The Universiade volunteers will most certainly become Serbian newest brand. FISU officials and media people could not hide their enthusiasm about volunteers, their youthful spirit, kindness and spontaneous friendliness.
8000 young people headed by Damir Stainer and Natasa Jankovic have given their contribution to the Universiade Belgrade 2009. It turned out that their contribution was so substantial that everybody is talking about them.
Among the multitude of young people, there are 150 boys and girls from Kazan, the host town of the 2013 Summer Universiade. Elsa Kabeeva and Olga Kamardina, volunteers from Tatarstan, spoke to ub2009.org reporter and revealed that these volunteers will hold key positions in the 27th Summer Universiade organization. They have come to Belgrade to learn how to do the job.
– We have come here to learn how to organize the Universiade, but also how to manage people. We ask questions all the time, so other volunteers joke that we are actually spies. We are simply trying to find our all about your organization of the Universiade – said Elza Khabeeva, who is volunteering abroad for the first time in her life. She says that her friends have chosen Belgrade for the starting point, but she hopes that her team will also visit Shenzhen, where the next Universsiade is to be held in 2011.
According to Olga Kamadina, the practice of volunteering is not common to Tatarstan. They are trying to develop it.
– We in Russia don’t really know what being a volunteer means. People are not used to work as volunteers. It is a new trend. For us, it is going to be a problem. It will take us a long time to prepare volunteers for the Kazan Universiade. I am aware that preparations of volunteers in Serbia started over a year ago and that you people organized special promotional campaigns that resulted in recruitment of a large number of volunteers. It will be quite a challenge for us.
Olga Kamadina believes that young people can be motivated by benefits that voluntarism brings them.
– Voluntarism brings one a special king of work experience and helps one to define who he/she is. We are collecting you ideas in order to decide how to do this job, says Olga Lamardina, who works for the Kazan water polo club. She has met Serbian star water polo players Danilo Ikodinovic and Dejan Savic.
Just like the other volunteers at the 2009 Universiade, young people who came from Tatarstan, received for the first time volunteer booklets which contains information about their volunteer work experience.
– It is a big honor for us to get these booklets because that makes us, the Univerdiade future organizers the first professional volunteers. We are the volunteer base. It will make it easier for us to recruit volunteers – says Elza Khabeeva, who will be in charge of the Press Center at the Kazan Universiade.
An inkling as to what voluntarism is, these modest girls got during a series of lectures organized in Sava Center.
– Our lecturers explained to us what a volunteer is. One of the first things I learned was that volunteer must always be pleasant and ready to provide the necessary information. That gave us an idea what voluntarism is all about – said Olga Kamardina for ub2009.org. She added that on arriving to Belgrade she wanted to get out of the plane as fast as she could.
– I have never been a volunteer; I always worked for a salary. I didn’t know what to expect; I didn’t know what I would have to do. Actually, the only thing I knew was that I would be working in the press center. In the end, what we got was new experience. Voluntarism means self-denial, because one is being prepared to dedicate oneself to something for which they will not get paid. Personal motivation of each volunteer is very important – says Elza Khabeeva. She adds that she did not have any doubts while working as a volunteer in Belgrade.
– I was certain that through voluntarism I would get valuable work experience. Our boss is very nice and treats us as his students, which is very important for us because when we came here we were faced with many new things – says Elza Khabeeva for ub2009.org. She says that despite everything, all volunteers in the press center have to work very hard.
Olga agrees with Elza’s views on voluntarism. She adds that a volunteer’s job is to fulfill a certain task.
– A job well done is very important thing for the whole team. That’s why volunteers have to concentrate on what they do during the day. That’s why a volunteer is always a good assistant – concluded Olga Kamardina.