Volunteering is a kind of alliance or partnership between several parties, where each has its own rights and responsibilities, its own boundaries. This union usually includes organizations (hospitals, orphanages, orphanages, nursing homes, etc.) that care for the beneficiaries, the beneficiaries themselves (children, the disabled, etc.), the charitable volunteer organization, and the volunteer himself. Everything is simple in words, but in practice the picture is quite complicated.

For example, what happens in a hospital? There is management, let’s say the head of the department, there are doctors, there are nurses, there are cleaners and security. In one way or another, they all determine the existence of a volunteer group within the hospital. When relationships develop properly, schedules and visiting rules are formed. The conflicts that arise require solutions, which must also be mutually satisfactory. There are children in the hospital, the very people for whom the volunteers come. Children can communicate openly and joyfully if there is trust, if there is friendship, if they are interested, if their wishes and requests are taken into account. Children have parents, whose voices and opinions are sometimes decisive. In such a system, a volunteer organization must work not only with a specific child, but also organize the work of the volunteer group, provide the volunteer group with everything it needs, including training, education, and psychological assistance. Each organization has its own rules, its own traditions, its own management system. The whole complex system of interaction in the hospital should be aimed at the benefit and safety of the wards and at the effectiveness of volunteer work. And there is a specific volunteer who wants one thing – what his heart prompts him to do: to meet with children, to socialize, to draw, to play. He must take into account the needs of the beneficiaries, follow the rules of the institution, follow the rules of the volunteer organization and participate in its life, that is, give part of his time and skills to other volunteers. And in all this his work with children must not suffer, he must stay within the framework of his request, his desire to do his job as effectively as possible.

It is very important when organizing a volunteer ministry to try to take into account the needs and boundaries of all participants in the process. Our experience shows that the most effective way to do this is through coordinators or supervisors of institutions, those who on behalf of the volunteer organization take on the interaction with the institution, development of rules, organization of work and conflict resolution. It is best when these people are on the payroll.