How to survive a volunteering service
I’ve always wanted to be a
volunteer. To give people something, to learn, to help, to be available. An
opportunity shaped up: to be a volunteer in the village of Vivares, in
Extremadura, within European Voluntary Service.
I arrived there in february and for
the following six months, I experienced the best of the human soul – working
with kind and welcoming people and receiving solidarity and affection from my
neighbours. However, I also suffered the worst treatment from the host
organization, Cerujovi (Asociación Centro Rural Joven Vida) – which, after
violating my mail, humiliating me and hurting my intimacy, put me on the street
without money and under threat, denying me the payment of my travel back to my
country as well as the return of the expense of gasoil I had put in their car.
I resisted, I survived.
I was able to survive but if they
treat their volunteers like this, I wonder what risks their employees might incur
in and above all the people they are expected to protect – they are especially
vulnerable because of their age or their disabilities… I am afraid of what
might happen to them, because I couldn’t see any effective supervision that can
protect them.
Boy/Girl: if, like me, you have
always dreamt of being a volunteer, let me give you some advice so you can
survive better than me:
Don’t
show you can understand or speak Spanish. If you already master the language
(or when you do) use that ability only to know the country and the people better,
but for Cerujovi keep pretending that
you neither understand nor speak Spanish. This way you will save yourself from
some humiliation. But if you are interested in travelling across the country,
learning about its people and their heritage, you ought to do it by yourself,
since Cerujovi won’t introduce you to anything. You will see there are so many
things to discover in Extremadura and Spain… so much to fall in love with. It
is really a shame that Cerujovi makes an effort to make so many volunteers
leave the service with an idea of Spain far more negative than it should be.
It
is better you don’t speak nor think. You must just smile, agree with
everything. Don’t make any suggestions, don’t take any initiative. If there is
no work to do, make yourself comfortable with the dolce fare niente. Adapt, because you will need your adaptability capacity
to stand up with cockroaches and mice in your accommodation, to have cold water
showers in winter, to live with lack of money for food, because they don’t pay
you on time, to have your letters opened and having the supervisors entering
your home and your bedroom without knocking on the door, to watch your intimate
belongings when you are out.
Remember
the dummy models in the shop window? They don’t eat, don’t speak, don’t think,
but they smile all the time – these are the ideal volunteers. It is true that
shopwindow dummies don’t work either, but that is what matters the least. Keep
not thinking, because if Cerujovi pays you your statutory holiday, it’s certainly
because they make a profit with it…
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário