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Social Capital and Volunteers*
*The ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed are not necessarily of the OAS nor of its member states. The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors.
1. Do you currently participate in or would you be interested in
participating in some sort of volunteer work?
I
currently coordinate the area of "Actions with the Community" in a
company in Argentina. Throughout the past year we have implemented a
Corporative Volunteer Program in different provinces of Argentina
where the goal is to carry out projects in which the managers are the
employees themselves in conjunction with their communities' social
institutions.
I
currently work as a volunteer in an organization with a program of
social control.
I am
not currently involved in this type of work but am greatly interested
in this type of activity!
I am
very interested in working as a volunteer in the area of community
management of the environment.
Through
the years I have participated as a volunteer in several fields. In the
90's I started working with many organizations in the area of health.
My work as a volunteer is in prevention and education, specially in
the field of HIV/AIDS. The volunteer work is a very important way to
help the socio-political movements and an extraordinary way to learn
new key abilities. Today, I work as a volunteer in a board of
directors of a preparatory school in my neighborhood, and although I
have more experience in non-profit organizations, prevention, and
health education I greatly enjoy contributing in whatever activity I
can.
2. Do you think that actions for mobilizing
volunteers could help to unite society?
The
volunteer actions favor the social integration as all the social
actors agree upon objectives and different ways to work together in
order to consolidate social networks, improves association and
generates trust, which are basic components for the development of
social capital.
Yes,
if we integrate our efforts and willingness to work together we can
achieve all our objectives.
Volunteers
are the pillar that make possible the movement and integration of a
variety of groups in a community.
Yes,
the volunteer work is a social process, permanent and dynamic, through
which such organizations can contribute and decide upon aspects of the
development in question.
Yes,
in a world full of problems the volunteer participation is key in
helping us become more united and enabling us to fight against
poverty, so that developing countries are able to acquire a better
quality of life.
3. What role do you think volunteer work should play in the
solution of problems faced by the countries of the region?
Undoubtedly
the volunteer work begins to play a key role in the active participation of the
communities to the solution of their problems.
First,
we need to involve all the sectors of the civil society in paying
attention and searching for solutions to the problems faced by the
more vulnerable groups of society.