B. Mezgebu
15 August 2007
column
Addis Ababa — I have a neighbor who is a retired government civil servant. Every once in a while, in any given week, he would make a supervisory stroll around our immediate neighborhood on the watch out for one thing: plastic bags laden with an assortment of trash which have been sneakily placed under someone else's fence, as people in Addis are wont to do these days. He would, just by himself, gather the garbage and the weather permitting anyway, set them on fire.
He is a good example of altruistic voluntarism by people who give their time and effort free to communities. What makes this volunteer a little different and an interesting role model is that he is a company of one. He has no sponsors and expects no reward or recognition from any corner. He is a vigilante of a sort. But his vigilance is after the event. He is not out to catch the offenders red-handed. He is simply after serenely cleaning in the aftermath of someone littering.
I often ask myself why every one of us cannot be like him, especially when I see young people, young enough to be his children observe from the sidelines as he goes about in his one-man act. But it seems that it is something that people are not necessarily wired to do.
Having said that though, let me add that numbers show that pro bono work is on the rise worldwide, which all things considered can only be beneficial to society. Voluntarism itself is also evolving, which is as it should be, since complexities abound in today's world.
In Ethiopia too, voluntarism as it is known by its modern definition has been going on for sometime now and there are NGOs that are actively working on linking volunteers to the work. That is not to say, however, that today sees the height of voluntarism in the country or that it gets any special attention.
One kind of pro bono work which is on the rise in many countries is what is called supervoluntarism. Involved in this are the kind of people who are at the pinnacle of their professional skills and who are willing to offer, (and are doing so already), their skills for good use.
As one British newspaper put it," It is hardly surprising that in our celebrity-obsessed culture, many charities resort to a sprinkling of stardust to catch the public interest. However, a growing number see greater and longer-lasting benefits to be gained from supervolunteers, whose skills and connections can make a positive impact on a charity's future plans." When one talks about such hot, supervoluntarism in the context of Ethiopia, there is probably a tendency to think of expatriate volunteers only or maybe also about Ethiopians in diaspora whose expertise is supposed to make a difference in the country. There is some such voluntary work in Ethiopia at present, although not on the level to have that much real impact.
Let's not forget, however, the fact that in the country itself, we have a large pool of highly educated and experienced people who are not exactly busy in their line of work as they themselves would want to be.. The know-how and experience of these people could be mined, as it were, for the good of the country by voluntary work.
Many of them are retired but are still able-bodied with their faculties undiminished. Still others are not working full-time for one reason or another. With minimal financial outlay many of these people with so much accumulated talent and experience under their belt, are like deep reservoir waiting to be tapped.
In a fairly large country like Ethiopia, voluntary work could certainly make a marked difference in several fields by filling the gaps in capacity. One of these areas could easily be the conservation of natural resources. In this environmentally aware age, Ethiopia could make use of the various voluntary agencies in this field of work and the thing we are supposed to do on our part is to ask.
There is such a glut of expertise in many parts of the world in areas that we may be lacking here today, such as flood control, river-management, etc. for instance. But for top-level expertise, we don't need to always look overseas.
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