Majority of Saudi youth ‘highly interested’ in volunteer work

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - RIYADH: The majority of Saudi youth would be more than willing to get involved in volunteer work, according to a survey.

The study found that 84 percent of the 1,126 young people questioned were “highly interested” in donating their time to take part in community programs.

Almost half of those quizzed from throughout the Kingdom — of which 64 percent were men and 36 percent women – said that finding a volunteer opportunity in the Saudi community was “easy,” while 27 percent found it “difficult” and 11 percent claimed no openings were available.

However, 14 percent noted that young Saudis did not receive enough information about volunteer opportunities.

The results of the survey, conducted by the National Center for Public Opinion Polls at the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue, in Riyadh, also showed that 70 percent of respondents had read or heard about the importance and advantages of volunteering, as opposed to 30 percent who were unaware.

Of those questioned, 45 percent had already participated in volunteer work, and the expectations of 68 percent of them were met.

The main reason given for preventing Saudi youth from volunteering was not having enough time (49 percent), while 24 percent said they “did not know about the volunteer opportunities,” 13 percent “had difficulty in getting volunteer opportunities,” and 12 percent replied by saying they had never been asked to contribute their time.

The motivations for taking part were “serving the community” (22 percent), “appreciation incentives” (16 percent), “financial incentives” (12 percent), “self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction” (7.5 percent), and “learning values and ethics” (7 percent).

Around 5 percent of other important incentives were to “acquire knowledge and skills,” “build social relationships,” “develop a career,” “submit the volunteer hours to work and school,” and “experience the volunteer work environment.”