Altruistic Volunteers Research Articles

A Community-Driven Framework to Prioritize the Use of Donated Human Biological Materials in the Context of HIV Cure-Related Research at the End of Life.

Initiated in 2017 after extensive community engagement, the Last Gift program enrolls altruistic volunteers willing to donate their cells and tissues at the end of life to allow studies on HIV reservoir dynamics across anatomical sites. As the Last Gift team received tissue requests outside the scope of HIV cure research, we noticed the absence of guiding frameworks to help prioritize the use of altruistically donated human biological materials. In this commentary, we present a proposed framework for prioritizing the use of donated human biological materials within and outside the end-of-life (EOL) HIV cure research context, using the Last Gift study as an example. First, we discuss regulatory and policy considerations, and highlight key ethical values to guide prioritization decisions. Second, we present our prioritization framework and share some of our experiences prioritizing requests for donated human biological materials within and outside EOL HIV cure research.

Much more than voluntourism: the altruistic volunteer tourism motivation and experience in Israel

Much more than voluntourism: the altruistic volunteer tourism motivation and experience in Israel

Much more than voluntourism: the altruistic volunteer tourism motivation and experience in Israel

Volunteer tourism is becoming increasingly popular among tourists in different parts of the world. The study's objective is to understand the motives and experiences of volunteer tourists in Israel. Findings indicate that motives for volunteering could be located along various axes -motives of altruism vs. motives of personal benefit; universal vs. particularistic motives; and volunteering-oriented vs. tourism-oriented motives. The volunteer tourist in Israel undergoes a hybrid experience characterised by different elements - relating to the volunteering endeavour itself, to the tourist experience, and to the general experience - all of which crystallise into an integrated multidimensional experience. Volunteers with a unique connection to Israel were found to have unique and slightly different motives and experiences. Volunteering contributes to personal change, to the development of personal abilities, and to awareness of and sensitivity toward underprivileged populations; and it can also lead to a positive change in volunteers' stance on Israel and Israeli society.

Mediating roles of karma and self‐enhancement in the effect of religious and spiritual primes on bystanders' reporting intention

AbstractReligious priming promotes engagement in prosocial action; however, findings about spiritual priming are relatively scant. Using Hindu (India) and Christian (U.S.) participants, a two‐part study was conducted. The aim of the first part (i.e., Study 1) was to observe which motives to volunteer (i.e., egoistic or altruistic) related to religiosity and spirituality. Findings show that religiosity had a positive impact on egoistic volunteering, while spirituality had a positive impact on altruistic volunteering. The aim of the second part (i.e., Study 2) was to apply the findings from Study 1 to test priming effects in public service announcements about domestic violence prevention. The mediating effects of karma and self‐enhancement in the relationship between religiosity or spirituality and reporting intention were also examined. Findings show that the religious ad was more effective than the spiritual ad in priming religiosity and spirituality among Hindus; that is, karma mediated the effect of religiosity and spirituality on their reporting intention. Among Christians, spiritual primes were effective, and self‐enhancement mediated the impact of spirituality on reporting intention; at the same time, religious primes led to the direct impact of religiosity and spirituality on reporting intention. Overall, the apparent efficacy of religious and spiritual priming is promising, and the findings indicate the significance of spirituality in domestic violence prevention messaging. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

P–136 Factors predicting clinical outcomes of 511 recipients of vitrified oocyte donation from an UK-regulated egg bank

Abstract Study question Do established donor and recipient clinical markers predict recipient clinical pregnancy and live birth rates (LBRs) in a vitrified oocyte donation programme? Summary answer Recipient BMI and previous miscarriages predicted cumulative LBR. Likelihood of clinical pregnancy and LBR was higher in recipients of donors aged 23–29 than donors 18–22. What is known already The influence of age on ovarian reserve underlies the upper limit of 35 years for UK donors. However, recent evidence suggests that oocyte aneuploidy rates follow an inverse U-shaped curve in relation to a woman’s age. Conflicting evidence exists regarding the impact of other donor-related factors including BMI, AMH, oocyte yield and prior reproductive history on recipient outcomes. Moreover, the effect of recipient age, BMI, and reproductive history on oocyte donation outcome remains unclear. Study design, size, duration Retrospective cohort study of 325 altruistic oocyte donors matched to a total of 511 recipients. Only first donations taking place between January 2017 and December 2019 were included. Participants/materials, setting, methods All oocyte donors were altruistic volunteers aged 18–35 with no prior infertility diagnosis. Donor and recipient screening for suitability and safety was carried out according to the Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority guidelines. Backward stepwise logistic regression was used to identify donor, recipient and embryology parameters predictive of recipient primary outcomes defined as clinical pregnancy and live birth, either cumulative or after the first embryo transfer (ET). Main results and the role of chance A total of 705 fresh and frozen/thawed ETs were performed, of which 76% were elective single embryo transfers (eSETs) of blastocysts (96.5%), resulting in a cumulative clinical pregnancy and LBR of 83.5% and 70.5% respectively after 3 ETs. Recipient BMI and previous miscarriages were predictors of cumulative LBR (p < 0.05). The ratio of transferrable embryos per oocytes received/fertilised and the number of ETs needed to achieve the intended primary outcome were predictors of cumulative clinical pregnancy and LBR (p < 0.05). Donor age 18–22 was associated with lower incidence of recipient clinical pregnancy and live birth after the first ET, as compared to donor age 23–29 (p < 0.05). Limitations, reasons for caution The present study included only healthy oocyte donors, thus conclusions may not apply to subfertile or less healthy women. Male factors were not accounted for. Wider implications of the findings: We demonstrate the efficacy of vitrified oocyte donation treatment and identify recipient BMI, previous miscarriages and embryology parameters as predictors of cumulative LBR. Additionally, the choice of donors aged 18–22 instead of older donors is found not to be advantageous for increasing the chance of clinical pregnancy and live birth. Trial registration number Not applicable

Альтруїзм і волонтерство: аспекти взаємозв’язку у соціальній поведінці

The article dwells upon the study of altruism as a special type of economic behaviour of society. The lack of a well-established approach to determine the role of altruism in economic relations and understand it as a phenomenon of economic behaviour that goes beyond the traditional concept of methodological individualism led to the formation of purpose and subject area of research. The article aims to clarify the economic essence of altruism and establish its impact on the expansion of volunteering in society. The subject of the study is the general principles and forms of altruistic behaviour, their compliance with the postulates of the economic theory of exchange and the impact on the formation of a general model of economic behaviour of society. General scientific research methods – theoretical generalisation, scientific abstraction, statistical observations (processing of secondary statistics), were used to obtain data. The economic essence of the category of altruism in the system of relations of exchange is specified based on systematisation of scientific approaches to the definition of the essence of altruism in economic and social research. It was found that altruism is one of the manifestations of the social type of economic behaviour, which occurs under the influence of social processes, the formation of civil society, increasing social responsibility. The authors defined socio-economic content of the altruistic volunteering as a form of economic behaviour shows its relationship with the charity. The place of Ukraine in the world rating of charity (World Giving Index) was investigated. The World Giving Index and the Human Development Index are compared. The paper reveals the existence of an interconnection between the Index of Charity (Giving Index) and the degree of inequality in the country (income, education, life expectancy) which is considered when determining the Human Development Index. The role of volunteering in the development of Ukrainian society is determined. Paper concludes that it is necessary to improve the state’s economic policy to provide support and expansion of the volunteering positive effect.

Do Social Connections and Digital Technologies Act as Social Cure During COVID-19?

Although COVID-19 pandemic has re-orientated humans to be more physically healthy and hygienic, it has also persuaded humans to create affiliations and experience a sense of belongingness through social networks and digital technologies. However, amidst these changes, experiences of COVID-19 patients and their perception of the outside world's attitudes toward them appears to be less attended in literature which formed the basis for the current study's objectives. Using qualitative methodology, the present study explored the experiences, perceptions and attitudes of patients and their care-givers' toward COVID-19. The thematic analysis emerged with four major themes. Psychological Experiences of People was generated prominently with sub-themes indicating the perceived experiences like fear of spreading diseases to others, and the need for psychological counseling. Attitude of others toward patients and caregivers revealed that family members and relatives played a major positive role on the patient's mental health, however, the neighbor's stigmatized attitude led to several undesired behaviors. Social Connectedness was another major theme derived from the study. Altruistic volunteers, a sub-theme of Social connectedness have indicated that amidst these negative factors, one can spread social harmony by motivating and supporting the victims with basic needs, financial support, hope and social empathy. Opinions of participants for digital technology through technological aids and preventive measures emphasized an overall positive attitude as it helped the society, in general to maintain social connections as well to curb the rate of COVID-19 cases.

Prevalence of Post Donation Adverse Donor Reactions in a Medical College Hospital at Dhaka

Objectives: Adequate blood supply that must be safe depends on healthy and also with altruistic volunteers who are inclined to donate blood regardless of the potential risk of discomfort or adverse reactions. Blood donation has an tremendous safety record and most of the donors have a good experience or only a mild symptoms after donation. Although even a very low rate of reactions may pessimistic affect their inclination to donate again. The main aim of our study was to calculate the adverse donor reactions among the blood donors in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: We conducted a prospective study between January to December of 2018 in Department of Transfusion Medicine of Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Dhaka. Knowledgeable medical attendants drew blood from selected donors under guidance of a Medical Officer. All donors were observed during and after the procedure of blood donation for any adverse effect up to 30 minutes. Donors were asked to contact the department if they fill any adverse reaction afterwards. Results: A total of 10056 blood donors were registered to donate blood and of them 9453 (94.004%) were eligible for donation. Among 9453 eligible donors a total of 360 (3.8%) donors experienced adverse reactions. The incidence was 1 in every 27 donations. Majority of donors 101 (28.05%) who experienced adverse effect is of age group of 18-25 years with female predominance 192 (53.33%). Among the 360 donors 151(41.94%) developed vasovagal reactions, 83(23.05%) felt nauseated or vomited, 51(14.1%) hyperventilated, 25 (6.94%) cope with delayed syncope, 22 (6.11%) felt dizziness, 18 (5%) formed a hematoma around site of needle prick and 10 (2.77%) others developed problems with blood flow. No delayed donor reactions were recorded. First time donors have higher frequency 479 (79.43%) of adverse reactions than repeat donors. Conclusion: The prevalence was reasonably low in this study of tertiary center. But still it is a potential problem for the donors, especially the new donors. All donors should be briefed prior to donation about the probable side effects of donation. Donation related adverse reactions are often a multifactorial process and can further be minimized by using previous knowledge to prevent it. Donors with adverse effects must be encouraged for future donations along with donor education.

Improving Well-Being After TBI Through Volunteering

To Investigate the efficacy of a novel intervention facilitating altruistic volunteer activity to improve psychological well-being in individuals with traumatic brain injury.

지역관광이벤트 자원봉사자의 참여동기, 자기효능감, 활동몰입, 활동만족의 관계구조 분석

This study analyzed structural relations among volunteer motivation, self-efficacy, commitment and satisfaction of volunteers for a regional tourism event. The literature review covered concepts of those major variables and subsequent research hypotheses were established. A research model was then proposed based on an extended structural model covering the intervening variables of self-efficacy and volunteer commitment. Survey data were collected from volunteers participating in the 2016 ‘Suwon Hwaseong visit year’ event. The results indicated the following: 1) Egoistic volunteer motivation had a significant influence on self-efficacy and that altruistic volunteer motivation had significant influence on commitment respectively. 2) Self- efficacy had a significant influence on commitment. 3) Self-efficacy and volunteer commitment in combination had a significant influence on volunteer satisfaction. In conclusion, this study confirmed that self-efficacy and volunteer commitment play important roles in the relation between volunteer motivation and satisfaction.

Experts’ tools, altruists, and job-seekers: visions of community health workers in Ethiopia’s antiretroviral centre of excellence

This article reports on research conducted during 2007–2008 within an antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme in Addis Ababa, run as a partnership between NGOs, government health officials, and international donors. Through examination of the discourses of professionals in NGO and government sectors, and of the community health workers (CHWs) who delivered ART support and home-based care, I show how a policy of volunteerism worked on the ground, through complex interactions that generated targeted success: thousands of new patients getting on and adhering to free ART, and living longer. CHWs were variously treated by these other actors as human resources to be managed, as heroic and altruistic volunteers, and as potentially self-interested. CHWs behaved as altruistic and self-sacrificing volunteers, yet also attempted to assert – individually and collectively – their desires to gain employment in order to better themselves and their communities. Much of the growing body of research on CHWs studies down, adopting a human resources mentality and collecting data from CHWs, to help identify policies by which health systems might more cost-effectively use CHWs in the production of better population health. Rather than a critique of this mentality, the research presented here represents a shift to studying both up and down structures of CHW programme implementation and governance, to help understand the varied ways in which CHW programmes in Africa today work, and how CHWs’ interests and power over their job conditions and social policies will evolve.

Incidence of immediate adverse reaction of blood donation

Transfusion of blood and blood components saved millions of lives each year. In most developing countries, however, preventable deaths still occur due to inadequate supply of safe blood and blood components which can be minimize by blood donation. In Bangladesh the annual demand for blood transfusion is estimated to be 2,00,000 to 2,50,000 unit per year. But due to lack of voluntary donor and consciousness among people this demand is hardly met. Because blood donors are altruistic volunteers, they should be protected as much as possible by the pre-donation counseling. This prospective observational study was carried out in the department of transfusion medicine in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from February 2010 to january 2011 with the intention to see the immediate adverse reactions after blood donation. 1,500 patients were selected consecutively after considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. Adverse reaction were observed during and 30 minutes following blood donation. Among the total 1500 respondents, 394 cases experienced adverse effects of blood donation namely; vertigo (9.7%), sweating and warmness (5.0%), bruising (3.0%), nausea (6.3%) and fainting (2.3%). careful monitoring of all blood donors after donation and counseling of adverse effect before donation is important.Bangladesh Med J. 2016 May; 45 (2): 75-78

Reason, emotion, compassion: can altruism survive professionalisation in the humanitarian sector?

The humanitarian sector has grown enormously over the past two decades. Some fear that professionalisation comes at the expense of altruistic volunteering. This may be a valid concern if altruism is the product of organisational culture and individual experiences rather than an innate trait. This paper examines advances in evolutionary biology and neurology that provide evidence in support of both the nature and nurture arguments, echoing earlier insights from social sciences. It then questions to what extent humanitarian principles build on altruistic impulses or instead seek to constrain them, and reviews recruitment profiles of selected humanitarian organisations and applicants' letters accordingly. This initial investigation warrants further research to identify how altruism as a personal trait and an organisational principle has influenced diverse humanitarian actors and traditions. This paper outlines how training curricula and organisational reward systems can build on-rather than stifle-natural altruism to nurture critical, reflexive practitioners.

Does Charging Nonprofit Volunteers Affect Their Satisfaction?

Nonprofits that offer volunteer experiences in foreign countries have long charged fees to their volunteers, but recently some other nonprofit organizations have begun to charge as well. Volunteer attitudes toward such fees have not previously been studied. Product marketing research has suggested that fees can sometimes improve participants’ evaluation of their experience, but public service motivation research seems to suggest that fees will diminish participants’ satisfaction. This study examines the attitudes toward fees of 4,400 volunteers who paid $310 to participate in a week-long project that built and repaired housing in Appalachia. Although a third of volunteers believed that the fee enhanced their appreciation of the program, an equal proportion disagreed. An even larger percentage of the volunteers believed the fee discouraged some volunteers. Concerns with fees were more common among youth volunteers than adult volunteers and among those who volunteered for altruistic rather than for career reasons. Most volunteers, even those critical of fees, were positive about their volunteer experience, but those who were least positive about the fees were also somewhat less positive about their experience. These results suggest that decisions about volunteer fees must balance the benefits of additional funds for enhanced client services against the likelihood of discouraging some potential volunteers, especially younger or more altruistic volunteers.

Mind the ‘gap year’: a critical discourse analysis of volunteer tourism promotional material

The volunteer tourism program (VTP) is a popular form of travel for young tourists in which adventure travel is paired with short-term ‘volunteer’ placements in host communities around the countries of the global South. VTPs are now a routine mode of travel or pre-university ‘training’ for wealthy young people from across North America and Western Europe and exist outside of any historical or political context. They promise adventure travel, altruistic volunteer experiences, and an authentic experience of the other, whom the volunteer can help to transform. If not for the long history of intervention and domination that normalizes this new incarnation of the ‘civilizing mission’, the knowledge claims and authority asserted by the VTP would hardly appear so acceptable. The VTP exists in a cultural blind spot made possible by North–South relations structured on intervention and transformation of the other. This paper critically examines the promotional discourses of VTP providers and identifies the discursive strategies employed to normalize, encode, and legitimate the practice of volunteer intervention. VTP discourses legitimate volunteer intervention through representations of the host community that imagine poverty and authenticity as presenting a need for volunteers and through constructions of a volunteer identity that allows for travel outside of political and historical contexts. I suggest that the VTP can best be understood as a manifestation of continuing patterns of exploitation and domination of the global South, whereby VTP intervention discursively positions itself as ‘innocent’ of the very historical and political trends that make it possible.

For a Few Dollars More: Class Action against Crowdsourcing


 
 
 This paper will give an introduction into the rise of crowdsourcing, its methods and the controversies surrounding it. To some, crowdsourcing is a neutral umbrella term that describes new processes of distributing labour; to others it is the exploitation of cheap or free labour with detrimental effects for workers and professions. The questions are: Is crowdsourcing exploitative even when all participants are volunteers and know the conditions? Is it labour when people do the work as a hobby? Is crowdsourcing inherently unethical or is it just a question of how the parameters are configured? And how can national labour laws tackle a global phenomenon? It is not easy to evaluate crowdsourcing because of its varying definitions and methods. The deal between those who do the work and thosewho profit from it varies from platform to platform. The different approaches in crowdsourcing are scattered across a spectrum that reaches from productive leisure and play over altruistic volunteering to precarious labour. 
 
 

Volunteerism or Labor Exploitation? Harnessing the Volunteer Spirit to Sustain AIDS Treatment Programs in Urban Ethiopia

Based on ethnographic research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this paper describes NGO efforts to encourage AIDS care volunteers to eschew material returns for their labor and instead reflect on the goodness of sacrificing to promote the survival of people living with HIV/AIDS. Consensus analysis of motivational survey data collected from a sample of AIDS care volunteers (n=110) suggests that they strongly share a sacrificial and prosocial motivational model. These results may be explained by several factors, including the efforts of the organizations to shape volunteers' motivations, the self-selection of volunteers, positive reinforcement in seeing one's patients become healthy, and social desirability bias. In-depth interviews examining the motivations and behaviors of volunteers reveal a more complicated picture: even ostensibly devoted and altruistic volunteers strongly question their service commitments. The complexity and ambivalence of volunteers' motivations reflect the profound uncertainty that they face in achieving improved socioeconomic status for themselves and their families amid widespread unemployment and sharply rising food prices. Their desires for economic opportunities explain why local NGOs exert so much effort to shape and sustain-and yet fail to completely control-their motivations. This recasts economically-insecure volunteers' consent to donate their labor as a process of negotiation with their organizers. Future research should explore how models of health care volunteerism and volunteer motivations are shaped by individual and collective experiences in political-economic context.

Volunteering and Social Activism: Moving beyond the Traditional Divide

This article introduces the special issue of the Journal of Civil Society on ‘volunteering and social activism’. We think research and the scholarly debate on civil society for too long have ignored important research questions that start at the crossroads of the ideal types of the ‘altruistic volunteer’ and the ‘political activist’. Behind the idea of pulling together a special issue was an ambition to open up an avenue for research and dialogue between two research traditions that, in our opinion, have had too little inspiring effect on each other. The special issue includes four articles that all raise important challenges to the impression of volunteering and social activism as separate and disconnected forms of civic engagement.

Climates Create Cultures

AbstractThe circumstances in which societies adapt their cultural values and practices to cold, temperate, and hot climates include the availability of money to cope with climate. Country‐level studies have shown that feeling good, doing good, altruistic volunteering, intrinsic work motivation, cooperative enculturation, and democratic leadership are least prevalent in poorer countries with more demanding climates, moderately prevalent in poor and rich countries with temperate climates, and most prevalent in richer countries with more demanding climates. The common denominator is that inhabitants of lower‐income countries in more demanding climates emphasize survival values at the expense of self‐expression values, whereas the inhabitants of higher‐income countries in more demanding climates emphasize self‐expression values at the expense of survival values. These findings have practical implications for the cultural consequences of global warming and economic growth, and for the effectiveness of financing for human development.

The History of the Professionalization of Social Work: Lesson for the Field of Conflict Resolution

The disciplines of conflict resolution and social work are similar in a variety of ways. Both fields are established on a tradition of altruistic volunteers and professionals, who in seek flexible solutions to complex social problems, and both have an interdisciplinary knowledge base that is grounded in practice as well as academic theory. From 1900 to 1930, the field of social work underwent a transition from a loosely organized, volunteer-driven, disconnected group of dedicated individuals to a cohesive network of paid professionals with standards for practice and education. This paper explores that transition in social work and draws lessons from it for the field of conflict resolution, to project how the process of professionalization could affect conflict resolution.