On Volunteering
Review of a book by Susan E. Gibson
By C. Naseer Ahmad
Washington, DC
Service to the community is a blessing for which we should seek no reward. This is what I heard community elders say, as a young boy. So, when there was a call to dig trenches, as part of civil defense during the 1965 war, I was among the teenage ‘razakaars’ – volunteers rolling up my sleeves. I do remember that some of the tools were taller than me, but my motivation was taller still.
My brothers-in-law have taken time off from their medical practices in US and gone overseas as medical volunteers to serve humanity. My family and I are not alone; community service is an innate human desire, and is often achieved by devoting time and labor to help usually in times of distress like natural disasters or man-made calamities caused by armed conflicts, for example.
A founding moment for an organized mass movement to volunteer came on October 14, 1960, at the University of Michigan, when as a presidential candidate John F. Kennedy issued a challenge, to about 10,000 students waiting to hear him speak. How many of them would be willing to serve their country and peace by living and working in the developing world? The strong and swift reaction to this challenge led to the creation of the Peace Corps.
In the six decades since its inception, over 240,000 volunteers have served overseas through the Peace Corps. Some of the volunteers later became diplomats, US senators and business leaders. Among the famous volunteers was Ms Lillian Gordy Carter. At age 68, she volunteered to work through the Peace Corps. For 21 months in India, she aided patients with leprosy.
Ms Carter did not seek fame when she volunteered. Rather, she became famous after her son Jimmy Carter became the 39 th US President.
Not all the volunteers who want to go overseas and serve have the benefit of the training provided by a US government-backed organization like the Peace Corps. Additionally, sometimes organizations with a profit motive have come into existence that exploit the volunteers as well the communities they claim to serve.
Looking back on my brief volunteering efforts overseas, how I wish I was better prepared to serve.
Fortunately for those who want to volunteer, there is now a wonderful book by Susan E. Gibson, that is a valuable practical guide. This a valuable book, written authoritatively by an expert with deep insights through decades of experience around the world, which should be read by anyone planning to volunteer for overseas projects. It will be helpful for parents of the idealistic young who are eager to venture out to change the world.
The foreword for this book is written by a pioneer and a Nobel Laureate, Professor Mohammad Yunus, who in fact changed the world by founding the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which used microfinance to break the shackles of poverty for women in Bangladesh and then around the world. He pulls the reader with immense gravitational force so that it is difficult to put the book down until you have absorbed the material succinctly noted in the 200 or so pages that follow.
Divided into four parts and a total ten (10) focused chapters, Gibson provides a comprehensive view of the landscape. The thought-provoking lead ins to each chapter makes the reader want to know more. For instance, the first part discusses the decision to volunteer abroad, and the first chapter addresses the motivation, which begins with a quote from Pablo Picasso: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” In addressing motivation, Gibson asks the aspiring volunteer to ponder over some basic questions such as: “why do you want to volunteer and go overseas?”
Very candidly Gibson suggests: “Be honest with yourself, right from the start” and then asks, “what volunteering are you doing right now in your community?” With such questions, she prepares the readers that the realities of the world often will crash into the unbridled enthusiasm of the idealistic.
Gibson is right, there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer in your community. Consider my 90 years young friend Jay Finkel, who after retiring from senior positions in the federal government and his law practice, volunteered for very long time - welcoming the visitors at Washington Dulles Airport, the National Air and Space Museum, recording for the blind and lawyering for the National Public Radio. He stopped volunteering recently, mostly due to the pandemic.
Turning through the pages, the readers will find that Gibson motivates aspiring volunteers to find their gifts in life and sharing them in a meaningful manner with a realistic chance of success. Organizations like the Peace Corps, with substantial budgets train the volunteers before going overseas, just like they trained Ms Carter for three months before her travel to India. Undoubtedly, such organizations have prepared field manuals for their volunteers. But it is doubtful that such manuals will contain the rich material information detailed in this delightful book.
Chances are slim that an aspiring volunteer wanting to “Save the Children,” in faraway places, will find the following fax - titled “Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due” - in a field manual prepared by some obscure bureaucrat of a large well-funded organization.
“Dear Mum, I am in Tete, the northern part of Mozambique, near the borders of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia … You’ve been supportive of all my endeavors… even when it meant travelling to some remote places around the world…I feel lucky to have found a profession for which I have a passion and one that takes advantage of my interests in traveling, banking, training and people…I am grateful for your support a career off the beaten track…”
Motivation without an action plan and follow-up are destined for disappointment. To help avert failure, Gibson wrote one of the closing chapters entitled “Time to Get to Work” with useful tips that enhance the chances of success. But she doesn’t leave you hanging out there because Part 4 of the book contains some words of wisdom on “Readjusting to Life Back Home.”
In the season of giving, this book could be a wonderful gift from loving parents to their aspiring kids or from caring friends to their loved ones.
