Volunteer Activist Campaign in Bolivia
Soy Voluntario, me siento joven – I Volunteer, I feel Young
Background
ICYE Bolivia is concerned about the low value placed on volunteering in Bolivia, and the fact that the meaning of 'volunteering' is often misunderstood and misinterpreted as "giving time for free" without evaluating the benefits that arise through volunteering, both at a personal and social level.
'Volunteering' is work that serves the community or the environment, responding to a vocation of selfless service, motivated by love of others, offered with quality and warmth, expressed in empathy, compassion, solidarity, gender complementarity and deep commitment. It is inspired by a lifestyle that produces a deep sense of fulfillment and happiness and is a responsible exercise of our citizenship.
Therefore, ICYE Bolivia saw the need to promote the ‘Culture of Volunteering' and decided to use their Volunteer Activitst campaign to strengthen the existing volunteering culture in La Paz, Bolivia.
About this campaign
The campaign aimed at promoting the ‘Culture of Volunteering’ as a symbol of active citizenship around the area of La Paz. It thereby sought to change the perception of volunteering from “giving time for free” to “serving your community and yourself”. Another objective of the campaign was to strengthen the relations among volunteering organisations through the promotion of volunteer activities, as this would offer further visibility and recognition to the activities developed by the current volunteers in the area.
The main event of the campaign included a flashmob, which took place on August 10, 2014 at the main avenue Paseo del Prado in La Paz, at a local volunteer-fair along with 30 other volunteer organisations and around 1000 visitors. Clues and hints of the flashmob were given by means of signs displyed in public places (mentioning only the date, location, and time) and on social media, e.g. wear a white T-sheet, bring a device to connect to the radio while you are there, or bring your headphones with you (as the instructions on joining the flash mob were given over the radio).
More than 800 people participated in the flash mob, which was broadcasted live by Radio Stereo 97. Around 570 volunteers participated in the event (including 8 iCYE volunteers), 3380 flyers were distributed at the fair, and ICYE Bolivia got 92 new volunteers.
ICYE Bolivia collaborated with CUSO, Visión Mundial, ASOVOL, UNV and Stereo 97 in relation to the actual campaign, as well as some of the volunteer organisations present at the fair such as the ‘Zebra for a Day’ programme. ’Zebra a day’, an initiative started in 2011 has youth dressed in full-body zebra costumes take to the streets of La Paz to help school children and the elderly cross the streets safely while performing circus-like stunts to keep pedestrians and drivers entertained. The zebra has become a symbol in La Paz and is related to the culture of civic values established in society. The campaign was promoted by means of social media (Facebook, Twitter), in a local radio program, on three different local televisions channels, and promoted in three different news articles in local newspapers.
Video of the flashmob at Paseo del Prado, Bolivia. August 10, 2014:
Video of the promotion phase for the event of August 10th in La Paz:
Photos below: Promoting the Flashmob event on the univesity TV channel "TVU - Canal 13 Televisión Universitaria" in a youth-targeted programm called "La Hora de los Chukutas" and on the channel Radio Television Popular in the programm "La Tribuna Popular".
Newspaper of La Paz wrote an article about the Flashmob event.
Visit and “Like” our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/soy.voluntario.me.siento.joven
https://www.facebook.com/events/1512167245666014/
https://twitter.com/VoluntariosBol
Learn more about the organisations involved:
https://es-es.facebook.com/icye.bolivia
https://twitter.com/icyebolivia
http://bolivia.voluntariosconvision.org
https://www.facebook.com/asovol.lap
See the newspaper Página Siete's review about the flashmob event:
