“There is no age limit for volunteers, and in order to encourage volunteering, we need to promote it,” said Mirjanka Aleksevska from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, during the information debate “How can CSOs encourage volunteering?” organised by the Civil Society Resource Centre on 4th December, 2019, in Stip. She further stated that the Strategy on Volunteering (2010-2015) and its Implementation Plan are outdated, but there is solid basis for the preparation of a new strategy and the process should begin as soon as possible.
Over 70 participants were informed about volunteering, the legal framework and guidelines for encouraging volunteering, especially in terms of civic activism and awareness raising about the importance of volunteering in the civil society.
Viktor Mirchevski from the association Konekt stressed that it is very important to understand volunteering in terms of values or as they often say in their association: “Volunteering is a smart donation to the community.” He presented the platform http://konekt.org.mk/volonterstvo/ as a tool to help volunteer organizers and volunteers better understand the Law on volunteering and the obligations arising from this law.
“Aside from volunteer centers and membership-based and volunteer-based organisations, every CSO should be an organiser of volunteering,” Mircevski said. He also shared a Guide for Volunteer Work Organizers developed by Konekt, which discusses the process of recruiting volunteers, how to track their work and how to motivate volunteering. In addition, Mircevski added that while businesses cannot be organisers of volunteer work, they can still encourage their employees to volunteer through various methods of motivation and with the help of CSOs to make a significant contribution to real community good.
The local volunteering council that functions under the Municipality of Bitola is a successful local story of uniting all groups working on volunteering. Maja Angelovska from the Youth Cultural Center Bitola noted that, for a second year in a row, this body receives funding from the municipality of Bitola for volunteering actions, organises volunteering week and celebrates 5th December – International Volunteering Day, giving awards to volunteers. In the future they will work on the challenge of creating a continuous program and implementing volunteering activities throughout the year.
Dragana Mitrovic from Youth Club, Stip talked about the experiences and challenges in promoting volunteering. “Volunteering in our country is not easy, especially since we have a culture of non-volunteering and an inadequate understanding of in the community volunteering,” Mitrovic said. She emphasized the importance of the knowledge gained, the practical work that is not gained through formal education, and the knowledge that is an invaluable resource gained through volunteering.
The Civil Society Resource Centre organises these discussions in order to provide space for organisations and other stakeholders to debate, discuss, initiate or be informed on issues appropriate to their functioning.
