Excellent article. Excellent points. A lot of these volunteers feel that they need to SAVE people. That they need LOVE. It’s just them masturbating their own ego.

There are so many volunteers that have good intentions but just don’t get it. They think that some groups of people have fewer things that this equates in less love. Not true. They like to feel needed. They NEED our help, they say. Many of these organisations don’t stop and think, is our work actually helping? Could we be doing something more valuable? But they imprint what they believe is needed.

I read something that I thought was really valid and should be a question given to anybody that wanted to volunteer:

If you could not tell anyone, not upload a single thing to social media, not add any detail to your CV, would you still volunteer?

How many would say no? The majority I'd guess.

I have volunteered for two years with an NGO but have my own separate project. There are times when the marketing of the NGO for funding makes me feel uncomfortable but I don’t follow their marketing with my class. I don’t share the pictures of my teens unless we have done something fun, like a trip and not in a please donate way. I’d feel like I’d be using them as a tool to generate income if I did this and this makes me feel like I wasn’t respecting them. I treat them as I would any group of teenagers. I don’t think of myself so highly that they NEED my help. They are people wanting to learn a skill and I help them with that and they in return give me so much too. Its two way for sure.

I also have a lot still to learn about this but I hope I’m going in the right direction.