You can say Norway is moved by volunteer work. It pays essential contribution to all areas of your life. Health, education, integration, sports and many more. There are over 1300 volunteer organizations in Norway.
Elders can get someone to visit them and bring them joy. Sports arrangements count on volunteers to hand out water, give information, distribute athlete’s kits. Refugees can get breakfast and cozy time provided by volunteers. Lonely people can gather and have Christmas dinner provided by volunteers on Christmas eve.
At https://frivillig.no/ you can find the right one for you either to contribute or to benefit.
Dugnad is a special Norwegian word that means more than volunteer work. It’s like join forces, work together in benefit of the community. I admire this sense of community that Norway has. At a given date, all those who live in a specific neighborhood are summoned to clean common areas like a playground, the sidewalks, fix something broken, paint a fence, and so on. It’s wonderful because it inflicts the meaning that public space is everybody’s responsibility.
Why should you be a volunteer?
It changes your perspective of life. Think you’ve got problems? Go visit a cancer patient or a visually impaired person. Do you need more motivation in your life? Work at a marathon, distributing water to the runners.
Another positive aspect of being a volunteer is making friends. Volunteers are open to communicate with others. It’s a wide open window for us immigrants to get to know more the locals. Remember my post about it https://makingnorwaymyhome.com/how-to-make-friends-in-norway/
Excellent opportunity to improve and practice Norwegian. Each organization, niche, has its own vocabulary spectrum. As a volunteer, we get to learn and practice new expressions in sport, health, construction, education. Check my post about how I learned to speak Norwegian in one year here.
Let me tell you a secret: In the beginning, I was terrified of answering the phone, because I thought:
-What if I don’t understand what the person says? What if I provide wrong information because I misunderstood the question?
I avoided it as much as I could, but sometimes I just had to answer because the other volunteers were busy. You know what I did many times? I asked for clarification. I repeated to the person what I had understood, to make sure I got it right. I made some small fails like misspell the person’s last name (no biggie if I skipped an l or a t because my boss would help me fill in the blanks later).
Getting more skills. I had never made lentils soup before. Not to mention make soup for 30 people. Now, after I’ve learnt it at Vardessenteret, I feel more confident to invite my friends to dinner. The soup was a success among my book club friends.
You’ll be filing your time while looking for a job, contributing to the Norwegian society, among other good reasons.
The Norwegian Cancer Society or Kreftforeningen https://kreftforeningen.no/en/about-us/ is a non-profit organization that works to prevent and reduce cancer, to provide help for cancer patients and their families, to invest in research, to give information, etc. I work as a volunteer at a hospital. They hold courses for those who want to join and seminars to refresh and inform all volunteers. Being among volunteers is a great atmosphere. Helping cancer patients is very rewarding. I feel that I gain much more than I give, actually. It’s amazing. Volunteer work fills your heart and soul. I recommend it to everybody.
Working as a volunteer can trigger feel-good hormones in our body, like Oxytocin. It can lower our blood pressure and improve the health of our heart. It can reduce stress level and also increase our confidence!
Another personal story. I was cycling by the sea and I saw an old lady sitting alone on a bench. I stopped to take a picture of the sea and said hello. She smiled, answered and started to tell me about her life. That her daughters works a lot and was always busy. She almost never visited her. I stood there for a while and listened to the woman. When I left, she thanked me for giving my time to listen to her. I felt like I wasn’t cycling back home, but flying. It feels so good to help others.
Every person has something good to contribute regardless the area they choose. Corona times need us to reach out and do more for others. Use internet if you can’t be gather. I’d love to hear your stories. Send me a message or write here in comments.
Click here below to subscribe and you’ll be updated every time a new post is released.
You’re right , we get much more gains when we volunteer than when we get some help.
God bless all the volunteers’ people 🙌
God bless you 🙌
It’s commendable .
Muito importante o trabalho voluntário feito na Noruega. Muito bem decoradas as casas nesta época.