By Nellie Kapatuka
Lilongwe, Mana: Malawi joins the rest of the world in commemorating the international volunteer day, with a fresh call for youths in the country to embrace volunteerism as a pathway to their career development.
The call was made on Tuesday in Lilongwe, during the international volunteer day commemoration.
Minister of Trade, Roy Kachale Banda, who represented the country’s Vice President at the function, said volunteerism has great benefits for youths in terms of gaining what he called soft skills that are developed through interaction with other people.
“Volunteerism develops a sense of responsibility within the job seeker when they do these selfless acts (volunteering) hence I fully subscribe to the idea and encourage our young people who are looking for jobs to also go for volunteerism as that will also help boost their CV,” said Banda.
Concurring with Banda, Deputy Minister of Labour, Vera Kamtukule, said there are a lot of young people entering the job market every year with very good qualifications but the job market is not enough to accommodate them all due to lack of industrialization in the country.
She said the Graduate Internship programme that Government is implementing is very close to volunteering work, where young people can gain the much-needed experience to set themselves up in industries and help government on its job creation agenda.
Said Kamtukule: “The good work the interns perform, just like volunteers, cannot go unnoticed during this auspicious occasion. They are doing a good job to bridge the gap in the public service.”
“We must therefore develop mechanisms that will replicate this even at community level. People are willing to volunteer their time and resources to advance good causes, we must endeavor to ensure that we direct and guide them accordingly for greater impact.” she said.
United Nation resident coordinator, Shigeki Komatsubara, reiterated on the need for promotion of volunteerism in the country, saying it is an effective tool in steering the progression of socio-economic, environmental and also cultural development.
“If we can mobilize more young people to intentionally sacrifice their time to work with us through formal and informal volunteerism, we can make things happen in a better and bigger way and I look forward on behalf of the UN, to promote volunteerism spirit for Malawi’s inclusive development,” he said.
During the event which was held under the theme Volunteer now for our common future, the UN resident coordinator made a symbolic presentation to the guest of honour Hon. Kachale, of the 2022 state of the world’s volunteerism report which features a case study from Malawi.
