Translator: Emma Dovlatyan Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
Probably most of us have helped people during our lives,
tried to change something in our environment։
Then we thought or someone told us,
“Why should I care if nothing changes?”
or, “Are you that stupid to work for free?" and stuff like this.
Some of us might even have thought they could be right.
Have you ever tried to think the opposite and to see benefits of being a volunteer?
Let me help you.
Volunteering is a big opportunity to discover your own capabilities.
It’s a chance to feel that you are a part of a group or community.
Well, it’s impossible to solve all the problems on the Earth
by volunteering, but we can make our community a little bit better.
The best proof of this is volunteers helped hundreds of people
who were trapped under the ruins because of the deadly earthquake
in 1988 in Armenia.
Another example is Danish doctor, Maria Jacobson,
voluntarily fed 4500 kids for several days in 1915.
In 2009, volunteers saved 8,000 people's lives in the Philippines
during the flood.
And after all, it is only thanks to volunteers in military units
that we have Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia today.
I think another benefit of volunteering is that it helps us
prepare for future careers or our own business.
Now let’s imagine a scenario: All of us have written at least one C.V.
Some of us even submitted it for a job opportunity.
There are people who wrote their name, date of birth, place of birth,
and of course, education, and that seemed to be all.
In "professional experience" some were hesitating about what to write,
others were hesitating what they missed, after writing a lot of things.
If we were the employer, we would hire the second type of CV writer.
It turns out, that having success in job placement
depends on your active lifestyle,
volunteering and of course, our desire to help others.
You can hardly imagine what I found on the internet
when I was searching to find materials for my TEDxtalk.
An article titled “Do charity more often; it’s useful”.
It was about a research conducted by English scientists and published
in BMC healthcare magazine revealed
that volunteering improves one's psychological health
and prolongs life.
Comparing the health of 40 volunteers with random people of society,
scientists proved that mortality rate is 20 per cent lower among volunteers
than among other people.
Those 40 volunteers noted they have lower rates of depression,
and can handle life difficulties easily.
Are there any volunteers in our audience?
I am glad to see many hands.
Please be honest, have you ever been paid for volunteering?
I am sure not.
How many "Thank you"-s and smiles have you earned
for what you have done?
I believe a lot!
I also earned such smiles during the past six years.
I am very positively influenced by a little girl's smile,
who ran home right after getting a booklet
that showed dangers of smoking, to help her father to give it up.
That smile brought light to my world
and gave me the strength to work for the whole day.
I suggest you try to remember your most appreciated works.
Remember the bright smiles on the faces that you earned,
and that warm "Thank you!" someone said to you.
Have you ever thought about how much they are worth?
I suggest you make a formula and count how much
a "Thank you" and a smile is worth.
If we agree that one "Thank you" and one smile is worth ten dollars each,
if we consider that an active volunteer works on average 200 days a year
and gets five "Thank you"-s and five smiles within a day,
counting by our formula, a volunteer will earn about $10 000 each year.
If we divide this number into 12 months,
then an active volunteer earns about ten times more money
than people with average salaries here in Armenia
But let's agree that these numbers are not as important as the warmth
we receive and we give.
And don't you think that the more we receive and give smiles
the less stress we have.
And we are able to handle difficulties more positively and easily.
As Victor Hugo said,
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved."
Believe me, volunteers are always loved.
Try to find happiness, not in material things,
but in the love and warmth of people!
(Applause)