Thai volunteers need to learn from other nations about art of disaster relief
THE wave of volunteer spirit has been growing in Thailand since the 2004 tsunami. Yet Thais still need to learn a lot from countries with well-established and well-connected volunteer networks.
In the UK, for example, volunteer organisations have solid relationships and enjoy good management systems too.
Katie Turner, a global research and advocacy adviser to Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas, spoke at a recent conference on volunteerism in Thailand, saying: “We are more fortunate.”
Held at Dhurakij Pundit University, the conference brought in experts from Thailand and various other countries to share views and experiences.
Nantinee Malanon, from Volunteer Spirit network, said volunteerism had caught on firmly in Thai society since the tsunami ravaged coastal provinces in December 2004.
“And the volunteerism trend gained further momentum when big floods hit the country in 2011,” she added.
Despite these good signs, she had concerns about the trend, saying the growing number of volunteers did not come with an increase in quality.
“From our survey of 10 Thai volunteering networks, eight revealed that the most problematic issues they faced were the lack of new volunteer trainers,” Woradul Tulalak, freelance researcher, said.
According to a preliminary research, there have been some unwanted or unnecessary |volunteer projects. And most |were implemented without any fol
low-up study to assess impacts.
The situation is much different in the UK, the speakers said. There, volunteer centres operate at the local level to advertise local volunteer opportunities, to recruit and train volunteers for volunteering networks.
Turner said: “We are quite lucky in the UK. We have a lot of NGOs which recruit volunteers and often take responsibility in the organisations for mobilising, recruiting and training their volunteers.
Quite often, NGOs will individually invest in providing training and mental support for volunteers.”
She said her organisation was capable of sending youth volunteers from the UK to do voluntary work in 25 countries. Their jobs included serving as English teachers or voluntary medical staff. The main aim of the organisation was to tackle poverty and inequality in Third World countries.
At the government level, there was an official agency to examine the outcome of voluntary projects in the area for two years, which helps measure the success of projects.
In regard to the promoting a volunteer’s spirit, International Association of Volunteer Effort president Akiko Seto from Japan suggested that encouraging volunteerism should start in schools. Volunteer activities were on the curriculum of higher education institutions in Japan, so students can experience volunteering through “service learning”.
“Students provide the major volunteer group in Japan. For example, the International Volunteer University Student Association alone has up to 2,300 members from many universities,” Akiko said.
About maintaining a volunteering spirit after a student has graduated and started work, she said everyone had to earn a living – but suggested that in the |workplace, there were also volunteer opportunities such as through company Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
“There is the likelihood that graduates who have worked on a volunteering project tend to help CSR efforts in their workplace more than the others,” she said.
