The world has something in common now. It is invisible; it brought some people closer and separated some. It created love and hatred at the same time.

This thing is showing us how interconnected we are, ever than previously imagine. I mean, we know we are interconnected, but not to this magnitude.
Coronavirus! This virus brought the whole world to a standstill. Some were hit hard, others were able to manage it and yet others are using corruption to manipulate it.
At the initial stage of the pandemic, we saw many goodwill donations and messages of hope from individuals and organizations. So that so many people predicted that after we overcome the pandemic, the world will be a better place.

However, the reverse is the case. We are seeing so many insensitivity, bias, tribalism, racism and more cases of domestic violence that even Aso Rock is not spared. This rising cases of inhuman acts cause one to wonder, “where did we go wrong?”. We may or may not know what went wrong, but we should be looking at possible solutions as well.

One that easily come to mind is the need to inculcate volunteering into our value system- educationally and socially. It should be a culture. If we had encourage volunteering as a value system in our country, a serving minister would not be telling us that he is not in politics to serve.

Author Dan Brown said “to live in a world without becoming aware of the meaning of world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books “. Volunteering gives people a meaning. It makes one live for something; it makes you human. Of course, it has other numerous benefits.

It is high time, our educational system adopt and promote volunteering across all levels of education. We need a saner and a more stable world for present and future generations- you could term it sustainability. And this starts with volunteering.

Volunteering helps promote peaceful cohesion, encourages diversity and respect for others(irrespective of their culture), allows for innovation and teamwork, continuous learning and service to humanity amongst others. It gives you work experience, too.
Someone may say that we have National Youth Service Corp (NYSC ).

NYSC as a scheme is meant for adults, and not all adults enroll for it. In fact the scheme would make more meaning when children and teenagers are already expose to servitude through volunteering. Then no one will be questioning the essence of NYSC for every new batch that will be going to camp.

Now, more than ever, there is need to ensure volunteering is part of our educational system in Nigeria. Even if it is the only thing we will be adding when school finally resumes…When it does.
It is not enough to go to school to learn and cram to pass. We must start putting to good use what we learn at every stage through volunteering.

If we want want to move forward as a nation, the time time is now. And our children should be involve in nation-building. This can truly manifest through volunteering.

Children exposed to volunteering early in life grow up to become responsible adults, because they learn to develop empathy, do away with self absorption and are exposed to civic responsibility.

While we still debate the reopening of schools, let us develop a new framework towards developing our educational system. And this framework should adopt active volunteering early on in life for a Nellie Nigerians, going forward.

Let’s bring back humanity!

count | 143

Volunteering, the New Curriculum – Christiana O. Agada