Helping others is rewarding but don’t expect to swan in and win plaudits. Know your strengths, play to those and, above all, stick to commitments
As 2022 begins, after nearly two years of isolation and restrictions of various kinds, people are desperate to reach out and connect. Giving time, energy and attention to something that makes the world a better place is rewarding for ourselves and the “recipients” – but it also comes loaded with ethical pitfalls and muddy motivations. If we’re all to begin 2022 with a full plate of activities and a clean conscience, I want to consider the best way of approaching volunteering.
I began doing outreach work in prisons, arts charities, detention centres and asylum seekers’ resource centres in 2012 and my fifth book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices, was an account of some of that work. It bothers me that in the seven years since it came out, the trials and privations of the many people I worked with have only grown worse. The debate has become more toxic and provisions are ever more meagre. Recently I contributed to Refugee Tales: Volume IV, a collection of refugee testimonies included in The Walk festival, when Little Amal walked across Europe.
