Volunteers in a Pandemic Context (PDF)
In 2017, CASES has seen the scope of its tasks extended to the pursuit of policies
in the area of volunteering, being responsible for stimulating and recognizing
volunteering practices in Portugal.
Within the framework of its competencies, this study was carried out focusing on
the profile and characterization of volunteers who manifested their availability
to carry out voluntary actions in the context of COVID-19. It is the result of
a joint work that involved the team responsible for statistics and the team
responsible for the area of volunteering, being written by Eduardo Pedroso and
Edna Neves.
CASES has privileged the realization of publications that tend to contribute for
the creation of series, however, it was understood that the situation, atypical,
lived throughout 2020 and 2021 due to a pandemic, required a publication also
atypical, of a desirably unique and dated study, which allowed a more detailed
knowledge of the registered behaviour in the area of volunteering.
Although volunteer assignments and their effective provision of voluntary
work are not addressed here, since the desired registration was secondary to
the dynamics that the response needs required, we wanted to make known the
profile of those who made themselves available to perform volunteer actions.
As you may get to know in this publication, there were thousands of people
who genuinely wanted to give their support to the people, organizations, and
their residency communities, revealing an enormous spirit of solidarity in the
face of totally unexpected adversity that, either directly or indirectly, affected
everyone.
To them we dedicate this publication, which aims to be a testimony to the
extraordinary generosity and altruism of volunteers in times of pandemic.
Carla Ventura
Vice-President of the Board of CASES