Meet the volunteer - Samson

What’s a typical day volunteering for you?

There's three aspects: firstly, I visit assigned schools to deliver workshops; secondly, I visit the volunteers’ centre once a week to provide office support for coordinating school volunteers’ work; and thirdly, I participate, occasionally, in CAFOD’s online prayers.

How long have you volunteered with CAFOD?

Since 2023.

What first attracted you to volunteer with CAFOD?

Its mission and work across the world, which, on a much larger scale, reflects my own passion for contributing to humanitarian work.

It’s rooted in my previous partnership with a former employer, which is also a sister organisation to CAFOD.

Lastly, my own experience of having benefitted from the work of the Church’s humanitarian outreach at secondary school. Consequently, I view my volunteering at CAFOD as a means of paying my ‘due’, humbly, to the wider community.

What’s been the best thing about volunteering for CAFOD? And why do you continue to volunteer?

The best thing has been that volunteering for CAFOD helps to build a fruitful network with people from different backgrounds, knowledge and skills. I keep volunteering because, not only do I consider it a means of keeping my brain sharp, but also, and most importantly, being able to offer my contribution to ‘people in need’ around the world. It’s a way of living out my faith and is one of the best ways I’ve found to achieve my dream of paying thanks to Almighty God for the benefit I derived from the Church’s generosity during my youth/school days.

What is it like being a CAFOD volunteer? What’s good and what’s challenging about it?

Being a CAFOD volunteer is one example of connecting to the world. The ‘good’ of it is how I see the availability of all necessary resources and co-workers to support volunteers to do their work, including training. The most ‘challenging’ part of it is the timing and timetable, specifically as regards school volunteering. Aligning the volunteer's time with the school's needs is not always easy. Sadly, from time to time we find ourselves obliged to decline requests and that is too bad as it cuts off the school's thirst for knowledge and their expectations.

Is volunteering a part of your faith?

Yes.

What message would you give to people who are considering volunteering?

"Every act of kindness has a positive ripple effect," as Jewel Diamond Taylor said. Offering to volunteer with CAFOD would be a great kindness, an act that has life-changing potential for thousands of people in need. It does not require people to be ‘in reach’ but to have a great heart and be willing to reach out to, and affect the lives of, people in need.