Study says people on the internet more likely to volunteer

In my college days the internet was in its infancy and there were only a few Colleges and Universities connected with each other. It was a few years before businesses started building websites. Professors would make us study theories about communication technology and how it would hurt human interaction and make us isolated. A new study today gives us evidence that technology can make us more connected and engaged. 

A new Pew Research study finds that people on the internet are more likely to volunteer and be involved in causes. Social networking has certainly helped in this as charities reach more people and find more willing to be involved.

From CNN, this article by Mark Milian unpackes the study and gives us a fine example of an internet active charity in Charity: Water.

A trip to Africa turns a professor into a development advocate

A professor who did some volunteer education work in Africa now wants to spread the word of what he experienced on the trip. Professor John Alsup says the trip changed his perspective and is now working with international students and will teach more about development issues at Black Hills State University.

From Rapid City Journal, writer Kayla Gahagan has this story on how one volunteer trip impacted John Alsup's life.

Alsup ended up traveling to Africa in July and August of 2007 to teach math in a rural village deep in Tanzania with the help of Global Volunteers, an organization that facilitates nonprofit, short-term volunteer work for people in education and health services.

Alsup shared his work with students and staff at BHSU earlier this year. He has also been called to share with others around the world. Since his trip to Tanzania, Alsup has traveled to Korea, Europe and Greece, as well as several conferences in the U.S., to speak about his trip and his work.

“My passion is education within the developing world,” he said.

His trip to Tanzania was “life-changing,” he said. Many of the African villages have been stricken with HIV and malaria. Poverty is a way of life, and education is often one of the only ways to escape it.

While in Africa, Alsup taught elementary and high school math to 80 students in a packed classroom.

“It was an amazing experience,” he said.

His goal now, he said, is to bring awareness to people in the U.S.

“I want to highlight, emphasize and bring awareness without being righteous about it,” he said, so people will be more conscious of the developing world.

The spirit of volunteerism involves sacrifice

Helping the poor is a bad way to become rich. Many who serve in jobs that provide services to the poor do not receive a high wage. In fact, the salary may be so low that you will experience the same hard ships as those you try to help.

We read of one such example today in a story from the Concord Monitor. Jennifer Pendarvis, a volunteer for AmeriCorps; works to help find opportunities for high school students. Writer Trent Spiner says that Pendarvis gets such a thrill out of helping the youth obtain success that she doesn't mind the low wages.

Pendarvis, 24, along with two others, spent the past year as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Franklin, working to help eradicate poverty. Her duty was to connect Franklin High School students with opportunities to earn credits outside of the classroom.

For her work, Pendarvis earned 10 percent more than the local poverty line, about $800 a month, she said.

"They really want you to live in poverty so you can see how the people who you are serving live," she said. "They'll tell you it isn't a salary; it's a living stipend to continue to support your volunteerism."

That meant making choices between going out to eat and

going grocery shopping, cable television or internet access, and walking versus driving to work.

"Going forward, I'm not going to be as worried about making ends meet, because I know I can survive on the bare minimum," she said. "It gives me a sense of 'Yeah, I can do this and I'm not scared of what can happen.' "
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When her one-year contract in Franklin finishes Friday, she plans to drive to her next assignment, where she'll start another year as a VISTA volunteer at a literacy center in Greeley, Colo.

Out of work? start volunteering

If there was a positive to come from the global recession, it's that some of the jobless it created began working on solving social ills. They either took on new professions with non-profits, started their own social business, or used the time between jobs to volunteer.

From the Sacramento Bee, writer Stephen Magagnini profiles some of the new philanthropy start-ups in the area. Magagnini says there are more non-profits in the Sacramento area than ever before.

The battle to save the world often is launched from checkbooks in Roseville, Granite Bay, Folsom or Davis, whose residents have consistently ranked among California's most generous in recent years, based on IRS reports.

While the recession has cut into a steady rise in charitable contributions seen through 2008, experts say more out-of-work Americans are joining the fight.

The real estate crash spurred West Sacramento "eco-urban" developer Levi Benkert and his family to move to Ethiopia in May 2009 to rescue orphans.

The value of his development projects had declined so much "that investors and lenders were not willing to continue to put money in when there was no prospect of profit," Benkert, 28, said via e-mail. "It felt like the whole world was crashing in on us."

So Benkert went on a reconnaissance mission to Ethiopia and learned of the plight of orphans there. On his return to Sacramento, he created the nonprofit Drawn From Water and partnered with the Rock of Roseville church. Then Benkert, his wife, Jessie, and children – Nickoli, 9, Luella, 6, and Ruth, 3 – moved to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

From there, they drive 17 hours south of the capital to an orphanage in Jinka, a town of about 30,000, to immerse themselves for two to three weeks at a time in the daily lives of the orphans. They are working on arranging U.S. adoptions for some, which Benkert said will start in June.

At first, the family was overwhelmed.

"When you pick up a new child who's severely malnourished and might not make it through the night it affects you in ways you never knew back home," Benkert said via e-mail.

So far, the family has helped rescue 21 children from remote tribes that Benkert said thought they were cursed and needed to die. He said tribal leaders agreed to send the children to the orphanage.

"Emotionally it's taxing, but rewarding like nothing else on earth," Benkert wrote. "Our kids are attached to the children in the orphanage and we love them all like they were our own. That feeling is something I wish everyone in the world could experience."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/22/2769083/more-capital-area-nonprofits-join.html#ixzz0ofQE86z9

The holiday spirit of volunteerism part 2

A Scranton, Pennsylvania high school student was profiled on his volunteer work for a Christmas time story. Adam Schroth traveled to Belize to help families build stoves and wells. Schroth attends Scranton Prep school where they require seniors to do service for graduation.

From The Scranton Times Tribune, writer Joby Fawcett asks Schroth about his time in Belize.

Before he even headed to Belize, Schroth had an idea that what he would encounter would hardly resemble life at home.

Once there, he saw the poverty, but the outgoing personalties of the people who endured the more than 100-degree temperatures, the gravel roadways and the tiny living quarters overwhelmed him.

The students had to be mindful of scorpions, snakes and many other animals. They walked more than three miles to and from work.

After the sun went down, Schroth and his classmates - Paul Byrne and Jimmy FitzPatrick, who are also players for the Cavaliers - slept in hammocks with bed nets draped around them for protection from mosquitos and the malaria they could carry.

Yet he endured and enjoyed every minute he got to spend with his family and the eager and energetic children.

"Basically, we lived with a family in small huts and helped them build water reserves and stoves," Schroth said. "I didn't know what to expect. I knew it was going to be intense. I was somewhat nervous, but also very eager.

"I couldn't believe the way they were living in those huts. They were 10-feet long and 4- or 5-feet wide. The village was so isolated, but the people were so gracious and so nice."

The holiday spirit of volunteerism

For a Christmas-time story, The Toronto Star profiled Elaine Rennie and her 30 years of volunteer work. Rennie spends her Christmas volunteering at the Scott Mission kitchen serving food to the homeless for their annual holiday meal.

Toronto Star writer Debra Black talked to Rennie about her work.

"I get a lot out of it," she said. "For years I've volunteered in God's work." That work has included volunteering at her church and the Canadian Bible Society as well.

But she goes to the Scott Mission every Christmas, just to be part of something bigger.

"I get more back in personal satisfaction and spiritual being than I actually give," said the senior, who lives in Richmond Hill.

The first year Rennie volunteered with the Scott Mission at Christmas, she baked a dozen cookies for the homeless. She and her husband gave them out.

"I just decided it was something I wanted to do," she said.

Her husband died a year and a half ago, she said, but she still feels the pull at Christmastime to volunteer at the mission.

Approximately 350 homeless men and women were treated Friday to a dinner of tomato soup, salad, smoked turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, mixed vegetables and a fruit flan.

Great examples of volunteerism

Too many times people who get into volunteering are looking for what they can get out of it, instead of what they can put into it. We found a couple of great examples of volunteerism in a story from Mississippi's Clarion Ledger.

The story profiles a trio of college students who went overseas to help. Some of the duties they did over the summer were just simple chores, or long walks to village to village.

We will focus on two of the students for our snippet. Writer Galen Holley introduces us to Ben Long, and Sally McDonnell.

"It was probably the most challenging and most rewarding experience of my life," said Ben Long, a sophomore in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi.

What started as a language immersion trip for college credit turned into a life-changing experience for the Corinth native.

Long spent a month learning Spanish with friends in Costa Rica but when his time was up he felt restless. Since nothing back home demanded his immediate attention he hoped a plane to Guatemala. Despite being pretty much alone, Long threw himself headlong into helping at hospitals and orphanages.

"I didn't really have a plan," he said, recalling how his shaky Spanish and willingness to do whatever was needed helped him navigate the native culture for almost two months.

"I just trusted God was leading me in the right direction," he said.
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Maria Presley of Shannon started the summer in Mozambique working with AIDS patients. A grant from Emory University, where she's enrolled in divinity school, allowed her to help destitute women and to study ethnic and religious conflicts. After a month of working with native people, Presley set out alone across western Africa.

"I just tried to engage in as many conversations as I could and to learn as much as I could about how people talk about conflict and how they deal with it," she said.
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Presley's motivation stemmed from her belief that everyone is "called to place ourselves outside ourselves and to push beyond what makes us comfortable."

Teens spending part of the Summer, volunteering

Teens from Wichita, Kansas learned more about the plight of the homeless in the U.S. Instead of heading to a foreign country for their missions trip this year, the teens from Andover's Hope Community Church spent a week working for the Inter-Faith Ministries homeless shelter.



From the Wichita Eagle, writer Joe Rodriguez spoke to one of the teens, Aaron Schnieder.

"They're just nice people that something bad happened to," he said.

Schneider learned the lesson as part of a mission project with more than 25 other teenagers from Andover's Hope Community Church.

They spent the week away from their homes, and away from their cell phones and other electronic devices.

They were allowed to bring only what fit into one backpack and $20 each to cover their expenses, including food.
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The idea was to make the teens more aware of issues such as poverty and homelessness and provide them the opportunity to do local mission work, a project leader said.

Lacey Gould, event coordinator for the youth at Hope Community Church, said many of the teens didn't even know local people struggled with issues such as homelessness. Many teens, she said, had the perception of homeless as "scary" and "older men."

"I think they realized this week it really could be anybody," she said. "They met a lot of families with children. I think they just started to perceive it differently."