Hello everyone! Today we are here with another contributor, who is going to share with you his experience with volunteering in his country Italy! Pietro is someone who I’ve only come to know recently, but his enthusiasm towards doing community service has been something that I’ve come to greatly admire. Anyways, I hope that through this, you will be able to realize the importance of volunteering, and that even though the process itself can be challenging, overall it can bring great benefits to you as well as your community!
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Since the beginning of this year’s summer break I’ve been volunteering at a local organization that helps children doing their summer schoolwork. From the 2000s on, immigrants have come to Italy from all corners of the world: from South America, South Asia, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe, in search for better conditions to work and live. Indeed my country has social and economic struggles (high public debt, little to no growth, political fragility), and Italians are one when it comes to complaining about it. However, volunteering helped me note how things could be much worse. In many countries people are still struggling to have their basic rights respected. This led me to think of how grateful I am and I naturally felt like engaging in community work.
In Italy, public education is almost entirely free, and Italian tutoring classes hosted by volunteers and professionals for adults are free too. On the other hand, about one out of two of teachers (48%) in Italy are aged 50 and above (OECD average 34%): these teachers are simply too old to find effective approaches to everchanging students’ demographics and many children are left behind, who eventually stop their studies.
I joined this small organization because my grandma is a friend of the founder; we help children from disadvantaged backgrounds, whose households often speak little to no Italian, and therefore can’t help children doing or checking their homework, which is common use here. We meet in the afternoons in the garden behind a local church, bring benches and tables outside, help kids with their homework for around two hours, then we give them a snack and play. Unbothered by a 40-degree hot sun, these kids are diligent and dedicated, studying during the summer, but sometimes they still stay behind, not speaking Italian at home. They’re all unique, all have their stories, they are so happy to be helped and to be playing together.
Without much to yap about, these children are unfortunate. Each year many families undertake perilous journeys to Europe. Some have navigated the mediterranean by inflatable boats. Each year, Many Africans can’t make it to the other strand. Some have traveled all the way from Pakistan or Bangladesh, losing relatives on the way. However, they mostly just don’t bother to think that through - they are children like any other! They know Italian pop songs by heart, watch YouTube, play football etc. These children are happy and grateful.
The challenge is that each of them has different attitudes, strengths and weaknesses in their studies. Some can focus for two hours, some not even for a SINGLE minute and that’s when it’s most frustrating. Some have a first language that’s not on Google Translate, like the Senegalese kids that speak Wolof.
There’s this Chinese girl I’ve been helping because she speaks no Italian and I know some Mandarin. Studying Chinese myself, I know about how different it is to Italian. Italian has tens of grammar elements that don’t exist in any Chinese dialect. I made some sheets for her but she didn’t understand them: I felt frustrated, thinking I have lost both my time and hers. Don’t do my mistake: don’t get so attached to them, learning takes time and they are still children. Also, you’re volunteering!
ALWAYS remember you are not expected to be a professional or the perfect volunteer: organizations have so much work to do they are looking for people offering ANY kind or amount of help. Also, since you’re providing unpaid service - schedules are often reaaally flexible - they know it’s demanding! Whatever you’re thinking of volunteering for (homeless shelters, environmental cleanups, tutoring and mentoring, animal shelters, etc.) - stay assured that the work will be tiring (and rewarding) but don’t worry, you will NOT be enslaved.
Another thing people often mistake is that there’s an age at which you should volunteer. That’s NOT true. I have a friend of mine, he is 15, and he helps at a medical assistance association. They receive calls so often (support for the elderly, ambulance service, help to marginalized groups, or in case of floods and other natural disasters) that any kind of help is as precious as gold.
Wherever you live, I’m sure opportunities of community work and volunteering surround you. I strongly encourage you to try something out - in the worst of cases you’ll have lost time for something meaningful!
Opportunities can be found several ways:
- Extracurriculars websites, such as https://www.snow.day, offer a list of community service opportunities.
- If you are a citizen of the EU, the European Youth Portal offers access to volunteering programs in Europe and beyond.
- If you’re over 18, check out worldpackers.
- Depending on where you live, volunteering opportunities are listed on different websites: research your own niche!
However, I’d mainly suggest asking people you know for nearby opportunities and reaching out. Real volunteering is done close to your OWN community: you don’t need to spend loads of bucks to go abroad. I also suggest you not to do this for your resumé only. Volunteering is a valuable experience that, for how cliché it can sound, can change your life!
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