Essay From Lithuania

Volunteering and intergenerational solidarity

Volunteers are people who voluntarily perform useful work without receiving any pay. Volunteering in general can be considered as an altruistic activity, which is intended to promote the sharing of knowledge, personal experience and to erase the gap between various age, race and sex groups.

The best thing you can give to someone during your lifetime is your time, because you‘re giving them something that you will never getback. Voluntary work can be lucrative not only for people around us, but it also can be of great use for the volunteer herself or himself. Young people in Lithuania usually volunteer for several main reasons. One of which is the opportunity to learn new skills and get to know their social life in order to develop their personal and professional skills. It‘s also a great way for young people to test themselves in their chosen field of study or profession. The possibility to test the way that you are about to choose, the job that you are going to do for the rest of your life is a great gift and volunteering offers people this chance. Work for which one doesn‘t demand any pay unites people of various age groups, creates a bond of trust and respect amongst them.

Working in a team, working individually and hard work in general creates an independent, responsible and a caring member of our society. For example, some Karalius Mindaugas vocational training center students together with the red cross go and visit senior citizens, who simply need help in doing common housework or just need their shopping done. One of the responsibilities of volunteers from our school is to also provide moral support for those who lack it. Some volunteers go to Kaunas clinics oncology department and try to raise the spirit of the patient‘s by chatting, telling jokes, or just listening to the patients life story. 

Age doesn‘t really play an important role here. We also go to orphanages and spend time with children. An hour or two a day can really improve their life. This short period of time still is very important. The best reward for us is to see the smiling faces of the children.

One has to keep in mind that one of the most beautiful facts about volunteering is that it doesn‘t have any boudaries or restrictions. A volunteer can help people in the morning and spend his or her evening in an animal shelter feeding, playing and petting animals that do not have owners.

This is why we take part in various projects where we help people, animals or just raise the awareness of a healthy life style and a clean environment. Help comes in many forms, and we believe that volunteering is one of the ways to accomplish what we are supposed to accomplish in this life time. We volunteer because we not only want to see the world but to make a difference in it. By helping others, who seriously need help we become not only better people, but we also create a nicer society, which we believe, should be united by love and respect for all of its memebers. So, let us all join together and help people, help animals, help the world see the beautiful side of life.