04 December 2001

BONN: In the past few years, Spanish universities have become aware of the role they can play in mobilizing volunteers among students to enhance human development and make society more active and participatory to promote social justice.

Given the active role of their members, especially students, universities in Spain have become dynamic institutions. They build bridges between the needs of different social groups and the interests of students who want to participate in voluntary activities.

Gradually, the support and information services of voluntary organizations have been integrated into university life. Managed by university rector offices, or more recently, by university foundations, these services have developed various models of volunteer action to respond to current needs of different social groups. In supporting volunteer action in universities, they help encourage solidarity and volunteer spirit among students and other university community members. They provide voluntary support in two ways: by offering volunteer assistance to the university community itself or by providing support to non-profit organizations.

In Santiago de Compostela, university volunteers provide lecture notes to students who are physically disabled or who have to stay in hospital for a long period of time. They pick up foreign students at the airport, drive them to the university campus and help them register or find a room. In the same way, they assist new students by sharing their knowledge of the university site or of the city. University students also help organize promotion or solidarity campaigns such as a fund-raising drive recently launched for the benefit of volunteer groups in El Salvador. They raised one million pesetas in a few hours.

Every student who expresses an interest in offering assistance to students or cooperating with a social volunteer organization has the chance to present ideas personally during an interview. This interview, conducted by university programme managers, results in a decision about the appropriateness of the candidate for a position. The student is registered as a university volunteer in order to benefit from the laws on volunteer service that exist at regional and national levels, including the right to training, insurance and a certificate of his/her involvement in a volunteer activity.

But the role of the university is not limited to informing students about campus life or voluntary organizations. It also provides them with training on their rights, duties, tasks, timetable and other information to ensure smooth cooperation in their volunteer work with students, older people, children, family as well as in support of causes such as environmental protection.

Through active cooperation with various non-profit organizations (NGOs), universities have noted that training is crucial for ensuring volunteer effectiveness. This is particularly true in the case of small and newly-formed organizations that do not have the capacity to train volunteers. Support and information service members organize training sessions in the different fields of volunteer activity throughout the academic year. The university invites specialists from NGOs to its training sessions to share experiences with the university volunteers. These volunteers in turn pass on the information within the network created by the different university voluntary associations. This creates a healthy environment for developing skills, as goodwill is no longer sufficient to respond to the needs of society.