LESSON 6A READING AND VOCABULARY
MORE POPULAR THAN BEFORE
Have you ever worked for nothing? I don’t mean doing the dishes or studying. I mean, doing things you don’t have to do without getting paid. If you have, you’re not the only one. Volunteer work is more popular today than it’s ever been before. A lot of people do it. In the US about 65 million citizens, that’s over 25 percent of the population, do billions of hours of volunteer work every year: an average of about three hours per person per week. But why do people do it? Why do they work for free?
BECAUSE WE CARE
One reason is because they really care about something and want to work for an association that supports it. It could be any organisation. For example, many volunteers work with organisations to protect the environment. They spend their weekends planting trees, they organise talks to raise awareness about saving endangered animals or they set up websites for groups that encourage people to use bikes not cars.
PEOPLE HELP PEOPLE
Another reason people do unpaid work is to help others. They volunteer to make their communities better: they spend time with sick children in hospitals; they serve meals to the homeless; or they water the plants in neighbourhood gardens. Volunteers also help people overseas.
VOLUNTARY TOURISM
Recently, it has become common for young people to do voluntary work abroad. These ‘voluntourists’ teach languages, they work in hospitals or they help bring clean water to villages. They do it because they want to help others, they want to make a difference. But they also want to travel, to make friends and to challenge themselves in new, exciting and perhaps difficult situations. For instance, many people from around the world apply to volunteer for the Jordan Valley Excavation Project. They hope to use the work to find out about the world and also about themselves.
