Why I volunteer...

The girls I work with after school through ENP’s SPACE program have been reading The Giver for the past couple months.  The book is a dystopian novel about a young boy who becomes disillusioned with his community.  The concepts are difficult to grasp, which often results in more questions than answers, and the language is not easy either.  The girls have been increasingly frustrated with the book each week, even though I remind them each time that The Giver is one of my favorite books.

During my last visit with the girls, they were working on answering some essay questions about the book.  One of the questions asked about the many laws of the society in the book.  The girls had to pick three laws they agreed with, and three they disagreed with, and explain why.  One student noted that she agreed with the law requiring all children to complete a certain amount of volunteer hours before they could be assigned a profession.  She was struggling, however, to articulate why exactly she agreed with it.  We both agreed that required volunteer hours were generally a good thing—but why?

To help her out, I decided to think about my own volunteer experience—sitting in that room, working with the girls to complete their homework, I was doing so in the capacity of a volunteer.  So why do I volunteer?

The truth is, I couldn’t think of an answer.  It’s the right thing to do, it makes us grateful for what we have, it builds character, it helps people learn right from wrong—these are all good reasons for other people to volunteer, but is this why I, personally, volunteer?

The girls had been working hard, and with their gentle urging, I stayed just a little longer, just a little longer, so they could finish their sentence, their paragraph, this question.  When I finally looked at my watch, I had stayed an hour past the time I usually leave.  Each girl had completed two out of their three required questions, and assured me they would be able to complete the third on their own. 

When I left, the girls thanked me profusely, insisting that they could not have completed so much work without me.  They still did not love The Giver, but at least they were beginning to understand the concepts we had discussed.  The girls, probably because they forgot my name, called me “HaMorah” as I exited the room –the direct translation to English is “the teacher,” but it is equivalent to students calling their teacher “Miss.”  It’s a sign of respect for the position you hold based on your experience and age.

 I’m not a teacher, and although I have thought many times about going into education, my degree is actually in social work.  But this one gesture, this one acknowledgement of the role I was there to fill, reminded me why I volunteer.  I volunteer, yes, to teach, but also, and more so, to learn.  I believe that everyone is a teacher, everyone has a lesson to give, a moral to impart on those around them.  I volunteer to learn about the lives and experiences of those around me, in order to gain a better understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.

I believe that through interacting with those different from ourselves, through the sharing and exchange of narratives, we can begin to work towards the betterment of society and the world.  The type of open communication which is fostered by volunteerism is a necessary part of beginning the process to repair the world, which I as a Jew, and as a human, feel the need to participate in.

Although I spent the year teaching 5 Ethiopian-Israeli teens English, they, too, have taught me.  I’ve come away with a deeper sense of what it means to grow up in Israel, and how the many communities that make up Israeli society interact and impact one another (or don’t).  I’ve heard narratives both different from and similar to my own, and I’ve had the opportunity to truly impact the lives of others. Above all else, I have learned that there is always work to be done, something can always be improved, things could always be different.  And there will always be people who need you.  There will always be people to teach, and people to learn from.  We have to open ourselves up to the lessons others are willing to share.