Volunteerism Taught As A
“Life Value”: Contribution from the
Professions of FCS / Home Economics Around the World and Consumer Sience
93rd Annual
Convention/Exposition – American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
Gertraud Pichler, IFHE
President
It is a big pleasure for me to take part in this panel to discuss the
important theme “Volunteerism taught as a life value. Contribution from the
professions of family and consumer science and home economics around the
world”.
UN Director General Kofi Annan proclaimed 2001 as the International Year
of Volunteers. September 11th, 2001, a date which no one will ever
forget, proved what volunteers are able to do in such a tragic situation. This
is only one example of the formidable support which volunteers offer to the
society.
In today’s world of turmoil and disasters it is not always easy to step
back and see where “we are going as an interdependent global community. We are
so busy putting out fires and erecting temporary shelters that we lose track of
the big picture. We must, however, take time to reflect”, Kofi Annan said.
We again are but what we give back to our fellow men and women and volunteers have the courage to believe that what they do will make a real difference.
“Sharing” is the keyword to describe the way in which volunteers
approach their work. They do not seek to impose their values, their ideas or
their agendas. Rather, they find out what people need and want, and they work
with them to make it happen.
Volunteers teach children to read. They act as mentors for young people.
They help women start business. They help feed the old and sick, who have no
family to care for them. They help build wells for communities, so that
everyone can have access to clean water. They help maintain peace and build
democracy, lend a hand to the survivors of conflicts and wars, assist with the
implementation of long term development projects and help preserve the
environment. Some visit prisons and work in hospitals. Whatever they do they do
in the interest of peace and harmony within and between communities, and
thereby help to keep peace.
Volunteers can help transform all our societies for the benefit of all
people. They put their hands and their minds and, most of all, their hearts at
the service of others. Their courage and dedication should be an inspiration
for others, for all of us, to act. But society needs to promote volunteerism as
a valuable activity and to facilitate the work of volunteers at home and
abroad.
All over the world volunteers are working with governments,
non-governmental organisations and the private sector to deliver effective
professional assistance. The heart of volunteerism are the ideals of service
and solidarity and the believe that together we can make the world better.
Millions of volunteers serve around the world to meet people’s needs, to
protect their rights and to help give them a voice.
Their motivation can be summed up in one word: Sharing! Volunteers share
their time. They share their skills and talents, even their money. But above
all, they share human experience. They know that this attitude is the true
measure of success in life and that it makes society strong and healthy.
It is an action deeply rooted in the human spirit without a far-reaching
social and cultural impact. Listening to, being concerned with, and responding
to the needs of others provide evidence of the highest human motivation. Human
beings help each other out of love and compassion. Yet - this is the deepest
spiritual dimension and symbolic meaning - volunteering is not simply something
that we do for others. Our own values and humanity are at stake: “We are what
we give.”
Volunteering is a freely assumed moral obligation. We help one another
because we feel a sense of satisfaction in fulfilling a moral compulsion to do
so. It is not an action imposed by an external authority. By caring and sharing
we become more fully human while, at the same time, enhancing the moral texture
of our communities, the social fabric of our societies. Caring and sharing have
been major components of human behaviour throughout our civilisation. Caring
and sharing are a necessity, not a charitable act.
Volunteerism involves giving expression to the concerns of people,
demonstrating the validity of a concern for the condition of others, an ability
to share with them, an expression of commitment, devotion and dedication,
fostering the involvement of others, fostering relationships, reflecting also
for the purposes of the community, an expression of trust and faith in the
value of, and the respect for, others and community. All these are fundamental
to the formation of social capital.
Volunteerism is a social capital that results from the quality of our
relationships, our involvement in the lives of others, our concerns for our
mutual well-being, our sense of trust and confidence in each other, our sense
of community, our willingness to support each other, and our sense of cohesion.
All these serve to bind our society together, to give it coherence and
strength, acceptance of others, appreciation of diversity, appreciation of and
respect for the strength that derives from inclusion rather than from
exclusion.
All these result from and give rise to participation, involvement,
engagement, mutual trust, respect, support, commitment, all of which are
absolutely vital for the strength and well-being of society.
Society is not viable without the support of volunteers, but although we
are well aware of that fact the important contributions of volunteers are often
overlooked in both developed and developing countries.
Indeed most of the countries do not take their services into account
when calculating their national outputs. In the few countries where they have
been measured it has been estimated that volunteer activities make up between 8
to 14 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the papers of
UN Director General Kofi Annan volunteer work force in the U.S.A. represents
the equivalent of over 9 million full time employees and an annual value of U$
225 billion. In Canada, one third of the population does voluntary work,
providing over one billion hours of their time to the service of others every
year, and in the United Kingdom (UK) the same applies to nearly half of the
population.
Families are the largest group of people providing volunteer services
Nevertheless families are hardly ever seen or mentioned as volunteers.
In many ways the activities carried out within families are not regarded as
examples of volunteerism but as expressions of the loving, caring, sharing
compassion, trust, support, willingness, and co-operation that take place and
are even expected among family members.
Volunteering takes many shapes and forms - from one-on-one support at a
personal level to community service, from mutual support in self-help groups to
participation in broad-based movements and campaigns. Voluntary action is as
varied as the creativity of volunteers, the nature of national settings and the
breadth of problems.
These activities are seen both as examples of time, energy and skills
freely given and as activities representing fundamental responsibilities of
family members, for instance taking care for the old and sick within their own
families and communities. Even though some do not consider these familial
activities as volunteerism, it should be apparent that families are the fertile
ground in which the values of devotion and commitment – which are essential for
volunteerism - germinate and take roots. It is within families that these
values and attitudes, and this willingness, should be introduced, fostered and
cultivated to allow improvement, to foster growth and development, to create
relationships, to build self-confidence and trust. Training up children to
incorporate volunteerism as a “life value” needs to begin in and to be
practised by families.
Round the world there are uncountable organisations and groups which are
organised on the international (INGOs), national (NGOs) and local level. Many
of the INGOs have consultative status with the United Nations.
It is not my task to mention and talk about the world-wide international
NGOs, which often work on a voluntary basis (Rotary, Lions, Soroptimists, Red
Cross, or other volunteers such as the police, the fire brigade, social
caretakers, and others).
Home economics associations are volunteer organisations
The International Federation for Home Economics, also a world-wide NGO,
has consultative status with the United Nations and we are proud to be fully
accredited as an INGO and to have many opportunities to support the UN (ECOSOC,
UNESCO) policies and objectives. We co-operate with FAO, UNICEF as well with
many national organisations and other NGOs. The IFHE was one of the INGOs which
supported the UN to proclaim the International Year of the Family.
Let us create and develop alliances and partnerships with others!
The International Federation of Home Economics comprises more than 140
professional organisations, associations and institutions of home economics as
well as more than 1,400 individual members from approximately 20 countries in
all five regions of the world.
It is the declared goal of IFHE to create an international forum for
those involved in the training, advising, and research related to home
economics. This forum is dedicated to pushing ahead technical and scientific
issues for the benefit of individual families and households at the level of
the United Nations as well as with other political bodies and to offer
recommendations for policies to be implemented.
The supreme goal of the Federation is to improve the quality of life as
regards daily life choices made by individuals, families and households with
respect to the use of the available resources. Another objective involves
building the awareness that households and families make up the primary
environment for people with respect to their attitudes and the promotion of
life as well as to the development and provision of social human assets for
society as such.
IFHE is a world-wide platform of professional home economists who belong
to their regional, national or local organisations, who provide their time,
their own money, knowledge and skills for others who need them - through
training, advising, carrying out projects not only in their own country but
around the world.
Juanita Mendenhall has carried out some research work to illustrate
where home economists are involved in volunteer work.
Maybe we should suggest to prepare a handbook about volunteerism similar
to what has been decided in Austria.
The objectives can be
·
to give an overview of relevant organisations
in order to inform potential volunteers and interested persons about any
contact points;
·
to make possible inter-organisational networks;
·
public relations and awareness-raising with
respect to the diversity of the commitment, and
·
fund-raising for the voluntary work
·
comprehensive information and transparency with
respect to the advantages and disadvantages of the commitment and about the
services which volunteers provide for the society.
We recognise the high importance of volunteerism and know about the diverse services which volunteers provide for the society on a voluntary basis. However, volunteerism and, in particular, the - mostly freely provided - social services of volunteers must not be taken advantage of as a means of filling empty treasuries. States cannot withdraw from the responsibility they have in many fields (care for the old, disabled and sick, care for socially endangered drug addicts and for people affected by HIV) and simply leave the care of these people and the solution of problems to volunteers and voluntary organisations.
We must also be aware of the limits within which responsibility can be
transferred to private institutions.
Services provided voluntarily and in an honorary capacity must also be
offered in a professional and competent way. This requires appropriate training
and further training, management and communicative, social and technical
competence.
Home economics associations all over the world have certain
responsibilities which they meet and tasks which they fulfil also on a
voluntary basis. Many studies show that there is a lack of the so-called
“everyday competences” such as, for instance, the running of a household with
the goal of healthy nutrition, time and financial management, environmental
issues, market behaviour, and the like, which is also the reason why family and
professional life are hardly compatible and why there are many such conflicts
in families and households. The rising indebtedness of households, increasing
stress, high divorce rates and decreasing birth rates (especially in the
industrialised countries) are all indicators of the insufficient competence to
fulfil everyday tasks. Individualisation, egotistic attitudes and, at the same
time, the higher number of precarious situations encountered in life are
“characteristic features” of the 21st century.
I am aware of the fact that framework conditions (income, gainful work,
living, health, education, environment, climate, ...) differ widely between the
regions of the world and, from the social point of view, can never be
equalised. Nevertheless I am confident that, as home economists, we can help people
to help themselves so that they can better manage the various situations of
life and can cope also with difficult, unexpected situations.
With its many individual members, IFHE must fulfil this task of “helping
people to help themselves” first and foremost by teaching everyday competences
through education, information services, research and science offered to
individuals, families and households as a kind of preventive measure.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you are all members of either AACFS or IFHE your participation in
this Congress alone proves your willingness to provide services voluntarily.
Let us do our best that the good seed which Mr. Annan sowed by
proclaiming the International Year of Volunteers will bear good fruit - for the
benefit and humanity of our society.
1. Bennighoven Cornelia "Zur Zukunft des Ehrenamtes", Pro Familie
2002
2. "Damit der Einsatz auch Wertsch?tzung erf?hrt" Frankfurter Rundschau,
15. Mai 2001
3. http://www.iyv 2001 US www.iyv.2001.us.org
Get involved - built Alliances
4. UN Press Release, SG/SM/7642, 28. November 2000 Secretary General says
important contribution of volunteers often overlooked
5. http://freiwilligenweb.at/pages/npa_hand/index
Handbuch des freiwilligen Engagements in ?sterreich
6. UN Press Release SG /SM/7634, 20. Nov. 2000
7. UN Press Release SG/SM/6118, 3. Dez. 1996
8. UN Resolution adopted by the General Assembly in http://freiwilligenweb.at/pages/int.joints/vereinte_n/resolution_e.html