Young people can learn a lot from volunteering. (source: TASR)
The number of young people interested in volunteering has been increasing. They often lack the opportunity to realise their potential, but they also want to change their way of life or cope with some personal tragedy. They also prefer helping abroad, the volunteering organisations Inex Slovakia and the National Volunteering Centre (CARDO) agree.
Thanks to volunteering, young people make friends and improve their communication and organisational skills. They also become more self-reliant and flexible, the TASR newswire reported.
“They improve their knowledge of foreign languages abroad and are confronted with a new culture,” said Zuzana Vinklerová of CARDO, as quoted by TASR. “This might then be appreciated by their potential employers.”
Apart from young people, working people and seniors also want to help, but they usually focus on the community they live in.
Slovak volunteers often take part in activities in the environmental and social field (help to children and the disabled), but they also carry out reconstruction projects. They attend one-day, weekend, weeks-long and long-term activities.
“About 600 people participated in our projects in 2015,” Miroslava Zváčová from Inex Slovakia told TASR.
Many people also come from abroad to Slovakia, for example, to teach English, Vinklerová added.
Slovaks participating in CARDO projects often lend a hand in European countries, like the states of former Yugoslavia. Via Inex Slovakia, they travel mostly to Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. There is also an interest in Iceland, Zváčová said.
The more experienced volunteers help also outside of Europe, for example in Thailand, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Mexico and Sri Lanka.
