Ontario International Development Agency
Humanitarian Programs for communities in Canada & worldwide

Conference

                                 Non Political and Non Religious Foundation

 Ontario Village 

            Home     Publications       Links   Newcomers
          Projects    Support OIDA     Volunteers      Contact

Dragon Boat Festival 2008
Ramsey Lake Bell Park
Sudbury, Ontario
July 11-12, 2008


During the past eight years of the Festival, paddlers of the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival have raised over $1,087,250 to support the Heart and Soul Campaign, the Alzheimer Society, Sudbury, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Sudbury Chapter and other local charities. Volunteers were over 300 in 2008, many of them were from the educational community including active and retired staff. The Chinese Heritage Association of Northern Ontario and Sudbury Canoe Club brought this 2000-year-old Chinese tradition to Sudbury in 2000. Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival has become one of the biggest annual events in Sudbury since then. Team Masters of the Univers(ity)e of Laurentian University participated for 2008 festival and won award in Education  category. After the festival all participants get together and celebrated spirit of volunteerism and joint effort to make world better place.

 


Volunteerism is as diverse as the individuals who volunteer. Whether advocating for the rights of the disabled, planting a tree, visiting the sick, organizing a local community development meeting, raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, teaching a young girl to read, or fundraising for an orphanage, these diverse forms of volunteering are all examples of the range of ways by which people are reaching out and participating in actions of solidarity, development and social change. Some of the above types of engagement can also be associated with social activism, which is often understood as activities directed at creating change, including advocacy, agenda-setting, lobbying, protesting, negotiation, campaigning and awareness-raising. Despite this apparent overlap between volunteer and activist activities, uneasiness exists among some within civil society, government and the private sector around the association of volunteering with activism. This is in part due to a perception, in some quarters, of volunteering and activism as separate spheres of activity.
Sometimes traditional volunteering has been criticized as being a band-aid to society’s problems, doing more harm than good by distracting attention and resources away from the root causes of problems such as poverty and injustice.3 This has included the notion that volunteering undermines political involvement and action, thwarting opportunities to affect much-needed structural change.4 A similarly narrow view of activism exists: it is sometimes portrayed as elitist and irrelevant to the problems on the ground, linked also to public disturbance and, at times, even violence. As a result, the important contributions of both forms of participation, have, sometimes, been overlooked. However OIDA volunteers play major role fight against poverty and make world better and secure place.