of bedspread and vision eye (upcoming) projects are amongst the major focus area of the club. As to her, the projects carry out in regular basis.
By conducting various fund raising activities, the club delivers school materials and bedspreads, pays regular visit to extend love for elderly and autistic children, feeds students of a school around ‘Ferensay Legasiyon regularly and provides eye checkup for students who are under the charity program, she noted.
Needless to say, the idea of volunteerism is not new for Ethiopians. The community has been experiencing the trend in their day to day activities and lending a helping hand to those fellow ones who are in need of their support as a way to spiritual commitments, traditional and secular practices.
As mentioned above the services of clubs are delivered throughout the year and involve volunteers of any age and professional background. The common voluntary practice currently is the summer youth volunteer service carried out at national level. The summer voluntary service would have become more appealing and meaningful if it is scaled up like the voluntary services delivered by clubs like Rotaract.
It is frequently mentioned that the more we give, the more we benefit and kind deeds always reward us significantly. Sources indicate that involving in voluntary activities tremendously benefit societies as well as countries in many aspects.
Furthermore, volunteering apart from strengthening people to people ties from all walks of life, increasing social and interpersonal skills and advancing career, it will give a chance to meet variety of people; boost self-confidence and esteem, develops a sense of pride and identity. It also decreases the risk of stress, staves off depression, builds sense of accomplishment by enhancing commitment.
More than one million people in the world involve in volunteerism activities, according to UN Volunteers.
Further than those incorporated with clubs, there are also thousands of voluntary enthusiastic youths who are engaged in various areas and serving the community by dedicating their time, talents and energy.
The youths are working in community-based services such as environmental protection and conservation, health and education, services, serving the disadvantaged groups – orphans, the elderly and the disabled ones.
Currently, in more organized manner than now, the government is initiating the youths to take part in volunteering activities.
Last year, around 1,500 youths drawn from various universities had been doing a number of voluntary activities across the country. The activities were not only significant, they had been fundamental as those youths have executed impressive deeds. Most importantly, they have enabled to develop a sense of unity.
Currently, around 12.7million youths are participating in voluntary activities in Ethiopia. Of this, around 177,451 are university students said Bekele Dehne, Senior Expert of Youth’s Volunteerism Service at the Ministry of Women, Youth and Children.
As to him, this activity will encompass 14 areas such as road trafficking, environment protection, plantation of seedlings, blood donation, and tutorial, among others. By executing the aforementioned areas, the nation is expected to maintain over 4.2 billion Birr.
Bekele noted that the voluntarism is not an activity performed in specific time and limited to merely rainy seasons. The fact that many youths would be in school at the time, the number of volunteers as well as the services are different from the rainy season.
At the end of the rainy season‘s voluntary activity, the office will hold an evaluation program with states and city administration concerned bodies, government and non-government officials, according to him.
Moreover, there will be a special moment to encourage the youth that have been engaging in the voluntary activity.
He said, “As volunteerism has multifaceted benefits, our societies should make it their culture. To this effect, everyone especially the media should be responsible in sensitizing the society so that the country could benefit.” The Ethiopian Herald August 13, 2019
BY BETELHEM BEDLU
