Okaz newspaper

International Volunteer Day has been celebrated on December 5th since 1985 when it was mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate volunteerism and volunteers.

This year volunteers have concentrated on rebuilding their societies that have faced natural disasters, political turmoil and wars.

In our Muslim and Arab societies, we have a rich tradition of volunteerism that can be used as a base for volunteering to help society. However, many prefer the Western version especially if there are a lot of cameras around and volunteer work is publicized on social media.

I do not know what is the best way to demonstrate kindness, giving and human compassion. However, spending time with children, brothers and parents in the home and designing special volunteer projects in the family can be described noble volunteer work.

We all went through a tough time in adolescence and it helped to shape us into the adults that we now are. At times, we paid a heavy price in facing the challenges of fear, doubts and misery around us. Some people, including myself, managed to survive these difficult times through volunteering, no matter how small the volunteer work was.

The only thing that can destroy the value of volunteering is if it includes an element of self-promotion, in which we use the misery of others to advertise ourselves. Using the poorer segments of society, such as the handicapped or cleaning workers, to advertise ourselves is a negative phenomenon that we are seeing in our media today.

We need to design volunteering projects in which all members of the family take part in order to strengthen educational and humanitarian values. Through volunteering, we are helping ourselves, not just the people we are volunteering for.