The First Festival Dedicated to Volunteer Workers

Most people doing volunteer work are youngsters. To reward their efforts and dedication, the entire month of April is devoted to them at the Volunteers Fest.

Christine Leșcu, 24.04.2013, 16:24

The European Volunteer Year was first celebrated in 2011. On that occasion, a series of not-so-optimistic statistics were made public. A sociological survey conducted in 2007 revealed that 14.4 per cent of Romania’s population said they’d done volunteer work in the last 12 months. In 2008, according to a public opinion barometer focusing on youngsters, the participation in volunteer activities and the affiliation to nongovernmental organizations stood at an extremely low percentage.

More than half of the youngsters were not willing to take part in nongovernmental organizations as volunteers. More than one third of them expressed their willingness in principle, for volunteering activities, while a small part of them actually participated in the activities. However, most of those doing volunteer work are youngsters, and their numbers have since been growing. And to reward their efforts and dedication, the entire month of April is devoted to them at the first volunteers’ festival –Volunteers’ fest. The volunteers themselves organized the event, through the Volunteer Brigade Association. We sat down and spoke with Cristina Mercioniu, the project manager, herself a student and a volunteer, who told us what was in store for the volunteers in April.

”We have broken down the month of April which is dedicated to them. We started the festival with a play, and we shall also close it with a play. The first performance on April the 1st was entitled “Just a Volunteer” and it was a Forum theatre production. Then the creative week followed with lots of workshops meant to stimulate their creativity, such as origami, fashion design, drawing. Then we carried on with an educational week when we set up several training courses, which included events-organizing courses. Towards the end, we scheduled the applied week, with a contest dedicated to NGOs and the sports week, with the volunteers’ Olympiad. We also have a concert we organized and where we’re going to party all night long. “

Thus the volunteers who actually work during concerts and who cannot enjoy them, have their fair share of the much-coveted relaxation. Furthermore, the festival can also be seen as an incentive for young people to try that activity as well. About other incentives — which so far have not gone beyond the project stage — here is Cristina Mercioniu again.

”Through that project we want to implement a volunteer record book benefiting all volunteers. It is a pilot project we will first implement in the “Volunteers Brigade.” It is a record book which is quite similar to the one a pupil has and where the experience is recorded of a person working as a volunteer, the number of events he took part in. Thus they are more credible when they may wish to sit in for a job interview. Other benefits would be discounts for the public means of transport. Students benefit from such discounts anyway, but volunteers are a different kind of students, they are students who give something back to society, they don’t just wait for discounts”

Set up in 2013, the “Volunteer Brigade” is an association that gathers volunteers for various activities. Ionut Tunaru, who founded the association, attended the festival to share with the younger volunteers some of the tricks that could make their work more efficient.

“An event organizer has contacted me to ask whether I can gather a team of volunteers for a festival. I said yes. I initially thought that I could do it by myself, but I couldn’t. By that time I had already started to set up my own team. I was able to put together a team of volunteers for that event, I collaborated again with the event’s organizer in 2009 and as of 2010 we have worked with other organizers. The number of volunteers is quite impressive. I believe we have 800 people in our data base, who already take part in various events.”

There are several advantages that volunteer work brings. Ionut Tunaru: “They acquire some new skills and manage to put into practice some of their ideas. It’s easier for them to get a job later, not necessarily in the same field. They know how to work in a more effective manner. Everything has to be effective, because if someone is late, that prevents another 30 or 40 people from doing their job properly. So everything has to be done quickly and properly.”

Volunteer work is also a great opportunity for young people to spend more time with people of the same age, in a different environment. This is exactly the story of Andreia, a 1st year student with the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, who also works with the “Volunteer Brigade”.

“I started working as a volunteer during my first year at the university. There are many associations that recruit students within the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies anyway. I liked them because they were full of life. I didn’t understand from the very beginning why everybody wanted to work as a volunteer. I hadn’t worked as a volunteer before but when I saw them I realized I wanted to join them at various events. I really like doing this job.”

The last event within the “Volunteers Fest” was scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th, a day of concerts given by bands of young musicians.