Alfredo
Olivera, a young Argentine psychiatrist, launched a radio station to give patients
in a Buenos Aires psychiatric hospital the chance to express themselves and get in
touch with the outside world (pp.
18-19).
Oliveira is not driven by a quest for adventure or an attraction for the marginal.
Like millions of volunteers around the world, he is striving to stitch together social
networks torn apart by exclusion and violence. As the promoters of the International
Year of Volunteers 2001 highlight, giving one’s time is a source of enrichment, though
the efforts are often invisible and yield benefits far beyond mere economic value
(pp.
20-21).
Throughout the 20th century, such voluntary initiatives have steadily expanded (pp.
22-23).
Volunteers don’t perceive their work as a gift, but an exchange (p. 26).
Young Slovenians have started up a hotline to help their peers in trouble (p.
27).
In Brazil, company employees are mobilizing in reaction to their ailing state (pp.
28-29).
Carmen Reyes Zubiaga of the Philippines is setting an example, showing disabled people
like herself that they can live in dignity (pp. 30-31). In India,
women who have been victims of domestic violence are helping others fend for themselves
(pp.
31-32),
while in South Africa, students are spending their holidays working in the most underprivileged
communities (pp.
33-34).
Volunteering has no age limit: in Britain, pensioners are recycling tools sorely
lacking in the Third World (pp.
34-35).
So alongside the state and the market, the non-profit sector–also known as the third
sector–is flourishing. But its potential should not be overestimated: collaboration
with the other sectors rather than separate action is the best hope for achieving
meaningful social progress (pp.
36-37). |
