It is a great opportunity to shed light on voluntarism as we were celebrating the INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY 2011 days ago. I would like to extend my huge respect to all volunteers around the world for their remarkable efforts. Here in this article I will briefly reflect my understanding on the subject of voluntarism.

Volunteering work is very important to every nation . It is considered complementary to the work of official service provided to community members. Volunteering is an act or acts performed by a self-motivated individual to serve society and its members, in one of the areas of concern to community. Voluntarism if founded on rigid & concrete grounds, the results will be impressive and will reflect the image of coherence of the community, and here I have to thank each volunteer who has served his community and contributed to its progress.

Here are some points which I consider in my humble opinion very significant for both the volunteer or who want to be one.

In order to serve community & get distinct results out of volunteering work :

1- The volunteer has to be committed to work and appointments. In other words, enjoying the beauty of the work he/she is doing. For example, if requested by the institution , he/she must be committed to the performance of that work , as well if required to come at a certain time, he/she must be disciplined, because goal setting and work in those hours specified , will inevitably lead to success in that work.

2- voluntary work is a place or room for creativity, because the person himself is the one who determines the nature of work he/she wants to help over. It is not imposed upon him/her .

3- who wants to be a volunteer must determine the goals that he wants to achieve through his/her work. Clarity of goals leads to success, and here it must be pointed out that the foundation of volunteering work must be serving community as priority one. Personal interests have to be excluded.

4- voluntary commitment is a fertile field for hard work. I advise the retired to the direction of this work in order to stay connected with the community , and also to divert part of their energy into it. Not only that, the scope of work in volunteering will benefit from their experience and will evolve.

5- Volunteering work reflects the culture of the society and the extent of cohesion in resolving its issues. This culture should be transferred from one generation to another in a sound manner. That will consolidates the principles of voluntary work in young people & will make them feel important. There lies the sense of sustainability .

6- Institutions and bodies, either governmental or private , that are interested in volunteering and community service programs , have to clarify their respective areas and urge community members to participate in those programs.

I hope everyone who loves his society start thinking of ways to serve his community and offer his best to become a useful member of it.

 Two days have passed already since the One Young World Summit started. We definitely have gained a lot as delegates. Personally I’m really overwhelmed with this massive human capital gathered under one roof discussing challenges of today & tomorrow from a very mutual perspective.

 One big challenge everyone facing is  poverty , people are not being able to be financially secured. Today in Zurich- Switzerland at the Summit, some high ranking CEO’s from all the over the world addressed the issue on a global scale whereby everything related to the topic was discussed.

 A conclusion that I came up with, through all the amazing discussions we had,  is that; we are in a tremendous need to find real tools to fight against poverty & in order to do that, we have to empower ourselves with a strong belief that it is possible to eliminate the disease called Poverty.In addition to that, communities have to be engaged practically & productively in contributing to this complex issue. An ultimate privilege here is using social media outlets for the greater good for all. More importantly we have to reach an uncompromised level where companies & societies don’t conflict in regards of interests. Personally, I think if we are to change the miserable today, we have to start the reform within ourselves first. Bearing in mind that in order to have an impact, we have to implement the element of sustainability in every project we do for the favor of society. Lastly, I happened to believe that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) must be part of the essence of the organization not just a program or a useless regulation. It has to be given a soul & more power.

 We finally ended the global business session with voting on the resolution, 82 % agreed .

 The Resolution states; “In the belief that global businesses have the power and responsibility to relieve poverty and improve working and living conditions in the developing world. One Young World resolves to support companies who transparently demonstrate that they are attempting to alleviate poverty through ethical employment and training in developing nations”

Yemen Youth Representative