Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University & Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel.
Health Soc Care Community. 2010 Mar;18(2):208-18. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2009.00895.x. Epub 2009 Dec 23.
Ambiguous feelings regarding women engaging in formal volunteering and concerns about their exploitation might explain the dearth of studies regarding the volunteering benefits specifically experienced by low socioeconomic status women. The current study examined benefits of volunteering among women participating in Women for Women's Health (WWH), a lay health volunteers (LHV) programme implemented in Jewish and Arab communities in Israel, and aiming at empowering such women to become active volunteers and promote health activities in their communities. Two years after the introduction of WWH in each community, all 45 Jewish and 25 Arab volunteers were contacted by phone and invited to participate in the focus group discussions. Five focus group discussions were conducted with 25/42 Jewish volunteers in 2003 and four with 20/25 Arab volunteers in 2005. The other volunteers could not attend the scheduled meetings or became inactive for personal reasons. Four benefit categories were identified in both ethnic groups: 1. Personal benefits of having increased knowledge, feeling self-satisfaction, mastering new skills and performing healthy behaviours; 2. Group-social benefits of social support and sense of cohesion; 3. Purposive benefits of achieving the WWH mission and goals; 4. Sociopolitical benefits of learning to accept the other and experiencing increased solidarity. However, the relatively less privileged Arab volunteers enumerated more benefits within the personal and purposive categories. They also identified the unique sociocultural category of improving women's status in the community by creating a legitimate space for women by public sphere involvement, traditionally solely a male domain. We conclude that volunteering in community-based health promotion programmes can be an empowering experience for lay women without being exploitative. Positive volunteering benefits will be even more discernable among underprivileged women who enjoy fewer opportunities in the personal and public domains. More studies need to explore volunteering benefits as reported by LHVs, making these benefits more visible and desirable.
女性参与正式志愿服务时的模糊感受以及对其被剥削的担忧，可能解释了为什么针对社会经济地位较低的女性具体经历的志愿服务益处的研究如此之少。本研究考察了参与 Women for Women's Health（WWH）的女性的志愿服务益处，WWH 是在以色列的犹太和阿拉伯社区实施的一项基层卫生志愿者（LHV）计划，旨在使这些女性能够成为积极的志愿者，并在其社区中促进健康活动。在每个社区引入 WWH 两年后，通过电话联系了所有 45 名犹太志愿者和 25 名阿拉伯志愿者，并邀请他们参加焦点小组讨论。2003 年，对 25/42 名犹太志愿者进行了 5 次焦点小组讨论，2005 年对 20/25 名阿拉伯志愿者进行了 4 次讨论。其他志愿者因个人原因无法参加预定会议或不再活跃。在两个族群中都确定了四个受益类别：1. 个人受益，包括增加知识、自我满足感、掌握新技能和采取健康行为；2. 群体社会受益，包括社会支持和凝聚力感；3. 宗旨受益，包括实现 WWH 的使命和目标；4. 社会政治受益，包括学会接受他人和体验更多团结。然而，相对处于不利地位的阿拉伯志愿者在个人和宗旨类别中列举了更多的受益。他们还确定了独特的社会文化类别，即通过公共领域参与为妇女创造一个合法的空间，从而提高妇女在社区中的地位，传统上这是男性独有的领域。我们得出结论，参与社区为基础的健康促进计划的基层妇女可以获得赋权体验，而不会被剥削。在个人和公共领域机会较少的情况下，处于不利地位的女性将更明显地感受到志愿服务的好处。需要更多的研究来探索基层卫生志愿者所报告的志愿服务益处，使这些益处更加明显和可取。
