Poor Management Throws Damper on Volunteer Spirit

Volunteerism, the so-called “essence” of civic participation, is blooming, but an effective management system has yet to be put in place. As the society continues to grow in scale, it now hosts a number of international events and deals with various kinds of disasters. It becomes increasingly important, therefore, to have an advanced management system for volunteerism.

▽ Strong Trend of Volunteerism

More than 430,000 volunteers flocked to flood-hit areas nationwide when typhoon Rusa swept through the country in August this year. Earlier, some 16,000 volunteers played leading roles during the World Cup Games in June.

The 1986 Asian and the 1988 Olympic Games served as a turning point in promoting civic participation, and later beginning 1994, volunteer activities became a part of standards for student evaluation.

Community sprit has also contributed to the increase in volunteers. According to a poll conducted by grassroots organization Volunteer21, 16.3% of the 1500 adults surveyed answered they participate in volunteer service more than once a year, which is up from 14% in 1999. When added with people working without joining volunteer groups, the figure is estimated to reach some 40%.

▽ Outdated Management System

The authorities, however, failed to effectively mobilize and use volunteers during the recovery operations after typhoon Rusa.

“I visited Gangreung City Hall in Gangwon on Sept. 11 to apply for volunteer service, but they kept me waiting for the whole day saying they would soon take care of it,” said Lee, a 42-year-old barber living in Incheon. “The must have been very busy with clean up work, but there seemed to be a problem with the volunteer management system.”

The authorities also have yet to set up a volunteer database system that can tell who is good for what.

▽ Finding Solutions

“One way is to establish a nationwide volunteer service center by connecting local centers dispersed throughout cities and villages,” experts suggest. Another challenge is how to educate human resources and manage data. Volunteer21 and some centers in Busan and Daegu areas are the only organizations that provide training for volunteers. About 2,000 people have so far finished training courses, a meager number compared to 100,000 in Britain with about the same population.

“In the U.S., a number of grassroots organizations closely work together under directions of the disaster relief headquarters,” pointed out Lee Gang-hyeon, secretary general of Volunteer21. “But our local centers have yet to play leading roles largely due to lack of support from local governments.”

“It is encouraging that we witnessed mature volunteerism through cleanup and recovery efforts following the typhoon, but there are still problems to tackle,” said Suh Sung-yun, Director at Gangreung Volunteer Service Center.

Sun-Woo Kim sublime@donga.com