Compréhension - Héros méconnus (document en anglais)

Comprehension – Unsung heroes

Using your own words as much as possible, answer the following questions:

1.The theme of the 2007 Volunteer’s Week is ‘reward, recognize, and recruit’. According to Julia Neuberger, are volunteers and their work recognized enough?

According to Julia Neuberger, the volunteers and their work aren’t recognized much by society. The people take the work; volunteers do as granted and are not showing any appreciation. Even the voluntary organization themselves don’t pay any recognition for the work of their volunteers.

2.What rewards can a volunteer draw from her or his work?

The rewards that a volunteer can draw from his work are for example the special training which can be useful at work or to find a job. Also the experience gained at volunteering can benefit the individual in his everyday life. The greatest reward however for a volunteer is maybe volunteering itself. It’s the feeling, that you have done something important for your fellow humans, which can be the biggest reward.

3.According to Neuberger, recruiting volunteers to provide certain services can be problematic. What example does she provide, and how is this particular role problematic?

The example, the author provides is that of the volunteers working in public services like hospitals. According to Julia Neuberger the volunteers are often asked to do things without the knowledge or training they would need. For example, the task of volunteers feeding old people in hospitals. This task should be done by qualified staff which can provide better help in case of unforeseen difficulties. The task volunteers can do is to keep company for the elderly people. They could sit there help them make their meal socially more pleasant.

4.What are the societal benefits of volunteering?

The benefits of volunteering for society are that everyone can take volunteers as role models. If the volunteering is something that turns into a principle, society would be much kinder and everybody could expect mutual help from one another.

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