Rome (Italy). On 5 December 2024, International Volunteer Day is celebrated, established by the UN Assembly in 1985, to recognize and promote the work of volunteers from around the world who – individually or through communities, organizations, associations – are committed to meeting the urgent challenges for the development of peoples and for the common good.
“Volunteering is a ‘disruptive force’ that allows you to go outside the box to achieve something.” This is the statement of Pope Francis, taken from the video-message to the volunteers of WYD 2023, which has always been the conviction on which the Mission of VIDES (International Volunteer Service Women Education Development) and the Foundation for Youth Volunteering and Solidarity Onlus (FVGS):
“Promote youth volunteering as a means of forming young people to build a fraternal and supportive society in which human rights and common goods are respected, with a view to sustainable development.”
After the VIDES International Conference of 2022, it was also necessary to transform the role of the volunteer from protagonist to promoter, thus forming young promoters of socio-cultural change.
Volunteering, in the style of VIDES, understands and clearly expresses the concept of care: there can be no life if there is no attention to the care of life.
VIDES and the FVGS, drawing on the values of Salesian spirituality, wish to educate to gratuitousness and creativity, in the joy rooted in love, in life, and with the confidence that in each person there is potential for growth and maturity. Volunteering is, therefore, a gradual path rich in humanity, open to a universal panorama in continuous mobility.
Another fundamental aspect to be stressed is that the experience of volunteering – accompanied as a life process and followed with care, participation, and attention – is also a valid proposal for the socio-political formation of today’s young people, to whom a horizon of meaning and commitment is offered.
Volunteer service, as recalled by the Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, “It is an opportunity for education to active and responsible citizenship, which concerns itself with the present and future of society and the entire human family, with the intention of promoting quality of life, healthy relationships, and care of the common home” (Guidelines for the formation of young people, 2024).
Through VIDES International, one can live an experience of volunteering abroad for a longer or shorter period, during which one serves within a Salesian Mission, discovering values such as solidarity, communion, listening, and acting for others.
In 2023, 3224 VIDES volunteers worked in 38 Countries, promoting a more just world for all, where the rights of everyone are respected.
Alongside the VIDES volunteers, there are also the FVGS ETS Universal Civil Service volunteers. In the last year, 33 FVGS volunteer workers have served for a period of about 10 months in the Salesian Missions in Madagascar, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic promoting through their work, the right to study for the most vulnerable sections of the population.
After having served abroad, the volunteers change, mature, and grow, as emerges from the words of Greta, a volunteer in Madagascar:
“Before leaving, I was told many times that when I returned, I would be a different person. Spoiler: it’s true. Day by day, I felt more and more that something inside me was changing, evolving. And how could it have been different after all I met here. The children, full of their pure love, filled my days with screams, laughter, games, and even some drama at times. The Sisters, immediately captured by our better selves, that they brought to light every day, even when we were not wanting to see it. The people and their culture, sometimes so opposed by our realities that it becomes something unique and fascinating. The beauty of places, but any place, every detail, even the smallest, that captures you, sometimes makes you still and steady, almost unable to define what is flowing inside you; but probably not needing to be known. And the people who have accompanied me on this journey. All those who have been a support; those I have known and revalued over time; those who have been sincere friends; who have been for me inspiration, a turning point or a starting point; those that I have sometimes detested. Thank you for being part of this change. What I have found here will accompany me to any part of the world that I may be, I am sure, and it will always be a part of me.”
And it is true. The experience of volunteering has the disruptive power to change people, to make them see the world with different eyes, and to make them understand the beauty of fraternity.
“Volunteers embody the best part of humanity. On this important day, be inspired by them, by their example, and commit to do your part in building a better world for all!” These are the words of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to whom VIDES International and FVGS ETS join in celebrating this important day.
