Discurso y poder en La novia oscura y las relaciones de subordinación económica y

Motivations for volunteering

The desire to volunteer usually comes in the first week of the event, which coincides with the peak media coverage of emergencies10_{. The need for volunteers, including}

spontaneous volunteers, to aid in long-term community recovery can continue long after the media coverage has dissipated and the offers of help have dwindled. The nature of volunteering is changing. While many people are still content to follow the traditional path of joining an organisation, there is a trend towards shorter term commitment11_.

Types of volunteering

Volunteering can be ‘formal’, that is through organisations, or ‘informal’, which is not through organisations. Volunteering is very much associated with a desire to contribute to society, co-operative altruism, and reciprocity (Oppenheimer and Warburton 2000)12_{, though there can be other motivations.}

Spontaneous volunteering is a phenomenon that is increasingly part of the emergency landscape13_.

‘Spontaneous volunteers’ are those who seek to contribute on impulse—people who offer assistance following an emergency and who are not previously affiliated with recognised volunteer agencies and may or may not have relevant training, skills or experience14,15_{. Spontaneous volunteers can be individuals, or groups}

and agencies, who seek to contribute assistance but are unaffiliated with the existing official emergency management response and recovery system.

Three primary spontaneous volunteer sub-groups often referred to in literature are:

` professional: skilled and trained but previously unaffiliated—usually from outside the emergency area

` spontaneous within affected area: usually motivated by community ownership —unaffiliated and may be unskilled and/or untrained

` spontaneous out of area: converging on the scene from outside the community —unaffiliated and may be unskilled and/or untrained16_.

Research identifies five types of spontaneous volunteers, distinguished by their motivations:

`Returnees: survivors of the incident

`The Anxious: those looking to be empowered through action

`Helpers: people who are altruistically motivated

` Curious: people whose motivation is driven by wanting to know more about the emergency and see volunteering as a vehicle for this

` Exploiters: opportunistic individuals looking to gain recognition or, at worst, access to vulnerable individuals to exert power in any number of ways17_.

Finding volunteers when they are needed to assist with the huge task of sorting, distributing and ongoing management of donations can sometimes be relatively simple because ‘spontaneous volunteers’ ‘converge’ and want to be helpful. However, just because there are people wanting to volunteer does not mean that they are all useful. During the interviews conducted for the Management of Donated Goods report, one volunteer organiser has commented that she had far more volunteers than were needed to do the work and spent much of her time trying to find meaningful things for them to do. Additionally the motives for volunteering can be complex including anxiety, curiosity and exploitation19_.

Money

Experience suggests financial donations are preferable to other types of donations such as material goods. Cash ensures that money can be directed back

into the local economy and allows purchases to be made that meet the actual needs of people. This message should be reiterated through media and communications channels.

Unsolicited donations of goods, while well intended, should be discouraged20_.

People who want to help may not be in a position to make a financial donation. Providing alternative suggestions about turning goods into money (e.g. garage sales) and donating the money seems to be one way forward but only works when people are willing to put time and effort into such activities21_.

A successful recovery process identifies the needs of the emergency affected people and communities as early as possible after the event. Where existing arrangements are unable to meet the identified needs a range of options need to be explored. It may be possible to create lists of likely requirements and negotiate with corporate donors to assist in provision of these goods, by prior arrangements. Another option may be through targeted appeals. There is legislation that pertains to financial appeals, and most states have predefined appeal plans as part of their emergency planning. The distribution of financial aid can be complex, and can have both positive and negative effects.

Corporate Donors

There have been three distinct groups of corporate donors identified following emergencies:

` The first and largest group are companies who recognise the impact of emergency events and feel because they are in a position to do something, they should do so. They are not looking for recognition, they just want to assist.

` A second group seem motivated to gain some marketing advantage and want to know exactly how items are going to be used. They can be insistent on things being done the way they want. In the past, sometimes these companies’ goods have been politely declined as needs could either not be matched or the expectations from the company were not useful for the ongoing recovery process.

` The third group, which is much smaller, may usually have excess items they wish to get rid of and consider this is a good opportunity as it also provides tax incentives. These donations are only useful when they match need22_.

'In-kind donations should be based on demand, and not on what companies can supply.'

module four

Topic Area 2. Key issues relating to goodwill