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St Peter’s College student volunteers say it is easy for people to focus on taking, and not giving back, as they plan their next cleanup project.
Members of the Gore school’s Student Volunteer Army (SVA) had seen rubbish piled up around the district, so are planning to pick it up in East Gore at the start of term four.
Four members of the Gore school’s Student Volunteer Army (SVA) Sanuthi Pitigala, 16, Rehansa Karunaratne, 15, Serena Love, 17, and Noah Berrio,14, who had all been involved for a year or more, agreed that selfishness was an issue in the community.
“I feel like there’s a lot of selfishness, really,” Noah, who regularly volunteered at the Mataura Community Gardens, said.
“A lot of people are . . . taking, they’re not really giving back, they’re kind of just looking out for themselves.”
The St Peter’s College SVA had planted trees, provided morning teas, supported the elderly and students with special needs, volunteered at community events, done farm work, and refereed social sport matches.
Serena, who had been a member of the St Peter’s College SVA for the past three years, said volunteering may be unappealing for young people, as it did not have a financial incentive.
“They don’t want to do it, because they’re not getting anything out of it,” Serena, who voluntarily refereed social basketball and volleyball, said.
St Peter’s College teacher and joint co-ordinator Juliet Sorrel said the student volunteers had reaped the benefits of getting out there.
“It shows their commitment to their communities and their ability to have initiative and work ethic,” Ms Sorrel said.
Rehansa, a year 11 student, who had been involved with the SVA for the past three years doing activities which included tree planting and farm work, said volunteering went beyond herself.
“It’s nice to see that I’ve made a positive impact not only on people that I know, but on the wider community,” Rehansa said.
Sanuthi said she enjoyed giving back.
“If we use all these resources, we should take care of them,” Sanuthi said.
Teacher and SVA coordinator at St Peter’s College, Juliet Abrahams-Byars, said the St Peter’s College SVA saw rubbish dumping as a growing issue in Gore.
The Student Volunteer Army is a student and university not for profit dedicated to youth volunteering, which included crisis response, such as natural disasters.
The SVA was founded because of the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.
To date, almost 15,000 hours of SVA volunteering between St Peter’s College and Māruawai College had been completed.
The SVA started in Southland in 2018 and at present 10 schools from throughout the region are involved.
Southland’s combined SVAs had clocked up over 75,000 hours of logged volunteering.
The volunteer organisation has over 80,000 students and 250 schools involved throughout the country.