What is the essence of life? To serve others and do good
- Aristotle
Aristotle's words still ring true 2300 years later. Especially in times like these where everything seems uncertain, donating your time to others is especially valuable. From helping out your family to fostering change in underdeveloped countries, there are so many ways that you can volunteer while still staying safe at home.
First, you can help out isolated elderly. Older generations are at a much higher risk during this pandemic and helping them feel safe and happy during quarantine is imperative. You could do start to do this by calling an elderly relative. If you hate calling people on the phone (like me), here are some ideas to foster good conversation: ask about their day, ask about recipes in the family that you could cook together online, ask about other family members, tell them about important milestones in your life.
Additionally, if you don't mind calling people, you could reach out to elderly outside of your family through Calling Care. Calling Care is a service in which volunteers call isolated elderly. Volunteers make sure their charges are healthy and just have good conversation with them.
Secondly, as the United States economy slows and sick patients pile up, both local essential businesses and hospitals need your help. You can help those working the front line and exposing themselves to COVID-19 every day by making goodybags for the nurses at your local hospital. You can make cards for your local firestation; their jobs haven't stopped and they continue to risk their lives to save others. You can buy a giftcard from your local restaurant. Local restaurants need support as their customer base is nearly all gone.
Here's an example of a nurse who created Relief Goodbags for other nurses working with COVID-19 patients
Thirdly, you can volunteer with United Nations Volunteers. The United Nations has long promoted peace and development through volunteerism. According to Vincenzo Aquaro, who works in the UN department of social and economic affairs, "online volunteers provide an excellent service to the UN, but also [gain] significant knowledge and experience, making it a win-win situation." The UN volunteer initiative allows volunteers to pick out their skills, whether it be writing or even project development and management. After that, they can then choose projects under that skill. For instance, one project under the writing and editing skill was volunteering to proofread a training guide for UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research.) Each project has a time stamp of the estimated amount of time it would take to finish.
Fourthly, you can promote global change through Amnesty International. Amnesty International is a global movement dedicated to creating a world where everyone has equal rights. Volunteers can help online by looking at their take action page (linked below) which features situations around the world in which human rights are violated. With this new knowledge, volunteers can foster change by writing to Ministers of Justice, calling journalists, and spreading awareness of these situations themselves. For instance, in Greece, refugees on the islands are facing inhumane conditions. They are packed into camps with limited access to water and an increasing risk to the coronavirus. You can help by sending a message to the Prime Minister of Greece and urging him to ensure that these people have the supplies that they need. Finally, you can volunteer for ground-breaking research right at home with Zooinverse. Zooinverse is a platform for people-powered research that is made possible by volunteers who assist professional researchers. Through Zooinverse, you can volunteer on multitudes of different projects. For instance, if you're interested in biology, you can participate in a project called Bash the Bug, which fights resistance against antibiotics. You will have two tasks, both of which require you to identify which wells in a provided picture have bacteria growth. All of the tasks are pretty self-explanatory, but are also explained in depth through a tutorial sidebar. Bash the Bug: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mrniaboc/bash-the-bug You can also volunteer as a beta tester. This means signing up to work through a beta project by checking for any bugs and filling out a questionnaire at the end. Additionally, you can volunteer as a project moderator. If you have a little more insight about a certain project, you can contact the project owner and moderate discussions about the project. You can become the contact for a certain project. I am so excited with how so many different outreach programs are adapting to work online, and I hope we can continue in this direction. As always if you try out any of these volunteer opportunities, make sure to send me an email as to how it went. I would love to hear your feedback! Sincerely, Sarah Mathew
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3 Comments
Elizabeth V.
4/29/2020 03:04:06 pm
These are some great ideas for my highschooler to look at! Thanks for sharing and great job of keeping us informed Sarah!
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Elsa M
4/29/2020 04:59:53 pm
There's alot of information here. As someone who works in the healthcare field and involved in educating students, I didn't realize that there were so many opportunities available. Thank you.fpe gathering them together.
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Liam A.
4/30/2020 12:30:55 pm
Great article Sarah! Thanks for highlighting all of the great volunteer opportunities available right now, I'll have to go check them out. Personally, I've been making and distributing cloth masks in my community. It's a great way to get involved :)
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AuthorMy name is Sarah Mathew and I was a junior in high school when this pandemic hit. I wanted to help my community in the best way I knew how: writing. Archives
December 2020
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