In the last two quarters, Caritas volunteers logged a total of 2,38,482 Workdays of volunteering in different development and humanitarian programmes. 

Though it looks exciting, at the same time it is challenging to manage such a big and diverse volunteer force. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are getting the best out of them that we possibly could. 

Caritas India adopted “Volunteering” as one of its Key Strategic pillars and joined the transformational journey of creating a social impact. Caritas India pledged to identify, engage and retain social agents as volunteers. The endeavour aims to transform volunteers through meaningful engagement and recognize and celebrate their contributions towards achieving her mission of reaching out to the most marginalised.

Volunesia is an annual event of Caritas India to acknowledge the contribution of volunteers for their selfless service to humankind. This year’s theme “solidarity through volunteering” highlighted the value of volunteers and their ability to create positive change.

Pope Francis sent his message to the volunteers on World youth day saying, “volunteers are the strength of the Church” as they are “a dimension of the Church’s mission because you go there with your volunteering and maintain so many actions of the Church.” It is said that one should be willing to offer one’s own time and expect nothing in return, but the truth is that volunteering will bring a world of rewards that one might never have expected. 

This year, a two-day event was organised at the national capital on 17-18 December 2022 to recognise the efforts of volunteers and thank them for their pivotal role. The two days were meticulously planned to train the volunteers from North and West India on “Practising positive and inclusive leadership” followed by the volunteer award ceremony. The event brought 35 volunteers and coordinators on a common platform for cross-learning and building better coordination. The program also linked the Good Samaritan values and Caritas India’s vision and mission.

Fr. (Dr.) Jolly Puthenpura, the Assistant Executive Director of Caritas India encouraged the volunteers for rendering their service irrespective of caste or religion. He motivated the volunteers to be selfless and forgo the comforts of life to follow the Samaritan values. Caritas India envisages its volunteers as social agents of change rendering their services to the community in need without expecting any benefits.

A workshop on leadership was conducted by Ms Jenny Joy, the resource person for the day who shared insight into true volunteerism and the dynamism translated into social action. The workshop began with an icebreaker followed by an interactive session on “Who is a volunteer?”. The event was followed by a group activity wherein the participants had to solve a situational case study considering themselves as volunteers and present them. The next session was on leadership, types of leaders and aspects of leadership. The workshop concluded with participants preparing a 3-month action plan for volunteering initiatives.

Volunteers from the zones were rewarded for their exemplary contributions on the second day in a public function. The Volunesia 2022 received hundreds of nominations from across the country under eight categories: Emerging Volunteer, Rising star Volunteer, Hand Raisers Volunteer, Social Impact Volunteer, Resilience, Leadership and Distinguished Volunteer of the Year. A panel of three eminent judges selected the winners in each category from the North and West Zone.

The winners including Pooja Devi (Uttar Pradesh), Kazi Sameeroddin (Maharashtra) under the Emerging Volunteer category; Archana Biswas (West Bengal) under the Rising Star Volunteer Award category; Regi John (Uttar Pradesh) under the Hand Raisers Volunteer Award category; Afzal Ahmed (Uttar Pradesh), Ritu Sharma (Uttarakhand), Raja Mardi (West Bengal), Munni Devi (Uttar Pradesh) under Social Impact Volunteer Award category; Amber Raza and Manju Devi (Uttarakhand) under Resilience category; Shakuntala L Bhilare (Maharashtra), Sonu Yadav (Uttarakhand), Narender Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), Lalimma Mathew (Delhi), Pukhraj Kharol (Rajasthan) under Leadership Award category; and Upmanyu Tyaagi (Uttar Pradesh) and Deepak Minj (Delhi) under the Distinguished Volunteer of the Year category.

All the volunteers were appreciated for taking out their personal time and coming to a long distance to participate in this get-together. Fr. Sushil, the Administrator, of Caritas India wished all the volunteers an enthusiastic and compassionate journey of volunteering.