E-Magazine April 2022
7th May 2022
What would you change about the world?
20th June 2022

The benefits of volunteering

The benefits of volunteering are multiple and varied. From helpping the community- or even changing the world- to providing better job prospects, volunteering seems to have a lot of benefits.

Apart from the ones mentioned, volunteering can have many benefits. We have asked Orfeas volunteers personally to know what they think about the benefits of volunteering and we have compiled this list:

  1. Maeve, 23, France. ‘’One of the main benefits of being a volunteer is that we take part in a project which helps people. We feel helpful and we feel connected to others. We learn about ourselves and it makes us more open-minded because it confronts us with things we’re not used to do, and it confronts us to other ways of thinking.’’
  2. Burak, 19, Turkey. ‘’First of all you are spending your time for positive things. For example cleaning the beach or cleaning the forest is really valuable and peaceful work. Second of all you are learning how to help people. Third of all with volunteering you can see different cities and countries. Also you can improve your English and meet new people!’’
  3. Merl, 19, Germany. ‘’Volunteering has several benefits. For example, you improve your english skills. Then, you are facing difficulties and learning how to deal with them. You are also learning about a new culture by living side by side with them and getting in touch with local people. You also develop your character and discover new things, not only from Greece but from other volunteers as well. You meet a lot of people, with the possibility of having new friendships and relationships. Lastly, you learn to love the freedom you have to do voluntary work’’
  4. Samanta, 27, Lithuania. I think that volunteering offers you tons of knowledge about living abroad, and puts you in challenging situations. For instance, you learn how to organize your finances, live in an apartment with different cultural people, and learn to understand a local community from that country’s perspective. Volunteering is a good start for understanding if you can live abroad alone, far from your family, and be independent.
  5. Clemence, 19, France. International volunteering is a human experience. Volunteering abroad is an unique opportunity to serve as citizen of the world. You improve not only your professional and linguistic skills, but also your personal skills because we are constantly learning about ourselves (how open we are, maturity, openness to love, confidence in onself, ability to live in community). With experience abroad we will also improve our CV. Finally, it is an opportunity to discover a new country and culture and an opportunity to meet multiple people, even make friends and go back home with wonderful memories.