PROJECT: "Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes", First Part

Do you remember the film Pay It Forward? A little boy reminded us of one of the central messages of Christianity -- give unto others, give without thinking of or expecting return. He wanted to change the world without undertaking a big project. With a wave of good works. But as Gandhi warned we shouldn't imagine some special or spectacular achievement, or that our actions would have big, direct results. However, this doesn't lessen the importance of our actions, or the need for them.  First we start with ourselves, then within our neighborhood...then maybe with a volunteer organization :) 

Although it may sometimes seem like we--the idealists who give our time for free--are a dying breed the facts testify otherwise: we are a family 140-million strong, who represent 16% of the world's population! Taken together, there are as many volunteers in the world as there are in the 10th largest country.

Four years have passed since I first excitedly walked to the headquarters of Hospice, which had organized an informative meeting for (potential) future volunteers. Today, as a veteran volunteer :), I can honestly say, that freely given time precipitates a personal awakening. It awakens the Person within (with an emphasis on the capital P!). The person who empathizes. Again and again it reminds us that we are given to each other, are responsible for one another, and that we don't have the right to live in ivory towers burdened only with concern for ourselves. 

Manca Košir, one of my co-volunteers at Hospice, would say that freely given time is a shortcut on the path to yourself and others. Given all these high sentiments, I always try to remember the aforementioned warning: it is not good to imagine that something special or dramatic will result from your work. The typical volunteer's day is nothing special. There isn't much drama. There aren't many "large projects". Sometimes it seems like you didn't do anything especially beneficial. But the time counts, the sacrifice counts. 

Humility is also an important part of volunteer work (humility in the best sense of the word) - being ready to clean the steps at Hospice for example. Because the project didn't have steady finances and the organization couldn't afford enough employees the volunteers were not only companions to the dying, but also cleaners, cooks, nurse's assistants, handymen....:).

As a young, curious idealist hungry for life, the time came when I wanted to go further. Africa! International volunteer work!  Pedro Opeka!  Wow! With a group of 11 volunteers we gave ourselves over to a many faceted experience, which in turn awoke so many things in us!  We achieved a new level of awareness of basic needs (which are met in our society as a matter of course): the need for food, for water, for warm clothing, for a roof over our heads. Even though we were dirty (sometimes we didn't shower for up to a week), sometimes hungry, we were simply happy and not at all bitter. We deepened our social awareness and our awareness of the social injustices which are happening in the non-privileged parts of the world. 

I knew it wouldn't be the last time, as I left the red African earth and looked took a last look at those "Pure" people (in Madagascar, for the first time, I deeply understood what Tomo Križnar meant with the title of his book about the Sudanese tribe the Nube: "Nube-The Pure People"). Now, after a year and a half, I'm here again.  In "Africa for Beginners", as they like to call Ghana. 

The mission is in some ways even more fun, after all I'm sharing it with Tomaž:)! In our small room we are diligently putting together programs, and thinking about teaching techniques. In the humble classrooms of Ghana we see our young Ghanaian students and their enthusiasm for the small books we bring them. Slowly we are getting to know the Ghanaians, a dignified and proud people. In Europe a somewhat crooked idea of Africa and African life is dominant: the idea that this dark continent cries for salvation from us.  As volunteers we meet with a totally different life. Their simplicity and indescribable joy are like a mirror for a consumer-culture westerner. 

Humanitas, the Slovenian organization which helped place us in Ghana, writes that the world is becoming more and more like a global village, and they add that understanding global challenges and interdependence--and the reaction to these things--is always becoming more and more important for effective volunteer work. They maintain (and I confirm :), that international volunteer work is an important cultural priority and tool for personal and organizational growth, which contributes to the spreading of ideas. Firstly, they write, that global volunteer work has a strong effect on the individual and the society, it encourages trust, solidarity, understanding, and reciprocity between citizens on the global level and is an important tool for the acquiring, understanding, and exchange of experience between people. At the same time it can also materially contribute to mutual development programs undertaken among partner nations which aim at the exchange of knowledge and experience; it can catalyze the changes which lead to more balanced development on a global level. 

We are all citizens of the world. Interdependent and mutually responsible. We can affect the world and the people which surround us in a very simple way: we must know how to be tolerant, how to act with solidarity, how to be patient, how to love, and how to be satisfied. But it is also right for us to show people the value and importance of giving your help freely -- volunteering. There is truth to the idea that when you give, when you share with others, you receive much more then you gave.  

(In the next part I will describe the concrete steps TomaĹľ and I took when we were searching for and preparing for international volunteer work).      

Se še spomnite filma Daj naprej (Pay It Froward)? Mali deček je opomnil na bistveno sporočilo krščanstva – daj (v)naprej, daruj brez misli in pričakovanja na povračilo. Želel je spreminjati svet, brez velikopoteznih projektov. Z valom dobrih dejanj. Skupaj z Gandhijem nas sicer opozarja, da si ob tem ni potrebno nič posebnega domišljati;  naša dejanja ne bodo imela fatalnih neposrednih rezultatov.  Kar pa ne zmanjša njihovega pomena in nujnosti. 

Začnimo najprej pri sebi, potem na svoji ulici, potem... denimo, v kateri od prostovoljskih organizacij :).  Čeprav se včasih zdi, da smo idealisti, ki podarjamo nekaj svojega časa zastonj, vrsta, ki ji grozi izumrtje, dejstva izpričujejo nasprotno: smo kar 140 milijonska družina, ki predstavlja kar 16% svetovnega prebivalstva! Združeni prostovoljci bi tako predstavljali kar 10. najštevilčnejšo državo na svetu! :) 

Štiri leta je od tega, kar sem prvič vznemirjeno korakala proti sedežu društva Hospic, ki je organiziralo informativno srečnje za (potencialne) bodoče prostovoljce. Danes, kot prostovoljska veteranka:), lahko prepričano povem, da je zastonjsko podarjen čas predvsem Dramilo. Prebuja v nas Človeka (poudarek na veliki začetnici!).  Ki so-čuti. Znova in znova nas opozarja, da smo obdani s soljudmi, za katere smo soodgovorni, da nimamo pravice bivati v slonokoščenem stolpu, obremenjeni zgolj sami s sabo. Soprostovoljka Manca Košir, bi dejala, da je ta podarjen čas bližnjica na poti k sebi in drugim.

Ob vsem tem leporečju se pridružujem tudi zgoraj omenjenemu opozorilu, da si ob teh dejanjih ni potrebno kaj posebnega domišljati. Povprečni dan prostovoljca ni nič kaj posebnega. Ni vseprisotne drame. Velikih projektov. Včasih se zdi, da pravzaprav nisi naredil nič kaj pretirano koristnega. A gre za čas, odpoved. Važen del prostovoljstva je tudi ponižnost (v najžlahtnejšem pomenu besede) -  pripravljenost čiščenja stopnic v hiši Hospic, na primer. Ker projekt ni imel zagotovljenega financiranja in si društvo ni moglo privoščiti osebja, smo bili prostovoljci ne samo spremljevalci umirajočih, temveč  tudi čistilci, kuharji, negovalci, hišniki...:). In, joj, kako me je včasih dvourno zavzeto čiščenje "naše srčne hiške" napolnilo! Kako poskočno sem zapuščala sijočo oranžno hiško pod Golovcem! Pravzaprav, če bolje pomislim, je bilo praviloma tako! Cimra je bila vednoznova začudena, ko sem domov prihajala še bolj nasmejana in polna energije.

Kot mlade, radovedne, življenja željne idealiste, je tudi zame prišel čas, ko sem se zazrla (še) dlje. Najprej s prstom po zemljevidu, potem zares. Afrika!  Mednarodno prostovoljstvo! Pedro Opeka! Noro! S skupino enajsih so-prostovoljcev smo se podali na to mnogobarvno izkušnjo, ki je v nas toliko prebudila! Ozavestili smo osnovne človekove potrebe (za katere je v naši družbi samo po sebi umevno, da so zadovoljene): potreba po hrani, vodi, po toplem oblačilu, strehi nad glavo. Čeprav smo bili umazani (umivali se nismo tudi po en teden), včasih lačni, smo bili preprosto veseli, nezagrenjeni. Poglobili smo socialni čut in čut za krivico, ki se dogaja depriviligiranemu delu sveta. 

Ko sem zapuščala rdeča afriška tla in se še zadnjič ozirala po teh vedrih, "čistih" ljudeh (na Madagaskarju sem prvič najgloblje razumela, kaj je Tomo Križnar mislil z naslovom knjige o sudanskem plemenu Nube, "Nube - čisti ljudje"), sem vedela da ni bilo zadnjič.

Zdaj, po letu in pol, sem ponovno tu. V "Afriki za začetnike", kot se rado opiše Gano. Poslanstvo je tokrat na nek način še bolj žlahtno, saj ga delim s Tomažem:)! V najini majhni sobici vestno sestavljava programe, premlevava tehnike učenja. V skromnih učilnicah ganjena opazujeva male ganske prijatelje, kako se navdušujejo nad knjižicami, ki jih prinašava.  Počasi spoznavava Gance, nadvse dostojanstvene, ponosne ljudi. V Evropi prevladujejo izkrivljene predstave o Afriki in tukajšnjem življenju; namreč prepričanje, da črna celina kriči po potrebi, da jo odrešimo. Kot prostovoljka se tu srečujem s povsem drugačnim življenjem. Njihova preprostost in nepopisna vedrina, sta kot ogledalo potrošniško usmerjenemu zahodnjaku. 

V društvu Humanitas  (organizacija, preko katere sva pristala v Gani:) pišejo, da postaja svet vedno bolj podoben globalni vasi, in dodajajo, da je zato zavedanje globalnih izzivov in soodvisnosti ter še zlasti reakcije na njih v smislu globalnih interesov na področju prostovoljskih prizadevanj na različnih koncih sveta vse bolj pomembno in iskano. Trdijo (in jaz jim pritrjujem:), da je mednarodno prostovoljstvo  pomembna družbena vrednota in orodje za osebnostni in organizacijski razvoj posameznikov in organizacij, ki prispevajo k širjenju idej in pomena globalnega učenja in razvojnega sodelovanja. Naprej pišejo, da ima globalno prostovoljstvo močan vpliv na posameznike in družbe, saj krepi zaupanje, solidarnost, razumevanje in recipročnost med državljani na globalni ravni ter je pomembno orodje za pridobivanje, posredovanje in izmenjavo globalno učnih izkušenj med ljudmi. Hkrati pa lahko bistveno prispeva k programom razvojnega sodelovanja med sodelujočimi državami, na način prenosa znanj, izkušenj ter katalizatorja sprememb, ki vodijo v bolj uravnotežen razvoj na globalni ravni. 

Vsi smo državljani sveta. Soodvisni in soodgovorni. Na svet in ljudi, ki nas obdajajo, lahko vplivamo že na zelo preprost način: tako da znamo biti strpni, solidarni, potrpežljivi, ljubeznivi, pa tudi zadovoljni. Prav pa je, da opozarjamo tudi na vrednost in pomembnost zastonjske pomoči - prostovoljstva. V resnici vedno, ko daruješ, deliš z drugimi, prejemaš mnogo več kot si dal. 

(V nasledji objavi bom bolj natančno spregovorila o tem, kako sva se s Tomažem lotila iskanja primernega mednarodnega prostovoljskega programa, podala pa bom tudi nekaj koristnih praktičnih nasvetov glede priprav na tako izkušnjo. )

Sonja