Winning Essays for the Youth and Volunteerism Essay Contest
2 June 2006
Monika Spasikj
PS Vasil Glavinov
Veles
7th and 8th grade category
Žane Churlinovska
SS Goce Delchev
Valandovo
9th and 10th grade category
What is volunteering? It is not an everyday job
or something people get paid for. Volunteers are people
who do things that can help their community without
being forced, just for their own satisfaction. Volunteering
means helping the others and being useful to the community.
There is no person in the world who has not been
a volunteer at least once. Doing simple things like taking
care of your smaller brothers and sisters, making school
projects, even helping injured animals also count as volunteering.
Everybody can be a volunteer. Each and every
person has his own special talents and qualities which can
be used to make life better for everyone.
However, there is something more to it. All the
skills and talents are not enough without the willingness
for sacrifise for the benefits of others. There are caring
people who donate blood, and even their own organs,
helping to save somebody else’s life. To save someone’s
life is the greatest gift of all.
Donating money and clothes for the poor and hungry people can also save many lives. Unselfish and good
people often do that.
Saving the life of our planet is as important as
helping each other. Joining some ecological organizations
can help keeping our environment clean and healthier to
live in. A lot of people volunteer to help for that goal.
I watched a show on TV once, organized by a famous TV presenter, that really impressed me. Her idea
was noble and humaine. She wanted to help the pediatric
clinic for children with cancer, trying to improve their
poor condition and enable better opportunities for the
children to get proper medical care. Many TV stars volunteered to chat on the phone with their fans, who in that
way volunteered to donate money for the sick children.
I remember that I was a volunteer once. One day I
saw a little homeless dog with injured leg, lying on the
street. Feeling sorry for it, I decided to take it home and
feed it. Soon its leg was healed and it was back on it’s
feet again. The dog was enormously grateful and became
my best friend.
I know many people who volunteered, too. For
example, my father. He has been an active donor of blood
in our local hospital for many years.
Now, I am fourteen years old and I would also like
to donate blood when I am eighteen.
With a little love and caring, you can make many
things right and many empty lives filled with joy. That is
why volunteering is one of the best things in the world.
Life is not a bed of roses, they say. I now
realize that you can do something in an instant that
will give you heartache for life. Everything we
have is earned after a lifetime of hard labour and
torment. And, why exactly are we going through
such tortures if not for the money, that miraculous
force that makes the world go round. Everyone
seems to be fascinated even by the thought of being rich and powerful. I completely understand.
Who wouldn’t like to have the world in his hands,
to be adored by everyone and to make all his
dreams come true? If you ask me there is no person
on this planet who wouldn’t like to experience all
those things. It’s a temptation we can’t resist. Sincerely, even I couldn’t resist it. But do only materialistic things make us happy? It is possible that we
are becoming so superficial and cruel that we are
not noticing the world falling apart around us?
We’ve become so selfish that we can’t look further
then our own lives which appear so perfect but
they are just an illusion to fool everybody else. We
convince ourselves that our lives are just fine and
that there is nothing wrong with the world today,
but if we look deeper then the surface, all we can
see is misery and desperate cries for help of children in famine, of victims tortured, of old people
left helpless…Let’s stop being selfish and self centered because the person who tries to live alone
will not succeed as a human being. Let’s start
thinking of those who desperately need our help,
those who live in a world where the fight for survival is long and hard. But how can I, a sixteen
year old teenager help them? The answer to this
question is very simple. Try doing something that
for the first time will not involve money, try VOLUNTEERING. Convince yourself, that you can
make a difference in this material world without
thinking how much are you going to be paid. Believe me it feels great afterwards. It makes you feel
proud of yourself knowing you’ve made an effort
to help the others. I’m telling you from my own
experience. Although I’m very young, I’ve helped
a lot of students who have specific problems in
their study. It’s not very much but I think it’s a
great beginning. In the future I’m looking forwards
to finding my way to get involved locally or globally.
Volume 4, issue 2
Page 5