Charitable Volunteer Work: Practice and Dimensions

Professor Qadi Abdelmajid

Laboratory of Globalization and Economic Policies - University of Algiers 3

Volunteer work is a humanitarian practice that continues to expand and grow in scope due to many factors, including wars, crises, natural disasters, and imbalances in distribution systems and relations between peoples. It expresses a humanitarian practice linked to the noble meanings of goodness. It is also a fundamental pillar in the transition towards building civil society institutions and ensuring the sustainability of their services.

First - The Nature of Volunteer Work

Regarding the terminology related to volunteer work, there are many terms used: volunteer work, social work, charitable work, community work, solidarity work, cooperative work, the third sector, social and solidarity economy...

As for definitions, there are many definitions of volunteer work, but we will limit ourselves to the following:

Definition by Mustafa Khater: "Volunteer work is the sacrifice of time, effort, and/or money without expecting a material return commensurate with the effort expended."

Haski-Leventhal D defines volunteering as: "A voluntary activity undertaken without personal gain or reward, carried out through a formal organization or group of people, and without any shared relationship or interests between the volunteer and the beneficiary."

Salah al-Din Jawhar defines volunteering as: "The effort exerted by any individual for their community or specific groups without compensation, in which they assume the responsibilities of working through social institutions based on satisfying their own internal human feelings and motivations."

The International Labour Organization defines volunteering as: "A person engaged in volunteering is someone who voluntarily undertakes any activity without material compensation or reward in order to achieve common interests or to help improve the living standards of others, whether neighbors or human communities in general. Transportation allowances, meals, or gifts given to the volunteer are not considered wages." Unpaid work required as part of education or training programs is excluded from volunteer work.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi's definition of charitable work: "Charitable work refers to the material or moral benefit that a person provides to others without receiving any material compensation, but rather to achieve a personal goal greater than the material reward. For some, this goal might be gaining praise and fame, or other worldly objectives." The believer does this for reasons related to the Hereafter, hoping for reward from God and entry into Paradise, in addition to the blessings, good life, inner peace, and priceless spiritual happiness they receive in this world.

Tahir ibn Ashur defined volunteer work by defining donation as: "The giving of money or effort based on mutual support among members of the community, serving the meaning of brotherhood. It is a noble and essential benefit and a beautiful Islamic ethical practice through which the needy are helped and the poor are enriched."

The Dictionary of Social Work defines volunteer work as: "Any work performed by an individual or organization on a regular basis without receiving payment for the work performed, regardless of its size, level, type, or material and moral cost."

Generally, volunteer work is based on four dimensions:

The first dimension: The voluntary nature of the work;

The second dimension: The nature of the reward;

The third dimension: The context in which the volunteer work is carried out;

The fourth dimension: The beneficiary of the volunteer work.