Bahrain: The meaning of volunteering
Written by: Global Voices
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While volunteerism exists in every country, people's motivations for volunteering can vary enormously. A Bahraini blogger currently studying in the UK compares the spirit of volunteering in Bahrain and in Western countries.Sayed Mahmood Alaali starts by describing what he feels is the basic difference:
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I have wanted for a long period of time to
write about the concept of volunteering in our village and perhaps in Bahrain generally and its difference from volunteering in the West. There seems to be a fundamental difference between our concept
of volunteering work for no return for the love of God and the Western concept of working on volunteer projects serving causes people believe in.
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There is no doubt that there are positives in both concepts. In our case, we
believe in volunteering for the sake of God without expecting any results in reality while in the West, people are rewarded for the time they spent rendering a service by achieving goals which serve
the cause they are working for. What drew my attention too is that some non-profit organisations in Western countries require those applying to volunteer their efforts to pay a certain amount of money
in return for their work in that organisation!
He asks whether aspects of this Western tradition of volunteering could be adopted in Bahrain:ÙÙ
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Will we be able to merge some of the aspects of volunteer work in our community with the concept of volunteer work
in the West? This is what I will briefly discuss in this post. The main point I discuss with my colleagues is that the person volunteering can benefit from his time in earning money instead of just
proving a volunteer service, which in our simple societies only brings back problems and accusations which never end. If we were able to compensate volunteers for the hours they have spent, even with
a modest amount of money, this will make the volunteer consider his effort as a paid job, which needs to be completed in the best possible manner.
He then talks about how to combat negative
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The second point is that there is a problem in our view of volunteer work. There
are some who look at it as a means to come out in society and for achieving a social status. Sadly, this is the widespread image in our society and you always find an unfavourable view towards those
involved in volunteering, even if there were among the purest in society. There is no doubt that there is a feeling of mistrust against those dealing with money as people always accuse them of
preferring someone over the other - by helping them instead of those who could be more deserving. This is why we could work on establishing an integrity committee like in Iraq, which currently
monitors the work of volunteer organisations and conducts financial audits. It is also important to include trusted members of the community in volunteer work.
Finally he mentions the strong
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The third point is avoiding volunteer work. Through my discussions with people in my village, I found that
there is a mass avoidance of volunteer work because of the difficulties involved, beginning with the amount of work to the unending responsibilities and accusations which people cannot withstand.
There was a wish among organisations in the village of A'ali to hold a conference about this, which was postponed. I hope this conference is held as soon as possible because the village now
suffers from the withdrawal of youth from volunteer work and the concentration of one segment of people in it.
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