Butterflies

Volunteer!

You’ll be one of earth’s mightiest heroes! Unless that’s copyrighted.

Volunteering might be the world at its absolute best. Volunteering has people give up their time for other people and things because other people and things need their help. It’s easy to cut a cheque for charity if you can afford it but giving your time and effort and energy – giving whole chunks of your finite lives – and doing it for free, that’s some solid do-goodery right there.

If we’re looking to improve the world, volunteering is one of the ways we’ll do it. We’ll see a problem – like littering – and do something about it – like joining a squad of litter pickers, and move other people’s rubbish from the streets to recycle bins. That’s how volunteering works. It’s based on very simple moral mathematics:

Climate breakdown + You volunteering for Greenpeace = Better world.

Homelessness + You volunteering in a hostel = Better world.

Gender-based violence + You volunteering for Rape Crisis = Better world.

Lousy politics + You volunteering for a decent candidate = Better World.

A world of problems + You not volunteering = The same unbearable shovel of shit we live in right now.

There are some rewards for volunteers, of course, even if not the material kind that capitalism has taught us to lust after and kill each other for. Volunteering brings a pleasant tingle to your conscience-bone. It ups your self-righteousness by a smug factor of seven. It can get you a ton of skills and experience, and a taster for possible careers if you find something you fancy. And it guarantees a primo spot in heaven and non-Christian heaven alternatives, or a properly stacked body in the event of reincarnation.

In the UK, you can look for volunteering opportunities at NCVO, Volunteer Scotland, Volunteering Wales, Volunteer Now (Northern Ireland), Time Bank, Timebanking UK, Do It and Volunteering Matters. If you’re internationally minded you can volunteer abroad with VSO, Latitude Global Volunteering and Go Overseas. In the US you can find opportunities at USA.gov, Volunteer.gov and Volunteer World. And if you’re elsewhere in the world you can use a non-evil search engine to find something for yourself. I can’t do everything for you people. At least not for free. What kind of a sucker do you take me for?

Go do it!

Volunteer!

A

You'll actually, properly help people

The world will be slightly better!

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