Interactivity

The volunteering work originated in the middle of the 16th century with the installation of Santa Casa de Misericórdia, in Vila de Santos, and has been achieving bold and revolutionary aspects.

In the past, this noble activity donated time, human and financial resources for the common benefit, and accomplished the mission of minimizing the suffering of the poor ones – giving them assistance and support for a dignifying life – now, this movement involving several sectors in society behaves like an important transformation agent in the public and private sphere.

The redemocratization process that occurred in the end of the 80’s may have differentiated the merely philanthropic volunteering from the social actor committed to the community development promotion. With the uprising of NGOs – “Non-Governmental Organizations” – civil society entities concerned with matters of public interests – the claim for citizen’s right and environmental defense were institutionalized, acquiring more strength in the national and global scenario.

In the flow of these changes, the corporate volunteering got stronger. Companies are getting more aware of their role in society; assuming responsibility for promoting development of those not included in their staff. This way, not only will they contribute to the development of a just society, but will also – and especially – grow with the learning acquired in these new experiences.

After breaking the walls that physically delimited the units, the companies found a vast ocean of knowledge such as the recovery of essential values to life and business: respect, solidarity, dignity, ethics. The sub products of volunteering, when genuinely practiced in the organizations are: improvement in the organizational environment; the effective integration among people in life and business; the improvement in abilities such as communication, leadership, teamwork; the discovery of individual talents promoting the collective progress; the productive and reasonable increase of processes; the bond establishment with community and local public authorities, among many others.

Above all, volunteering promotes relations humanization among men and among men and environment. These are also crucial matters for the companies. The organizations are formed by people. The more harmonic the established relations among them, the more effective the produced results in these interactions will be. Simultaneously, the organizations will always depend on natural resources to be productive. Many of them are not infinite. One should discuss the work model to ensure the long-term survival, as it is an urgent matter, and volunteering involving everybody in this discussion may be a supreme proof of sagacity.

We hope that volunteering keeps promoting the noble promotion of society development with the recovery of values that should guide the human essence.

Juliana Santana is coordinator of Bunge Foundation projects