The importance of being a volunteer

The Sociology Teacher Stephannie Mello das Neves, 23 years, has been working as a volunteer for AFS Intercultura Brasil for almost six years. She discovered the organization in a lecture given at her school during high school and decided to participate in a exchange program offered by AFS and study for an year in Germany. Today Stephannie assists the Voluntary Development part and is responsible for Sending and Receiving exchange students in the AFS Goiânia Committee. She spoke to the AFS Goiânia Committee Blog about the importance of being a volunteer in the organization.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Why did you decide to become an AFS volunteer?

Stephannie: In first place, when I came back from Germany I wanted to repay what the AFS Brazil volunteers and AFS Germany volunteers had done for me (and all the other exchange students too). Then I discovered that the organization was also a place where I could experience some skills I didn’t know I had. Later, I realized I could also develop projects and make them work in AFS. I’ve always been a restless person and the way this organization has always been an open and adding place has motivated me a lot.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: What’s the importance of being an AFS volunteer for your personal and professional life?

Stephannie: In AFS I’ve known a lot of wonderful people who have helped me grow, from volunteers that worked side by side, to host families and exchange students. My belief is that anyone, regardless of age or country of origin, has something new to add in our lives and that thought is always present inside the organization. Today I’m grateful for being part of AFS.

Professionally speaking, my experience as a volunteer has reached proportions I would have never imagined. I’ve already gotten two jobs because of my work with an international organization; in one of the jobs I went to New Zealand and in the other I went to England. Recently I went back to Germany to study for a year in a German university and I’m sure my experience as a volunteer made the difference during the selection. In motivation letters I always point it out. Voluntary work is a real work and sometimes it demands more motivation than other kinds of work, because what we gain is not material. Without a doubt, this experience has given me more tranquility and self-reliance to face the job market. AFS is part of my history.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Do you believe that the work done by the organization volunteers is important for society?

Stephannie: I believe it is. AFS has tradition and every now and then I meet people that have been part of the organization at some point in their lives. Working for tolerance between different cultures never is and never will be enough. It’s a work that can never stop.

For me, voluntary work is more than a display of solidarity; it’s an act of resistance. For people to express their capabilities to help others without expecting any money in exchange, in a world controlled by the rationality of capital, that’s an act of resistance for sure. Organizations that unite this kind of people, willing to resist, are also places to express creativity, for social entrepreneurship, for liberty and for responsibility.