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Hello D&D forum, there is a very big focus on social justice here, which naturally entails a concern for the less fortunate and privileged in the world. One of the widely accepted methods for helping out people who are homeless or living in poverty (even if only temporarily if you subscribe to Zizek's views) is charity and volunteer work. I used to be heavy in volunteer work throughout high school and college. I grew up Catholic, and even though I eventually drifted away from the faith, my parish's opportunities to help others was one of the aspects of my childhood was one that still influences me and I was involved in several organizations/groups that did volunteer work through the church, as well organizations not associated with religion. Towards the tail end of college, however, my school workload became pretty intense and I stopped doing volunteer work, eventually defaulting to just donating money to charity when I got an income. I've recently made the commitment to get back into volunteer work after realizing that putting your credit card into a website lacks a human element of helping out that I miss (also because man hours are also a resource that's in large demand in charitable institutions). One of the cooler experiences volunteering was working with Habitat for Humanity. I was (and still am to some extent) very ignorant on what actually goes into construction, and learning the tools and methods needed to build a house was an interesting experience. One of the other things I enjoyed doing was volunteering at a soup kitchen, mostly because I enjoy cooking and because occasionally you'd get someone chatty come in and you could talk with them for a bit about random poo poo. Highway cleanup, on the other hand, is probably one of the most miserable jobs you can be doing, because on top of being hot and full of car exhaust, in the back of your mind you know that the only thing you're really contributing to is making a highway look slightly less hideous. Anyways please discuss volunteer work (preferably things you personally have been involved in), charities you feel are doing really good work or on the flip side really problematic work, cool people you've met, general stories of philanthropy, etc. Also try to curb the bitterness in this thread, charity is about helping out in small ways in a selfless manner and not everyone has the commitment to join the Peace Corps (but you should definitely post if you are in the Peace Corps, that organization deserves major respect). Control Volume fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Nov 11, 2015 |
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Nov 11, 2015 01:06
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I infact was in the Peace Corps though what I did was teach English to Indonesian school children. I had to grapple a lot with the idea of teaching english being imperialistic but English was already a mandatory subject there and it was taught really badly so I hope it was a positive thing overall.
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Nov 11, 2015 01:21
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RagnarokAngel posted:I infact was in the Peace Corps though what I did was teach English to Indonesian school children. I had to grapple a lot with the idea of teaching english being imperialistic but English was already a mandatory subject there and it was taught really badly so I hope it was a positive thing overall. Is it more the overarching concept of English being taught in Indonesia that's imperialistic or the PC's implementation of it? And in general what's the PC's response to that sort of assertion?
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Nov 11, 2015 02:20
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Teaching English to third world children but I guess the reality is in an increasingly globalized world, learning the lingua franca is pretty important. PC really didn't have a response, though they did remind us not to impart our own values upon the locals (e.g. stuff we'd consider rude is probably ok there and vice-versa). It didn't come up a whole lot except this one guy who wrote a million posts about the topic in his blog and yet kept participating anyway.
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Nov 11, 2015 02:29
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I did Meals on Wheels for years while I was in college delivering hot (well, warm but easily reheatable) dinners to the elderly, along with milk and bread once a week. For a long time I was some of those people's only point of human contact the entire day, as most of them were pretty much trapped in their own homes. I even drove one old lady to see her husband in the nursing home a couple times a month for a little bit of cash. I really enjoyed doing that, although the actual director I worked for was a colossal rear end in a top hat and eventually when gas got over $4/gal I could no longer afford the gas to continue volunteering. I'd like to one day start doing that again, I have good memories of it and I'm glad I did it.
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Nov 11, 2015 06:05
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I taught art lessons and played the piano for the elderly at a local rest home. its amazing how much some people are in need of company, and how much it really influences their well being. one guy was a WWII ballistics expert and he would tell me cool stories. when the barometric pressure dropped, he would look for his (deceased) wife and get all disoriented, which happens to a lot of dementia patients i learned. I have been meaning to go back but im kind of scared to learn of all the people who died.
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Nov 11, 2015 21:36
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RagnarokAngel posted:I infact was in the Peace Corps though what I did was teach English to Indonesian school children. I had to grapple a lot with the idea of teaching english being imperialistic but English was already a mandatory subject there and it was taught really badly so I hope it was a positive thing overall. Indigenous languages and cultures are infinitely more threatened by nation-building assimilation projects than English as a global lingua franca. Native languages and cultures in Indonesia are being exterminated/ethnically cleansed by the Indonesian state in favor of the Malay language to promote national unity. See also minorities in basically every other nation-state. You're fine icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Nov 11, 2015 |
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Nov 11, 2015 21:41
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blumpkinhead posted:I taught art lessons and played the piano for the elderly at a local rest home. its amazing how much some people are in need of company, and how much it really influences their well being. one guy was a WWII ballistics expert and he would tell me cool stories. when the barometric pressure dropped, he would look for his (deceased) wife and get all disoriented, which happens to a lot of dementia patients i learned. I have been meaning to go back but im kind of scared to learn of all the people who died. Yeah, I remember volunteering to help a bunch of old ladies at a nursing home play bingo for a while, and I eventually lost the heart to go when I took a break for a couple months for school or something, came back, and half the people couldn't talk/function anymore, and the other half were different. 
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Nov 11, 2015 23:53
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Control Volume posted:Is it more the overarching concept of English being taught in Indonesia that's imperialistic or the PC's implementation of it? And in general what's the PC's response to that sort of assertion? I was in PC as well. I was once on vacation for a weekend and an idiot surfer in the expat haven girl accused me of being a colonialist. Outside of that we didn't do too much hang-wringing over colonialism in my country, although we did have conversations about it from time to time. That kind of accusation really comes from a laughable place of american exceptionalism that's not rooted in reality and a complete misunderstanding of Peace Corps. No volunteer has the power to change the culture or town they're placed in. We're also asked to come to the places we serve. It's not like Peace Corps is making us local mayors (although I do know a an older volunteer who's town tried to elect him mayor because he was so likeable.)
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Nov 25, 2015 21:10
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I volunteer at a local church a few times a month.RagnarokAngel posted:I infact was in the Peace Corps though what I did was teach English to Indonesian school children. I had to grapple a lot with the idea of teaching english being imperialistic but English was already a mandatory subject there and it was taught really badly so I hope it was a positive thing overall. Do you often grapple over whether something you'ore doing to help little kids is imperialistic? 
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Nov 25, 2015 23:22
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-Troika- posted:I volunteer at a local church a few times a month. Frequently. In all seriousness though it wasn't as much of an issue as I made it out to be, it was more this blowhard who had to keep reminding people how it was imperialistic and if you didn't think about it (i.e. see it his way) you weren't understanding the depth of the atrocities you might be committing. So I foolishly played into his hand and considered it. conclusion though was that he was a big dummy.
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Nov 26, 2015 01:56
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I don't volunteer, but I work for a nonprofit that uses a lot of volunteers. Something I figured out about myself a long time ago is that I am not really capable of achieving anything without a boss and deadlines. We do have some volunteers who have been coming in on a schedule for years and I really admire their commitment and self-directedness.
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Nov 26, 2015 02:21
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If someone in a US college is reading this, I encourage you to go check out your local Alpha Phi Omega chapter. It's a service org organized like a frat (except it's co-ed). I had never really done any volunteer work before, but I signed up my sophomore year and got totally caught up in it. By the time I graduated I was the chapter president and completed thousands of hours of volunteer work, despite having a full class load and a part time job. Volunteering is kind of difficult and intimidating alone, unless you're really really passionate about it, but when you do it with a group of friends it's way more fun, and you're able to get a lot more done. What's more, though, is that you graduate with a familiarity of volunteer work and a group of like-minded friends (and their alumni association), which makes it very easy to continue volunteer and charity work when you're out of school. The organization's culture is really good and inclusive, I think - although some chapters are weirder/nerdier than others, so ymmv. I can't recommend it enough. General volunteering advice, though, is to round up a group of friends if you can.
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Nov 26, 2015 03:44
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The only times I was actually happy as a missionary were when I was teaching people to read and write at the library (in English and Spanish), or helping build Habitat for Humanity houses, or the one time I got to do some interpretation for the Shriners Childrens Hospital clinic thing where kids from all over were being fitted with their new prosthetics. Seeing people happy really helped out an otherwise dreary time. I'm sure they appreciated it too. At this point though I'm the one who could use some charity, I'm now disabled and pretty well trapped at home, but not old enough to get a lot of services.
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Nov 26, 2015 04:19
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In high school I did thousands of hours of volunteer work, food drives, invasive removal, community function clean ups, etc. Picked up a bunch of neat skill sets, masonry, painting, carpentry. garbage management. These days I work for a not for profit that does safety of life at sea work. I have zero time between school, work and toddler. I'd like to get back into volunteering someday.
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Nov 26, 2015 07:24
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I regularly play concerts in hospitals, retirement homes, homes for the handicapped, orphanages, prisons and other social institutions. Often the best and most mindful audiences. People really learn to appreciate these basic social events if they're usually not able to attend them.
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Nov 26, 2015 07:50
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Onion Knight posted:General volunteering advice, though, is to round up a group of friends if you can. It's also something that can be done through work. The soup kitchen I volunteer at relies on corporate groups for about 50% of its volunteers in food preparation / service. These tend to be from large financial or tech companies, although we did have a bunch of NRL refs come in a few times right around the State of Origin.
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Nov 26, 2015 07:52
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RagnarokAngel posted:In all seriousness though it wasn't as much of an issue as I made it out to be, it was more this blowhard who had to keep reminding people how it was imperialistic and if you didn't think about it (i.e. see it his way) you weren't understanding the depth of the atrocities you might be committing. So I foolishly played into his hand and considered it. Yeah that guy was a big dummy. Teaching people English is hugely empowering for them and about as far away from imperialism as one can get. English is the lingua franca of our era, and gives speakers access to a vast array of resources that would otherwise be completely inaccessible to them. Using English, communities can interact with the rest of the English-speaking world on far more of a peer-to-peer level. That knowledge and capability ensures their voices are heard, and frees them from the tacit control of chosen translators, foreign journalists, and interpretive power figures. Language is power.
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Nov 26, 2015 20:11
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I volunteer regularly with the red cross and occasionally with a secular humanist group. The one thing I don't like about volunteering with the red cross is the need to keep quiet about a lot of things, either out of respect for peoples confidentiality or because its information not meant for the public. The specific reason it bugs me is the thought that something awesome might happen one day and I'd just have to keep my mouth shut and not share the details.
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Nov 26, 2015 22:25
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RandomPauI posted:I volunteer regularly with the red cross and occasionally with a secular humanist group. The one thing I don't like about volunteering with the red cross is the need to keep quiet about a lot of things, either out of respect for peoples confidentiality or because its information not meant for the public. This is the true burden of anyone who works in the social services. But if you're truly in the business to do good and not to shine your image you should be OK with it.
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Nov 26, 2015 22:56
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Ignoring the particular nature of charity (so I'm considering anything from working at soup kitchen to political advocacy you believe will be beneficial), I feel that the rich inherently have a much, much greater obligation than the middle class to give their money to the less fortunate. While it's true that people in the middle class are capable of donating money to charity and having a positive impact, the huge difference is the fact that even if a middle class person has money at a given point in time, he/she is always still at risk of facing financial hardship (for example due to medical costs or losing a job). So it's far more understandable for people in the middle class to not put much money towards charity, since there's a very real chance they may end up needing it themselves. Rich people do not have the same excuse; unless a very rich person makes a concerted effort (or there's some complete collapse of society or something), he/she will never face financial hardship. Because they can donate money without any significant impact on their lifestyle, it morally reflects far more negatively on them if they don't.
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Nov 26, 2015 23:24
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Since the food stamps I got from being in the Americorps was about to be closed at the end of the month (I guess after 3 months they decided I was ineligible) I decided to spend most of it (around 200$) for my local church's food drive.
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Nov 27, 2015 02:20
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Kaal posted:Yeah that guy was a big dummy. Teaching people English is hugely empowering for them and about as far away from imperialism as one can get. English is the lingua franca of our era, and gives speakers access to a vast array of resources that would otherwise be completely inaccessible to them. Using English, communities can interact with the rest of the English-speaking world on far more of a peer-to-peer level. That knowledge and capability ensures their voices are heard, and frees them from the tacit control of chosen translators, foreign journalists, and interpretive power figures. Language is power. I agree completely. Imperialism is robbing people of their own language, not teaching them another. Everyone should know as many languages as possible, because being able to communicate with different people is very cool and good. When you get upset that people don't speak your language, then it's you who are the imperialist.
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Nov 27, 2015 06:25
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