6 Ideas & Projects for your Volunteering around Christmas
Especially in uncertain times, the holidays around Christmas and the turn of the year are an important haven of tranquility. This is the time to put aside differences of opinion, approach each other and be there for one another. At the same time, this time is also particularly difficult for some people: because they are lonely, have no permanent home or are dependent on support due to their living situation. We’ll show you how you can volunteer for your fellow human beings during the Christmas time and give them a little warmth and joy.
Here’s how you can get involved with volunteering during the Christmas time:
1. Design Christmas Post for Lonely Senior Citizens
Christmas and the holidays can be particularly challenging for people in care facilities. Because many feel their loneliness once again, especially at this time. For this reason, the Care & Travel student initiative organizes a collection of Christmas letters and cards every year to distribute to residents of various retirement and care facilities.
Until December 7, you can take part and design a letter or greeting card with a few kind words, poems or drawings and send it to Care & Travel. Of course, you can always look for a care facility in your area yourself and start your own collection of letters with friends or family and take them there. In this way, you bring a bit of Christmas joy to older people.
2. Give Warmth in the Homeless & Cold Aid
Homeless and homeless people are particularly dependent on support during the cold season. There are numerous organizations throughout Germany that are involved in cold aid from November to April and send warming buses through the cities. They provide people on the street with hot meals, drinks and a sympathetic ear. In addition, the emergency shelters open their doors and allow people to spend the night in a clean bed after a hot meal and a shower.
You can support the organizations in this work: in serving food in a shelter or on the street, in supervising a night shift or behind the scenes sorting donations in kind. No matter what you decide to do, by volunteering you are giving someone a piece of warmth.
3. Volunteer at Christmas Events
What would Christmas and the holidays be without terribly cozy events? Christmas markets entice visitors with warm drinks, music and twinkling lights. We are baking cookies together with friends and family. And of course, Christmas events with colleagues are also a must. How nice that you can combine all these activities around Christmas with volunteering. Here you can discover how.
4. Support Projects for more Togetherness & Cohesion
Cohesion and tolerance are important components of a functioning society. And not just at Christmas time, of course. Nevertheless, community and charity have a special significance at this time. You can take this as an opportunity to get involved in a project for better coexistence. For example, at intercultural cooking events, card game evenings with older people, as a mentor for newcomers or as a sponsor for children. There are many possibilities, discover yours now.
5. Donate Clothes & Items for People in Need
Most of us have a lot of things lying around in drawers and cupboards at home that are no longer needed. This includes items of clothing as well as books that have been read, toys and old technology. At the same time, there are many people who would be happy to receive these items: as warm clothes for themselves or as gifts for Christmas that they would otherwise not be able to afford.
In our special article on donations in kind, we show you where you can hand in items to clothing stores, charity shops and collection points in your city and what you should bear in mind when doing so. You can also donate items via vostel.de. Just browse through the organizations’ requests and see if you actually own any of these items and can give them away. Here you will also find special donation opportunities at Christmas time.
6. Donate Money to Charitable Organizations & Initiatives
In many cases, monetary donations can achieve even more than donations in kind. This is because they give organizations the opportunity to buy exactly the things that are needed. Therefore, you can also consider making a Christmas donation to an organization that supports an issue that is important to you.
On betterplace.org you can search for specific donation purposes and find exactly the organization you want to support. Whether to help the homeless, to support people in crisis and war regions or for environmental protection. The variety is huge and you are sure to find something suitable for you here. And if not, you can easily start a fundraising campaign yourself.
Cash donations also make a great Christmas present. For example, how about giving a donation in the form of a goat, a donkey or a dove of peace to friends and family? Sounds exciting? Then you should definitely take a look at the Oxfam Unverpackt website.
Your vostel.de team wishes you lots of fun with your volunteer work over Christmas & the holidays!
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