Volunteering

I volunteer with an organisation that supports people hurt by loneliness. We have a coffee and cake morning, sit with people and chat, or let them talk, or sometimes just sit with them. By now I'm just a member of a community where we all look out for one another.

I also volunteer with a helpline team - LGBT+ specific in our case. We don't get such a lot of calls, and many are for information, but dealing with someone in distress is both stressful and rewarding.

I have been a volunteer as a room guide for the National Trust for over five years and recommend it as a way of meeting people, making new friends and learning so much more about our past.

I too can recommend volunteering. DH and I are both with the NT too. Me as a room guide while Himself digs away weeding and such in 'his' garden. I've other friends who volunteer in charity shops, the local care home, CAB, the local greyhound rescue, local steam railway, Redwings horse sanctuary.....

It's a good way to keep active and meet and make friends. The biggest problem is where and what organisation would suit best - and making that fist move.

(First not fist!)

I have been working as a volunteer at my local library ( one day a week) for almost a year. Due to staff cutbacks there is only one full time member of staff on duty each day which makes it difficult for them to get everything done. I love what I do - the staff are lovely and we get some interesting customers! Worth checking out your local library to see if they need anyone. I love reading - have done so since I was a child - the only drawback is that I come home every week with 2 or 3 more books to read!

I would recommend volunteering with NT. I have a lovely time chatting all day about history in a house that I love.
I

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a GN badge? We're probably bumping into each other all the time without knowing it!

My hubby also does voluntary work at a NT property Quarry Bank Mull n he loves it. He meets lots of nice people. I do voluntary work at slimming world on the shop to help the consultant and also help out at a luncheon club for the elderly. We both love our vol work and we r not in each others pockets all day!!

I volunteer in a RVS (formerly WRVS) hospital cafe. Enjoy it. Nice workmates and nice customers.

I volunteer in a drop in centre for people with mental health problems , a food bank , a phone line support - nights , we set this up after several people took their lives and I help out at the church advice and support centre , we try to meets needs, be it a replacement fridge, school uniform, a befriender for someone who is lonely , any needs

I have two volunteer roles that I enjoy having tried a couple of things first when I retired that weren't really for me. I'm surprised at the huge variety of things on offer. There are several things on the Gransnet local sites that are worth having a look at and even if they are not in your area if they are a national concern you can try their HQ and see what's available in your area.

I volunteer in our village library since it became Community Managed and am also on the Management Committee.

Our customers are really appreciative of our efforts, the volunteers are absolutely amazing and really put themselves out for the good of the library and the community.

We run all sorts of courses from 'family history' to 'new to computer's, we have art sales and exhibitions, visits from cubs, brownies, the school, playgroup and nurseries. We have volunteers from the senior school doing DofE, we have people calling in for a coffee and a chat.

I love it!

I do quite a bit of volunteering and decided to offer some time to support at my local special school. My whole teaching career had been in similar schools so I felt I had something to offer. Sure enough, they seemed keen and invited me for a visit. We got on well and it was left that I should make a few more visits with a view to volunteering in September. I was to contact the school to arrange these further visits. Shortly after this arrangement, I contacted the school with some dates but nobody called me back. I phoned again a week or so later. The office staff said they would get the deputy to phone me back. Again, nothing. I was reluctant to make further contact so haven't and meanwhile I have been contacted with a view to doing some paid work elsewhere. I am sure it wouldn't have been a personal thing - just incompetence somewhere along the line.

I have mentioned this before. I volunteer with Homestart, helping parents with pre. school age children.who need befriending. I have 2 families and give them 2 hours each a week. Very enjoyable.

We volunteer for guide dogs...a big commitment as we have a pup for 12-14 months. It has been an amazing opportunity but also challenging as there is no time off!

I wonder if volunteering will become a thing of the past. As some MPs ( Mambers of Parliament) have said that in the future we will be working to an older age, and could work into our eighties. Also given the facts of Economic Downturn, age increase in regards to Pensions. Smaller work pensions due to Banking Crisis etc :- Will there be anyone available or able to volunteer. Yet there seems to be more reliance on the third sector.

In the past people could have the support of the extende family, neighbours etc. Yet that has gone due to nuclear family, smaller family sizes, people moving away to gain employment. People having to travel / commute distances to work, working long hours etc.

No wonder there is isolation. We seem to be in need of a Building up of Social Networks. Money is not a cure all, people maybe especially families can be valuable resources.

I volunteer at our local Cathedral. It can be tiring but there is a sense of well being there all the time.

I have until recently been a Samaritans listening volunteer. I have found the work rewarding and have learned a lot. I feel it has changed my life.

I went to a recruitment session with the Samaritans that was interesting and fun. A few days later my application was rejected, by post. A really business - like letter that left me feeling hurt. I would advise sensitive souls like me to volunteer somewhere you'll be treated kindly. I now volunteer at a hospital and would highly recommend it.

I volunteer for Beanstalk, and can thoroughly recommend it! It involves going into a primary school twice a week to spend 30 mins each with 3 children: reading, playing games etc. I see the same children for the whole year and it is very rewarding to see them respond, gain in confidence and improve their reading skills. The staff are very appreciative and make me feel part of the team. The local Beanstalk Office give training and support. Look them up online if interested, they are always needing more volunteers.

I volunteer twice a week in a childrens hospice charity shop and I also volunteer with collecting donations to send to Syria using my house as a collection/ sorting point Prior to that I spent 10 years working with survivors of abuse and DV I have always gained a lot of satisfaction out of all this work even when its been hard and time consuming

I work as a helpline volunteer, offering support to parents of crying/sleepless babies. I find it very rewarding.

I love my volunteering with 2 of my dogs , we visit care homes and community groups , my dogs are registered with a charity, most of the residents have Dementia and their interaction with my dogs is so nice to see .

For me, I’ve volunteered the balance of my life to help the poorest stricken here in Malawi, by sharing my pension with them. While I was growing up here, I’d often eaten in our servant’s huts and spent countless hours playing with village children, as both my parents were alcoholics and too often I was left without food or care.

My children have everything in Australia. So, for me now, it has become very fulfilling to be building and planting, something constructive for an orphan child (property Document in child’s name) I care for, which will benefit others and the village, in years to come.

And thank you, to those from EU, UK and USA who have returned for years and given volunteer help in various villages.

Many of us love to sit around an evening open log-fire, and enjoy a glass of wine -- So, please think of doing it here, on the beach of Usisya, with evening temperatures in warm low 20 degrees C. and the gentle lapping of the lake water on the beach. Guaranteed sunshine every day and adventure wandering around the village to shop as you please. And decide for yourself whether you too, might like to help in some small way. Two days flight.

As they say, life’s an adventure, and having an adventure out here or a holiday, does really help financially in the villages too.

Does such an adventure holiday appeal to you ? (see photos) ( Email me via Gransnet.com)

Justin /Usisyavillage.

( around 230 words)