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Have you ever thought that through your computer you can help to change the world? No kidding this can actually happen, and it’s happening right at this moment all around the world. Hitting your keyboard can save a life in Africa; using your Internet connection can help an orphan who lost his parents in the tsunami. You can just volunteer online.
For a long time people thought that volunteering only meant charity work like helping orphans, elderly people, poor people, and so on. But now we have V4D (Volunteer for Development). And you can V4D online and complete the tasks that you volunteer for via the Internet from your home, work, university, Cyber Café or tele-center computer. For example, a volunteer in Canada could translate documents for an organization serving youth in Latin America, or a university student in Malaysia could help design a Web site for a local organization in Africa (and perhaps with other volunteers from Europe and North America).
So instead of sitting in front of your computer screen for hours, staring at video clips or wasting your time chatting about useless things, use your computer for humanity causes.
Don’t complain anymore that you have free time and you don’t know how to use it. Now you can use your hobbies and free time to achieve real things. Are you a talented Web designer? Then apply for an assignment to design a Web site for a young organization that doesn’t have enough resources to hire a professional designer. Are you studying for a degree in marketing or public relations? Practice during the summer whatever techniques you’ve learned to promote activities of an organization in Asia, for example. A housewife can spend just one hour a day preparing a contact list of donors for a growing NGO in Africa instead of spending her empty hours in chat rooms.
People addicted to the Internet and keyboard can use this opportunity to make contact with people all around the world, but this time to team up against poverty, illness, or illiteracy.
Through online volunteering you will be exposed to different cultures and lifestyles while sitting on your chair at home, talking to new people and exchanging views and ideas. There’s no need to drive your car or take transportation. Some people may want to volunteer but find that they can’t in the traditional way, possibly because of family commitments or maybe disabilities. So online volunteering is suitable for them.
Online volunteering assignments may vary: translating documents, researching topics, creating Web pages, editing and preparing proposals and press releases, contributing to curricula, developing databases, designing graphics, offering legal or business expertise, tutoring students, mentoring young people, moderating online discussion groups, managing other online volunteers, and more tasks that suit every talent and wish.
Everyone can volunteer: online doctors, engineers, students, housewives, handicapped people, elderly people, teenagers, men or women living anywhere in the world, either in a developing or a developed country. Simply anyone who has an Internet connection.
Online volunteering is a chance for all of us as Muslims to mingle with other people around the world to show them the real essence of Islam. How? The idea of online volunteering depends heavily on commitment to finish the assignments on time. This a chance to show people who have negative views of Islam that Muslims are committed, positive, and want to make the world a better place to live in.
But why do organizations want volunteers across continents? Read the following:
We have nine volunteers in our “Consultant on HIV/AIDS and Youth Development Project.” They provided us with many materials about HIV/AIDS prevention and care. They advised us on how to conduct youth seminars and debates. We learn many things from them, and they gave us many international institutional contacts, which help us to have a wide knowledge about HIV/AIDS. We have 60 volunteers editing booklets on HIV/AIDS. Through this program I think the UN will achieve the goals to empower people, especially those who live in extreme poverty around the world.
(Tanzania Media and Youth Development Project)
Online volunteers may have skills, talents, and resources that organizations in poor communities may not have. This gives the organization the chance to focus primarily on serving its community effectively without the disturbing feeling that it lacks the resources. It can make use of additional knowledge and talents and more volunteers without worrying about how to provide places for them.
Agencies and organizations using online volunteering services vary:
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grass-roots organizations (GROs), registered/recognized community initiatives, and other not-for-profit organizations (NPOs), institutions, and initiatives in developing countries
- NGOs/NPOs anywhere working to support communities in developing countries (including onsite volunteers in those countries)
- Academic institutions (schools, universities) engaged in support for communities in developing countries
- UN agencies, country offices, and UN volunteers themselves
- Networks supporting any of the above
There is a long list of Web sites that provide the service of online volunteering, but I am going to talk about
UN Volunteers online service (www.onlinevolunteering.org), as I tried it through several volunteering assignments such as online translator and Web researcher. I am addicted to searching the Internet for any new piece of information, so I used my addiction to help a non-governmental organization in Iran that was preparing to hold a training course on capacity building. The assignment was of mutual benefits for both sides. It helped me, as I am preparing an academic thesis about civil society in Iran, and it gave me a good opportunity to get in touch with an organization related to the subject that I’m studying. It helped the organization to save money and effort in hiring someone to do this job.
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As for the UNV online service, it started in 2000, and since then more than 12,000 people have signed up to it, and more than 300 host organizations have posted opportunities. Stories from users arrive regularly, affirming that the UNV’s online volunteering service generates meaningful, sustainable results and benefits.
Simply search the assignments advertised on the Web Site—each assignment is accompanied by a brief description—choose one or more assignments that appeal to you, and apply for it. If the organization you send to is convinced of your ability, it will send you a detailed description of your assignment along with the deadline.
Again the address is www.onlinevolunteering.org, and with that I will now leave you to enjoy your volunteering assignments. May Allah bless you!
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