Volunteer Activities of Students from Transcarpathia during the Russian-Ukrainian War of 2022

Abstract

Introduction. Under the influence of increased individual and social responsibility, as well as global and local challenges, volunteering as a responsible social role and a form of active social activity began to develop rapidly in Ukraine. During the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022, Transcarpathian youth played a major role as volunteers, helping refugees in Transcarpathia, on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, and in Hungary. Purpose. The authors of the article have investigated the young volunteers’ experience before the war, the characteristics of their volunteer activities during the war, and their motivation for the volunteer activity in order to find out the possible positive outcome of their activities. Methods. In the research, the authors have carried out the theme analysis by conducting semi-structured interviews with young volunteers from Transcarpathia. In addition to the theme analysis along the interviews, they also prepared a type-analysis and differentiated between three volunteer-types (regular volunteers with altruistic motivations, regular volunteers with mixed motivations, and occasional volunteers with mixed motivations). Results. The most important result of the research is that young volunteers from Transcarpathia are characterized by strong solidarity for the Ukrainian refugees despite the social tension arising as a result of the war. Another important finding may be that the group of respondents who only started to volunteer during the war might be open to helping others also in the future, and as a result, the culture of volunteering may spread even more in the examined area. Conclusion. Despite all the difficulties and social tensions caused by the war, Transcarpathian young people actively participated in voluntary work and successfully completed the tasks assigned to them.