If you find yourself with some time on your hands and don’t know what to do with it, consider volunteering for a cause to help out a bit. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a charity cause, but can be something you simply do because you genuinely care about a community. Here are some ideas of typical and atypical volunteering situations that merit attention.
The Soup Kitchens
Most big metropolises have these: soup kitchens that feed the homeless and poor through donations. Most will have little food and next to no money to hire help, so it’s always a good day to go help out. Don’t imagine that the work will be easy; a soup kitchen is every bit as busy and as hectic as any other commercial kitchen in a restaurant on a busy day. Know what your strengths are and play to them. Are you good at cutting and chopping? Volunteer for the meal prep. Can’t handle a knife but lift weights every day? Help them cart produce in and out of the soup kitchen. Even the least skilled among us can sweep a floor, so there is no excuse for you to not work when you volunteer at a kitchen. Simply keep in mind that it might be a rough crowd and go lend a hand.
Elders’ Home or Community
Elders’ homes are usually run by the state or a religious institute, or are private nursing homes. A few of them are run by donations on a welfare basis while most homes charge its residents for the care they receive. Either way, elders’ homes frequently need extra hands to help them push through a meal or clean up afterwards. However, don’t mistake the elders at a retirement village or community for the helpless ones in a nursing home.
These individuals choose to go into retirement villages in NZ so that they are among others like them and have access to better facilities. These elders are more likely to need help with small repairs or trimming the front lawn than having meals prepared or help with their baths.
Children’s Wards in Hospitals
Unlike other wards, children’s wards in hospitals are kept deliberately cheerful and whimsical, meaning that the staff needs a break now and then from being cheerful all the time. Gather a group and go entertaining once a month with a musical act or something. Anything that breaks the drone of medical care will liven up their day and the nurses and doctors could use some cheering up too. Remember that it’s the adults who will need the most cheering up; unlike the children, they better understand the reality that their children face, and probably die a little each day their child remains in the hospital. Singing a few songs and telling a few jokes may seem like a small thing to do, but bringing joy and diversion – if only for a moment – into their lives is as of much value as donating expensive medical equipment.
