Westerners are absorbed both by the virtual world of the communication cloud and by the bubble in which we have been settling in, bombarded by fears of the God of the markets, who, acting omnipresent and arbitrarily, can throw us into misery or death. Given this, the Arab spring and the new global movement of protests bring new hope. While the cloud encourages us to be distant, the new social movements urge us to occupy the space. We find ourselves struggling between the virtual absence and the human side-by-side friction. What will the role of volunteerism be in the future?
Volunteerism will have to be committed to the people and their social environment. It should encourage us to make voluntary actions that make us regain contact with reality. To achieve this goal we must start by changing ourselves, living and promoting the values that we advocate. Volunteerism has to be active and militant on the new cause.
Society is going from being complicated to being confusing. Our voluntary actions cannot be limited to little welfare-oriented therapies. The social transformation aimed by volunteering can only be achieved through the transformation of the structures that generate marginalization, exclusion and destruction of eco-systems. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly diagnose and formulate new projects for a new social structure. To focus only on interim improvements slows down the process of change.
Volunteerism will have to be present; human-to-human contact is the basis of its action, midst of people going through difficult interim or structural situations. This contact comes from one’s own reality, but it carries respect to the potentialities and energies that the other part may have, enabling him to increase his autonomy and his capacity to transform the social environment. It is a challenge to ensure that the voluntary action is a relation between equals.
In the confusion of our world, volunteering can be a tool of transformation or an obstacle. Which option will we choose?
Originally published by Bloc de xarxanet.org, 08 november 2011
Enric Canet, Director of the Citizen relations Department of the Casal dels Infants, reflects on which will be the role of volunteering in the future. The author stresses that the social transformation promoted by volunteering can only be achieved through the transformation of the structures that generate marginalization, exclusion and destruction of ecosystems.
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