Community volunteers deserve recognition COMMUNITY volunteers have become an important factor in service delivery, especially at community level. They therefore deserve recognition and support. We are happy to note that the government has recognised their role as important partners in the delivery of services to the people. Although they have rarely been acknowledged community volunteers have been in existence for a long time in Zambia. They have served as an important link between the service providers and the communities, which are the beneficiaries. We agree with Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health Emerine Kabanshi that there is need for the government and other stakeholders to ensure the community volunteers work in the most effective way. The Zambian society cannot ignore the existence of these patriotic citizens, who daily sacrifice their time to do tedious work for which they are not paid a salary. Sometimes they have to walk long distances on foot without food. Some of them have been doing work meant for full-time staff who are paid comfortable monthly salaries and all kinds of allowances. In view of the current shortage of staff in various government institutions the community volunteers have come in handy to bridge the gap. We welcome the attention these important foot soldiers are receiving from organisations such as the Volunteers Overcoming Poverty (VSO), which has conducted research on the role of volunteers. The volunteers should know that their sweat and sacrifices are not going unnoticed. As Ms Kabanshi said the community volunteers have been helping to provide essential support and delivering of services to communities in the various sectors. Some of the areas that have benefited most from the sacrificial work of community volunteers are health, community development and social welfare. The research conducted by VSO on the work of community volunteers brought out some curious findings. According to the NGO’s project development manager Robert Wootton, women dominate volunteerism in urban areas while the work is mostly done by men in rural areas. Mr Wootton said 80 percent of community volunteers in the urban districts are women while men account for the majority in rural areas. These statistics have a bigger story to tell. It appears women have more time to dedicate to voluntary community work in the urban districts because their spouses may be away at work. Another possibility could be that because of different socio-economic dynamics obtaining in the urban communities many women are engaged in their own sources of income and are therefore able to divide their time. On the other hand, their counterparts in the rural districts are weighed down by gender-influenced chores such as working in the fields and looking after the family. And because most men are not in formal employment and have fewer gender-assigned roles, they have enough time to spend on doing community work. These are just our own assumptions, but what we are trying to say is that socio-economic conditions have a bearing on community volunteerism. So any organisation that wants to get the best out of community volunteers should first study the culture and demographics of the areas they are targeting. This will help ensure the beneficiary communities get the best out of the volunteers while at the same time create a favaourable environment for them to be effective. For a long time the community volunteers have been exploited as a source of cheap labour by some organisations. They are forced to do more work than they can handle without any living allowance. Some of them have been working for the whole day without lunch and forced to walk long distances when transport could make their work less taxing. Let the community volunteers, those selfless foot soldiers, get the recognition and respect they deserve.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:10:32 +0000
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