Hilary Elder is one of our valued Language & Learning teachers who gives up her time freely to teach English to refugees and asylum seekers. She is also a writer and has her own blog.
After attending this year’s North East Charity Awards as a guest of Action Foundation, Hilary (above left in the picture) wrote this thought-provoking piece about her experience of the evening and what it’s like to volunteer for a charity.
The North East Charity Awards isn’t a space I ever imagined I’d enter – but Action Foundation invited me to join them as Duncan, our CEO, was shortlisted for an award. I’ve been involved in Action Foundation for about five years, first through its hosting scheme, Action Hosting, then as a volunteer language teacher and latterly as a Great North Runner. It was lovely to be sitting with a lady we have hosted for a small period of her outrageously long time waiting to be allowed to remain and work in the UK (spoiler alert – she has at last been granted permission after seven years), and near some of the running team and language people too. More on that later…
The Awards night was really fun and it was inspiring to get a tiny glimpse of the sheer scale and breadth of work that is being done with determination and joy by people who are driven to make a difference for the better. What we saw at the Awards was the cherry on top of the tip of the iceberg, and it’s important to shine a light on it in times when humankind’s capacity for awfulness seems overwhelming.
A chance to celebrate
The night included food, entertainment and, of course, awards and applause. Duncan didn’t win but it really didn’t matter. What mattered was the chance to celebrate together and to see how we are a small and gnarly piece in the huge jigsaw of people longing for life to be better for everyone.
Hilary in this year’s GNR
When I was little, charity was understood very differently from now. Charity was something kind and generous that rich and strong people did for the poor and weak. It was understood as a one-way transaction and that’s really problematic. While this model can help redistribute resources more fairly, it also cements our understanding that strong people give while the weak can only receive, and this can be a barrier to real change. Action Foundation is only one of many, many charities who are writing a new and better story.
Because the truth is that I, for example, have got at least as much out of my work with Action Foundation as I have given. I’ve made new friends, discovered new cuisine (especially jollof rice), got fitter and enjoyed the superb atmosphere of the biggest road race in the world – and got the creative stimulus for a collection of poems I’m working on. That’s a pretty good deal from my point of view, if we’re going to be transactional about it.
Charity is love
But the point is, we shouldn’t be transactional about it. Giving and receiving shouldn’t be understood as a power game but as a mutual relationship. At Action Foundation, clients don’t just receive, they have the opportunity to help (thereby gaining skills and connections themselves). But it’s more than that. Charity, properly understood, is relational. The word itself comes from one of the many Greek words for love, which of course is the most relational thing we do in our lives. I get more than a glow of self-satisfaction from volunteering: I get friendships, professional development, creative inspiration and much, much more; so much more that it no longer makes sense to measure what I give against what I get. These terms have lost their relevance.
That’s why it matters that we get to know each other and share experiences and expertise – and that our running team this year included staff, clients, volunteers and friends of the organisation – as did the guests at the Charity Awards. And that’s what I loved most about the awards evening; seeing that this vision of better is playing out in so many contexts across our region.
