Six years ago, we started with three volunteers, and today we gladly count on the solidarity of 25 wonderful people. A great collaborative growth was celebrated on December 5th, the International Day of Volunteers, with a nice brunch that brought together volunteers and staff members of Road of Hope.
During the event, the Road of Hope exec. director Patricia Barendregt talked about the goals of our organisation and how we can pursue our best to support others. The volunteers also suggested many beautiful ideas to help people and develop the organisation.
Every day we count on the contribution of volunteer work with at least one of the five projects we implement now. Each of the volunteers has the experience and a reason to step forward. “The plight of Ukrainian refugees, in particular, touched and inspired me to take up the activity. I felt a need to help out. The experience has been multi-layered – enjoyment from interactions with participants, a feeling of making some contribution to alleviating someone else’s distress, empathy.”, said David Koopman, English teacher.
To the Dutch teacher Levi de Jon, who first contact Road of Hope for a research project among the women participating in the Breath of Hope project, “it has been very interesting and a pleasure spending time with the women of the Breath of Hope project, getting to know them, as well as their stories and experiences. I gained a lot of new insights by meeting all these women from various countries and backgrounds while trying to learn new things from each other”.
While volunteering practices are diverse, dynamic and ever-changing, we identify compassion, empathy and acceptance as standard components of most volunteering activities. If you identify yourself in these stories, we look forward to you joining us to contribute to a world where displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers will be efficiently and humanely integrated into their host society.
Click here to register now.