These days, time seems to be shorter than before. We are living on the edge because of work, schedules, meetings, technology, social commitments, and many more. We all dream a better world and we wish we could contribute to get it: for us, for our kids, for their future; but sometimes, even the idea of doing extra chores is unthinkable. Only if we could find an easy way to do it…
Back in summer 2007 in the UK, Mike Bright was wondering the same. He realized the lack of promotion of easy, quick and low commitment actions that could benefit worthy causes, known today as Microvolunteering. He learnt a little bit of web design and with the help of some volunteers, he founded on December 2008 the project Help from Home, to convey the notion that people could volunteer on the go, on demand and on their own terms – even in their pyjamas if they want to!
Help from Home is a volunteer driven unincorporated association that runs a free community service to promote and encourage Microvolunteering. There’s plenty of actions out there to benefit worthy causes that can be completed in less than 30 minutes: donate hair to disadvantaged children suffering from long term medical hair loss, play online games where a donation at no cost to you, will be donated to charity, write a letter to a seriously ill child and put a smile on their face, or contribute to abolishing slavery by signing an online petition. The beneficiaries are essentially not different from the traditional ways of volunteering; just the delivery method is different and empowers people to realise they can make a difference on their own terms.
As their name suggests, they primarily promote microvolunteering as home based, but they also have developed various other ongoing microvolunteering projects called Help from School, Help from Work, Help from Seniors and Help from Holidays, among others.
“Help from Home’s mission is to inspire you to volunteer your time for worthy causes from the comfort of your own home. Once you’ve completed a voluntary action, sit back in your chair and say with pride: ‘I helped to change the world. Wow!!’”
If you wish to learn more about Microvolunteering, please see the attached introduction and feel free to visit their website.
(Source via Help from Home . Thank you, Mike Bright for your GOOD submission)
