Volunteer Opportunity - Paid Trip to Russia

[Alina Israeli]

>Probably; I just would love to explain about volunteers - why there is not
>enough local help. The reason, besides the one that Alina Israeli pointed
>earlier (to volunteer, you have to have an income), is that in NIS there is
>no place to which people can go with (or through) volunteer work.

This is not exactly the reason. I believe the reason there is vulonteering
in the US is rooted in reformation and protestant church when "good works"
were part of punishment of sinners, and good works were designed to show it
outwardly by caring for the sick and the hungry. I am not a specialist in
religious history, but I am willing to speculate that it spread from there.

As for places to work, there are plenty of sick and plenty of hungry,
except no one is going to admit it. There are homeless who need to be fed.
And then of course there are orphans.

>In the US,
>at least part of volunteers do it to gain experience which they may not have
>otherwise, or get connections, or a good entry in their resumes (sometimes,
>volunteer work may even lead to employment). In other words, volunteer work
>is a regular part of how social institutions are made.  In NIS, volunteer
>work and formal structures hardly ever overlap, and a line in a resume that
>one volunteered in, say, vosstanovlenie Solovetskogo monastyrya, has only
>"moral value".

Working for "habitat for humanity" (by association with the monastery) has
nothing but "moral value" plus a home for someone who needs one.

Volunteering is done not only in hopes of a job but also after retiring, if
there is desire to do so. My grandfather worked for free (now we would say
volunteered) at a TB clinic near-by after he retired. Where there is will,
there is a way. But there is no tradition.

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076

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