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Volunteering is not 'cute'4

Governance | 24 Feb 2012

The perception that volunteering is 'cute' couldn't be more wrong, says Oxford Hub President Rachel Nichols. But its challenges are bejewelled with glittering social rewards.

As president of Oxford Hub, in which capacity I aim to inspire and support other students to get involved in social action of any kind, I am proud to say that I am also a volunteer.

Students are often unfairly written off as apathetic community nuisances. This week however, we are part of a Student Volunteering movement which is proving just how big and positive an impact we can make.

A close friend put it to me that, “volunteering is cute”. The volunteering I undertook this week belies this notion.

Campsfield Detention Centre in North Oxford is a centre for asylum seekers who are awaiting decisions on their applications. Some of the'detainees' have to wait months in this system before they are allowed to enter normal British society, or are sent back to their originating country.

Anybody who knows anything about the UK asylum system will know that it can be brutal and bewildering. Those trapped inside it are in dire need, not of our pity, but of our compassion and our understanding. Visiting these detainees is a first step to understanding a system which is incomprehensible from the outside. This week, as every week, I went to visit a detainee to offer practical advice and support.

This is a hard sphere in which to begin as a volunteer - background checks and shadowing, not to mention being searched and fingerprinted in the centre itself, make visits particularly intimidating. Yet I still do it, because volunteering at this centre brings me such rewarding enlightenment - the moment when all of my preconceptions of a 'detainee' break down in the face of the humour and warmth of the man I visit. I am no longer conversing with the asylum seeker, but laughing and joking with a guy who likes football and is teaching me Arabic.

This kind of experience makes a mockery of the condescending notion of 'cuteness' put forward by my friend. But the prevalence of that attidude means that individual volunteers often lack emotional and resource support for the challenges which they encounter. I was lucky enough to be working with an organisation that has a longstanding and excellent reputation, both with its volunteers and with the centre. I was carefully inducted and taught the complexities of the asylum system. 

This kind of support is crucial to ensuring that the volunteer has the impact they are so capable of – acting now and taking knowledge and awareness with them into the future.

Who's Who: Rachel Nichols