Volunteer Day: How thousands of people ensure quality of life

2023-06-30 19:23:00

Working together with people, tackling things and ultimately creating added value – “that’s exactly what I’ve always liked,” says Daniel Bernhard. The 28-year-old is the commander of the volunteer fire brigade in the municipality of Hellmonsödt.

The Mühlviertler has been in office for six years now. For him, the fire brigade is “quite simply” a life’s work. Bernhard feels this especially on assignments where “you really have to bite into it”. Due to the cohesion and camaraderie, even such tasks would be easy to handle.

The volunteer fire brigades were one of more than 70 organizations with a stand at the “Day of Volunteering” in and around the Linz country house yesterday. On the stage and at the stands, areas of activity were explained and one or the other member was recruited.

The Red Cross demonstrated the process of resuscitation. Image: Volker Weihbold

According to a current IMAS study, 60 percent of people over the age of 16 are active on a voluntary basis in Upper Austria. According to the study, 22 percent of Upper Austrians who are currently not doing voluntary work might imagine volunteering.

“Just need to look around”

Gerlinde Ferdin from the Hallstatt mountain rescue service also reports that there was a large number of participants. “People who have an affinity for the mountains and want to help are always welcome here.” According to Ferdin, mountain rescue in Upper Austria has around 850 members – 40 of whom are women. “Even if we can’t complain, we hope to be able to recruit many more women for mountain rescue in the future,” says Ferdin. The fact that volunteering is so important in Upper Austria also contributes to the high quality of life in the province, as reported by Red Cross President Walter Aichinger, who chairs the Volunteer Council.

“You only have to look around: Every day, thousands of people take their time for safety, common good and cohesion free of charge – we can all count ourselves lucky,” says the Red Cross President.

Volunteering in Austria

According to an IMAS study commissioned by the state of Upper Austria, 60 percent of people over the age of 16 do voluntary work in the state. Of the remaining 40 percent, at least 22 percent can imagine doing voluntary work in the future. According to Statistics Austria, around 3.73 million people in Austria regularly do voluntary unpaid work. That is 49.4 percent of the total population.

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