You may not know it but this last week has been Volunteering Awareness Week in New Zealand. Here are some facts and figures to consider:

· New Zealand is a leading nation in contribution made by volunteers. A recent study of the New Zealand Non-profit sector estimated that volunteers make up 67 per cent of non-profit workforce equal to 133,799 full time positions, a higher proportion than in any of the other 40 world countries participating in the research project. This represents 6.4 per cent of economically active population.

· Non-profit institutions contributed 2.6 per cent to New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004. When volunteer labour is included, non-profit institutions’ contribution to GDP increases from 2.6 percent to 4.9 percent.

· More than one million New Zealanders are actively involved in volunteer work. Statistics NZ estimated that in the year ended March 2004, there were 1,011,600 who volunteered for one or more of 97,000 non-profit organisations. This represented 31 percent of the population aged 12 and over.

· New Zealanders contribute 270 million hours of formal, unpaid work for non-profit organisations annually. The time given has been valued at almost $3.31 billion in the year ended March 2004.

· Volunteers contribute these millions of unpaid hours to human rights, faith communities, health, education, sports and recreation, social services, arts and culture, emergency services, the environment and conservation, animal welfare, and community support and development.

· When reporting on unpaid activities undertaken in the 4 weeks prior to the 2006 NZ Census:

- 460,143 people (14.56%) aged 15 years and over looked after a child who did not live in their household

- 258,708 people (8.13%) aged 15 years and over helped someone who was ill or had a disability, and did not live in their household

- 437,241 people (13.84%) aged 15 years and over were involved in other helping or voluntary work for or through an organisation, group or marae

· Some community and voluntary organisations report shortages of volunteers, but others have waiting lists and have more potential volunteers than they need. The underlying reason for either of these situations is often how the organisation manages its overall volunteer programme from recruitment through orientation and training to support and manage the volunteers. In addition, the issue might be a supply and demand one – volunteering hasn’t declined but demand has gone up, and many people prefer ‘project-type’ volunteering over long-term commitments.

· There is an ongoing research into various aspects of volunteering in New Zealand. An inventory of existing NZ research is available at www.volunteeringnz.org.nz/resources/research.php and www.ocvs.govt.nz/work-programme/volunteering-research.html.

Those statistics make impressive reading. It’s clear the social fabric of the country would be seriously impaired without the contribution of this army of volunteers. So why volunteer?

Why not is the obvious answer. For me though it’s about making a contribution and performing a service to your community. You can think of it as giving back something or simply being grateful for what you have in your life and projecting that gratitude out into the world.

And it’s free. All you give is your time. It keeps your feet on the ground, teaches you humility and opens your eyes to people and situations you may not come across in your daily life. All in all its a fabulous thing to do.

I’ve been a volunteer for a 3 years now and am involved in 3 different organisations. I’ll tell you a bit about them because I simply want to promote them and hope that maybe someone out there will find that it spurs them on to get involved.

I’ve been a Budget Service Advisor for Christchurch Budget Services for a few years now. It’s a debt counselling service focused on helping people understand basic budgeting and how to navigate their way out of the debt trap and take a responsible approach to managing their financial position. i’ve met some interesting people and hopefully helped them on their way to a better position for themselves. Sometimes i’ve felt like a personal counsellor as well as often money issues can reveal personal problems. You don’t have to be an expert in money issues as full training is provided. What i like about it is there is often a very concrete outcome and i love taking financial and lending organisations to task! I’ve yet to meet anyone who isn’t serious about paying off their debts. But boy I wish i’d been around before they started!!

Nearly a year ago I joined up with PILLARS, an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children who have parents in prison. They match volunteers with these children for a year’s worth of mentoring in the hope that it will have a positive impact. It really does. It’s a proactive approach to ended the cycle of criminalty and making sure these children are not lost and forgotten by adults when their parents disappear for no fault of the child’s. It’s been anincredible experience getting to know a young boy who has come from a very difficult family situation. The role is to spend 2-6 hours a fortnight with your mentee basically hanging out and doing stuff and be able to commit for a year. We’ve done all sorts over the last year: biking, climbing, mini-golf, walking, playing in the park, reading in the library, wandering around town visiting the various sites. It takes time getting to know a child who is often naturally wary of strangers but the rewards come later. Again all it takes is a bit of your time and a belief that all children deserve a decent crack. It’s a wonderful organisation to be involved in and lots of training is provided with courses throughout the year.

This year I decided to volunteer at Refugee Services and help a family resettle in Christchurch. Each year the UN resettles thousands of refugees in third party countries, where there is no hope of return to one’s homeland and the country they are currently in will not take them permanently. New Zealand takes about 750 a year of these “quota refugees” and helps them settle into their new life. There is a very thorough training program to prepare you for the job ahead. It’s a 6 month commitmnet but usually it’s the first 4 weeks that are full on and then it settles down. You work in teams and all undertake different tasks such as dealing with WINZ (that’s me!), housing, education, health, english language and general hospitality. My team has been helping a Bhutanese family settle in. It’s been a marvellous experience and has really stretched me at times. The families arrive almost as a clean slate and hurriedly must put a new life together. Yet they are so keen, hopeful and desperate to start a normal life, get jobs and contribute. They are immensely grateful for the help New Zealand has provided. As a volunteer it’s a chance to make a real difference and also experience a new culture and have your eyes opened to the lives that some people live through no fault of their own. Globally the refugee community numbers over 11m people……people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and in many cases will never go back.

It makes me feel very humble and very grateful for the comfortable life I have. I think that’s what volunteering really does. It makes you appreciate what you have; it connects you with your fellow man; it teaches you new skills and it takes you out of your comfort zone.

As the proverb states; ” You must give in order to receive”.

So what’s stopping you?

Giving is in the news a lot recently especially with the publication of Bill Clinton’s book, Giving. I’ve mentioned previously that i  am a big fan of Kiva and today some of my first loans were repaid. So far i’ve made 15 and 4 have repaid all ahead of time which is great.

So with new money available to re lend i searched out some new potential borrowers but could only lend $25 at a time and then just two loans in total. Why?

Because Kiva is so overwhelmed with support that there are not enough businesses to lend to. They want to make sure as many people as possible get to be involved.

That’s great news on all fronts.

Ultimately we are moving towards a point where money will be viewed more and more as energy, not to be stored up but to be spread around. P2P finance, as well as other forms of exchange, have the opportunity to subvert current systems because it is people led. Social capital via the web is being built at an astounding rate.

Giving  is just one way of building this social capital which will be so important to the success and prosperity of society.

Kiva has been a remarkable success story and one which could really change the way we spread our hard earned around. Charity has always been a core value for humanity as a way of expressing gratitude for what we have and compassion for those who don’t.

But Kiva is not a charity it is a lending organisation with a difference: they don’t charge interest on their loans. So in effect you are donating money but you get it back!

This changes the dynamic from charity to help.  I love this  approach. I made a deposit of $1000 about 6 months ago and lent money to 15 different people all over the world and so far 2 loans have fully repaid whilst the total amount lent is $1075 and repaid $595 (you only get fully repaid when whole loan is paid up).

What is exciting is helping out so many people but as help rather than charity. There is no interest, which as you know from previous posts is the cause of all human suffering.

I am also keen to see how far that $1000 can go because as soon as loans are fully repaid you can lend out again.

Try it out….its a great experience.

We’ve just finished Freedom Week here in New Zealand, a campaign run by Amnesty International to raise money and awareness. Also MyAmnesty has been launched. Get online and participate.

Some 130 collectors braved the southerly on Friday to collect in Christchurch (yes i was one of them) so well done to all those and to those who donated and stopped for a chat.

Without basic freedom we have nothing. Freedom to be, to think, to speak, write, draw or blog!

Whatever your political persuasion it is hard to to look away from the constant abuses of personal security whether for reasons of censorship or war. It’s all the same.

We can’t have a functioning economy without personal security. We can’t have functioning communities without personal security and we most certainly cannot have a decent environment without personal security.

We wouldn’t be sitting here in the blogosphere expounding our thoughts and views on whatever we fancied.

We should be grateful for the life we have here in New Zealand. It’s pretty good.