The young people are motivated to do non-remunerated community work so as to develop, to become independent in thinking and action and because they want to make changes in society, stated Mihai Rotaru, a member of the National Youth Council and coordinator of the National Volunteer Week 2018 in Chisinau municipality.
In a news conference at IPN, Mihai Rotaru said volunteering can be done in any field. Engagement plays an important role and an accredited organization offers such advantages as a volunteer card and social protection.
National Volunteer Week coordinator in Comrat Antonina Volkova, executive director of the public association “Vesta” of Comrat, said both students and pensioners became involved in volunteering activities at the local level this year. The people became active in villages too. Earlier they were involved only in physical activities, but now they are glad they can identify a problem they can solve, being thus useful for the community. Currently, nine volunteer organizations in Gagauzia prepare to submit an application for becoming volunteer hosts.
National Volunteer Week coordinator in Drochia Vera Flocea said it is hard, but not impossible to find a volunteer. The young people like to identify problems and to see who is responsible for them so that these could be later solved.
Antoniţa Fonari, director of the Platform for Active Citizenship and Human Rights Partnership, which is a member of the Coalition for the Promotion of Volunteering Law and Activities, said the legislation on volunteering should be improved. “We would like the Government and Parliament to make effort and understand that what we do builds social cohesion as no one in politics can do,” stated Antonița Fonari.
The National Volunteer Week 2018 was held during October 1-7. During a week, local public authorities, civil society organizations, initiative groups and others carried out information campaigns on volunteering and staged charity, cleanup, greening, training and other activities. More than 60,000 volunteers became involved in over 2,000 volunteering activities. The cost of volunteer labor during the week came to over 2 million lei.
