What Does voluntary Mean
Volunteer is a concept that comes from the Latin word voluntarĭus . It is a term that can be used as a noun or as an adjective , always linked to the will : the power to make decisions and act on one's own.
As a noun, volunteer refers to the subject who decides to provide a service or perform a job of his own free will, without being obliged to do so for legal, contractual or economic reasons. For example: "The volunteers of the environmental organization held a protest at the headquarters of the oil company" , "The municipal government awarded eight volunteers for their social work" , "On weekends I am a volunteer in an association that serves food to poor children ” .
The work that a volunteer does is known as volunteering . Through these actions, individuals decide to provide a service to the community without expecting anything in return : they do so for ethical, ideological or spiritual reasons. Different is the case of the tasks that are carried out within the framework of the work environment, where the person develops an activity in exchange for money.
The adjective voluntary, on the other hand, is applied to the action that is specified by the will of the person and not by external pressure or obligation: "I want to clarify that this is a voluntary act: nobody is forcing me to do this" , "My retirement is voluntary since I had an offer to continue playing but I preferred to reject it" , "In this country the vote is voluntary, although in several nations of the region it is an obligation" .
Among the relatively modern spaces in which the work of a volunteer can be found are animal sanctuaries , non-profit organizations that are dedicated to giving a second chance to any animal that leads a bad life, such as those that suffered some kind of exploitation. Animal sanctuaries promote veganism , that is, a diet that excludes products from animals, and in general a lifestyle that absolutely does not use other species as tools or raw material.
In these places, the animals find an environment of equality in which they are not below any species, but on the same level, as it should be, as nature dictates. Human beings have done our best to get away from our roots and our essence, to the point of needing clothing to cover our genitals and to protect us from cold and heat; so little we recognize ourselves on this planet that we see it well to lock up and torture an animal, but we are horrified when a person is killed.
Since animal sanctuaries do not profit from the beings they rescue, economic problems are an almost intrinsic part of their structure. For this reason, the work of volunteers is practically essential for their subsistence , and this can focus on various tasks, some of them sporadic, others, at a distance; Let's see some examples below:
* collaborate with the cleaning of the sanctuary. This is one of the most common volunteer jobs, as it can be done one time or without a strict frequency. Although it seems little, a day that we dedicate to a sanctuary can make a difference ;
* provide veterinary services. As is known, the animals that arrive at the sanctuaries usually present a worrying state of health , since many of them come from slaughterhouses or bullrings, among other torture centers. The treatments and medications that some of them need are very expensive, and that is why volunteering in this regard is essential;
* Assist in the maintenance of social media accounts or in the development of posters to increase the visibility of the shrines on the Internet. A volunteer community manager can save you a lot.