Volunteers are people who offer their services for free — they freely offer to take part in an enterprise or organisation without being paid.

Well, I would prefer to call these lots selfless, which best describes those who are concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than their own.

They are unselfish.

But would the unselfish part apply still if a person volunteers in exchange for experience, self-satisfaction or a higher reward?

Can they still be called unselfish?

I know they might not be rewarded where they are volunteering their services, but the experience they get from volunteering, be it work experience or self satisfaction is somehow, at the end of the day, beneficial to them.

People volunteer for a wide variety of reasons, especially wanting to help others.

But there are some benefits for oneself from volunteering.

Take for example people who believe in the existence of God.

They feed the poor and they do a whole lot of good without any payment and mostly with money from their personal pockets.

This lot also dedicate their time free and this, to me, also sounds too selfless.

But why do they do it, really?

From my observations I realised that most do it because it’s their Christian duty to look after the poor.

And upon observing further, it also emerged that most also do it because they want to be in the good books of their Creator — to win God’s favour.

They don’t expect any payment from the very people they volunteer their services to but they hope to be rewarded by God.

So if a reward from God is the motivating factor can we still say they are selfless?

Mind you that reward is very personal and mostly goes to those who intentionally undertook a certain exercise with perfection.

I’m tempted to say everyone is selfish but the above example deter me from arriving at such conclusions it as it paints a picture of people who are showing consideration for others while also concerned chiefly with personal profit or pleasure — a reward from the Almighty.

My dictionary defines a selfish person as lacking consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.

The example I have given above does not entirely fit the definition.

People might be uncomfortable with the notion that a volunteer benefits from doing volunteer work as there has been a long held tradition of viewing volunteering as a form of charity, based on altruism and selflessness.

I’m mindful that volunteering revolves around the desire to serve others but is it not somehow selfish if it has a motive to be benefit?

Is it not selfish if I volunteer at a certain organisation in order to gain or improve my skill?

Do we not help people based on the notion that we would be helped as well? Is that not a selfish motive?

For recognition? To get to know a community? To demonstrate commitment to a cause or belief? To act out a fantasy? To escape from something? To feel proud? For satisfaction from accomplishment?

I leave it to you to decide. We all probably have some special reasons of our own.

Keep volunteering for without it some of the things would not be as they are now.

International Volunteer Managers (IVM) Day is held on November 5, every year.

Organisations worldwide will be celebrating the skills, motivation and preparation that their Volunteer Managers put toward thousands of causes each year.

This event was created by the United Nations to encourage celebrations across the globe to recognise the invaluable contribution made by  volunteer managers.

The international theme this year is “Volunteer Managers – Visionaries for Volunteering”. MM