Great volunteering ideas

The questions you must ask yourself when deciding what charity work you want to do include:

• How big of a difference do you want to make?
• What is my target audience, who do I want to help?
• What do I have to contribute?
• What am I prepared to do?

You need to find an volunteering/charity opportunity that fits your personality. If you are a more 'outdoorsy' type, you probably want to consider volunteering to help with a camp for homeless kids or children's homes. If you are a good organiser, you would probably want to launch a project to collect teddybears, clothes or tinned foods for homeless shelters.

Here follows a few ideas you would want to consider when deciding where to make a difference:

1. Volunteer at your local food bank helping collect, organize, and pass out food. 
2. Plant a community garden. 
3. Start a drive to collect supplies for needy school children. 
4. Go to the less fortunate communities and teach children to read. 
5. Visit your local old age home and help out the elders by reading to them, singing to them, taking them for walks, and visit them for tea.... 
6. Volunteer at the SPCA to help animals in need, volunteer to bath animals, feed them, and take them for walks... 
7. Volunteer at your local community center to teach the youth something you know well, like karate, guitar playing, drawing, and painting... 
8. Organise a car wash and donate the funds raised to a charity in your community. 
9. Volunteer at your local food bank helping collect, organize, and pass out food. 
10. Start a drive to collect small change to buy Bibles for the children in less fortunate communities.

Source: http://www.bygpub.com/books/tg2rw/volunteer.htm | http://www.squidoo.com/50-summer-volunteer-ideas-for-kids-and-teens

The Importance of doing Charity work in your Community

When you are involved in certain charities like rebuilding a home, donating your clothes, fundraising for people with disabilities etc, you make a more personal connection with the person or people you are helping. You can also be a source of inspirations for the community. You could start a fundraising program to fight certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart diseases etc or a particular cause which could inspire others and spur the community into action.

Through charity work you help people with the skills that they normally take for granted like teaching them to cook healthy and nutritious meals, or minimize their food expenses, teach nutrition basics to families. You can also teach teenagers and adult the new career skills that are in demand. Charities work teaches you humility when you volunteer for a particular cause, or helping the disabled you appreciate the challenges they undergo daily and the motivation and drive that need everyday to their work. When you work with charity it gives you a new perspective, there could be school which lack enough funds and teachers are laid off, or working with under privileged kids who are susceptible to harm because of economic hardships. Only to name a few.

There are numerous jobs for charity that an individual can do to improve the community. The rewards of helping your community through charity last longer than money. The more you are able and ready to give your skills , talents and time to a cause in which you believe the more you will make a connection with your community and other people. Charity work also teaches us the significance of a simple gesture, you will be in a habit of giving others and appreciations. You should know that with charity you make as much as you would in businesses but they other rewards. So when you decide to work for a charity keep your eyes open wide to the vast genuine needs of the world.

Charity work is not only about making a difference in your community, it makes you a better person too. It helps you realise what you have, and how fortunate you are. Charity work is not charity work if you don't do it out of love and care for your neighbour in need. You do not have to raise millions of rands for charity to make a difference, you can make a difference by taking something small, like a loaf of bread, and make sandwiches to feed at least 5 people. It may not be the greatest sacrifice, but it is still a difference. It is all about giving within your means. It is like Mother Theresa said:
“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

Helping Hands

This event will be hosted at a public space next to Academy’s hostel in Maree Street Bellville on the 2^nd of November 2013. It is organised by the SRC’s Outreach Portfolio. Any/all students, close friends and lecturers are invited to attend and participate in this event. We are expecting approximately 60 children and 20 adults from various safe houses and community outreach projects in the Northern suburbs of Cape Town. 

For further details, please contact Danielle Neveling at 079 527 4266 or email her at daninev06@gmail.com