Volunteers have involve themselves in volunteer programs with their individual certain reasons. In particular, there are people who desire to volunteer because they heartily want to help others, while some volunteers take time to participate chiefly for some kind of personal benefits.
Do you know that volunteering has a huge impact to volunteers’ lives? That’s true and that was proven by a research of experts in a University in U.S. Based on the research, volunteers who take part on a volunteer program in order to help people in need live longer than those who do not volunteer at all.
What is more, it was known in the research that whether it is a volunteering work abroad or neighborhood volunteer project, those who work with no pay can have good benefits not only to the people who receive their assistance, but especially the volunteers themselves for giving their extra time and effort.
The psychologists of the American Psychological Association, namely: Sara Konrath and her colleagues such as Alina Lou, Stephanie Brown, and Andrea Fuhrel-Forbis, scrutinized the data followed by a random example of high school students from Wisconsin high school who graduated last 1957. The data were collected since 2004 including the 3,376 graduates from 1957 who were already 65 of age at the time. They found out that 57% of them have done at least a few volunteer works during the past ten years. Last 2008, the researchers contacted those surveyed who have experienced volunteering and figured out the following:
- 2.3% died who volunteered in some volunteer programs in the previous years, compared to 4.3% died for non-volunteers.
- 1.8% deceased were regular volunteers, compared to 2.5% of irregular volunteers.
On the face of it, volunteer programs to engage with seems to be a solely self-sacrificing act. So now volunteering is ever more encouraged in schools and in many organizations by means of media, which includes ‘Angel Network’ of Oprah Winfrey, as well as by President Obama.
How would you analyze the effect of volunteering to your health? Though it is understandable for some volunteers to look ahead for some benefits to receive yet the health benefits expected due to partaking volunteer programs is indeed a great advantage.


