Refugee yesterday – volunteer today

Adam is a volunteer. Photo: frivillig.no

Arrived to Norway as a refugee and immediately signed up as volunteer

When 24 year old Adam came to Norway from Sudan 4 years ago, it felt natural for him to volunteer.

 

‘You can’t sit home, married to your sofa the whole time,’ said Adam. Frivillig.no shows Adam’s relationship to volunteer work in the movie ‘One Minute of Kindness – Volunteer from the First Day’.

‘I come from a country where everyone helps everyone else, and when I came to Norway, I had no one. No friends, no family,no cousins, uncles or aunts. I was completely alone.’

Now Adam helps youngsters to meet new people. ‘This means very much to me, I’ve been in the same situation as the youngsters are in now.

I’ve known what it was like to be alone and not know anyone. In that situation, someone needs to arrange activities, and give them the opportunity to get to know other people’, said Adam.
Adam is a volunteer in the organisation, Voksne for Barn (‘Adults for Children’) in Asker.
There, he contributes twice a month with a bunch of other volunteers.

They arrange events for young immigrants who want to get to know other people. They dance, eatgo for walks, and play together, and there’s a lot of laughter and joy when the group meets.

‘These have become like my family,’ said Adam. If I didn’t have them, my everyday life would be very sad. It’s good for me to help’.

Voksne for Barn

Voksne for Barn in Asker and Bærum is an organisation that works for children and adolescents in the two municipalities so that they have a safe upbringing, with the opportunity of developing good mental health.

‘We have activities in the evenings, and on weekends. We take children and youth on walks in the countryside, to swimming pools,
bowling, cafes, skiing, to museums, we make home visits, take them ice skating, to the cinema and other activities.

Two Thursdays of the month we borrow ‘Radar’, which is the youth club in Asker. We have a dance, organise games, play with toys,have quizzes and other activities’, said the head of the organisation, Hilde Elise Eikenes.

Finding new volunteers at Frivillig.no

Voksne for Barn recruit new volunteers through the Frivillig.no website. Here, people can find something that engages them among over 1000 small, and large, missions for various non-governmental organizations.

It is free to use Frivillig.no for both the volunteers and the organisations. So far, over 16,000 new volunteers have reported their interest in getting involved to the various organisations through the Frivillig.no website.

If you go to www.frivillig.no and apply to Asker or Bærum, you can find volunteer assignments from, among others, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Seniornett, the Bærum Art Society, Home-Start Family Contact, Volunteer Centres, and Voksne for Barn.

 

© frivillig.no /  Norway Today