Volunteering
Not everyone will feel well enough to reach out and help others but for those who can, volunteering is a healthy, positive distraction and a way of making a difference in someone’s life. Here are a few ideas for volunteering via the Internet that you can consider if you feel well enough to do so. There are many other opportunities that can be found if you do a Google search. For now, have a look at these and see some of the options available. Maybe one of them will work for you and help to give purpose to your days, as you continue to heal. I do hope so.
http://www.sendkidstheworld.com/ http://www.postpals.co.uk/ (for U.K children)
Send Kids The World and Postpals UK are websites dedicated to putting a smile on a child’s face. The children have life threatening illnesses and injuries and each postcard that they receive brightens their day a little. All you need to do is buy a postcard either from where you live or when you are on holiday and choose a child on the website to receive the card. You can write a short cheerful note to them on the card and post it to the address given to you on the website. Why not make a difference to a child’s day with a postcard from you.
https://www.letterstostrangers.org/submit-letter
At Letters to Strangers, they believe that “writing is humanity distilled into ink.” They have seen that the human connection of even just one letter can save a life. On their website they say, “If we were all a bit kinder to each other; if we listened to strangers and trusted that they would listen to us, we’d be choosing to love and believe in the universality of humanity.”
http://www.snugglesproject.org/
The Snuggles Project provides information on making a comfort blanket or a Snuggle for animals at animal shelters. The Snuggles help to calm frightened and/or difficult and it is believed that this calming effect has saved the lives of many newly sheltered animals. Snuggles make the shelters look and feel more homey. Animals are more at ease when visitors are more at ease. This makes for better matching and better adoption results. On the website there are links to shelters where your Snuggle could be donated as well as instructions on how to make it.
If you are interested in Cross Stitching, this world-wide group of stitchers cross stitch squares for British children under the age of 19 years, who have life threatening or life-long illnesses. The squares are made into beautiful quilts which are donated to the families.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikibooks is a collection of open-content textbooks. If your cognition is functioning well enough, you can help to build its database and description of the contents of textbooks, annotated texts, instructional guides, and manuals in which anyone can contribute and edit pages at any time.
https://globalvoices.org/lingua/translator-application-form/
Global Voices is a large volunteer community of “analysts, online media experts and translators”. If you are bi or multi-lingual, you can join their team of 500 translators. All you need to do is fill out the application form available on their website Anyone who is able to translate to or from a certain language that is listed on the Global Voices website can volunteer.
http://www.postcardhappiness.com/postcard-happiness-project/
Why not try the Postcard Happiness Project and send postcards to people, who could do with encouragement or support in the form of friendly, physical postcards. To participate all you need to do is pick a person from the webpage and send them a friendly postcard of support. This is something small and inexpensive that you can do to lift a stranger’s spirits in a big way.
http://colorgivesmile.weebly.com/
If you enjoy creating arts and crafts you can volunteer with Color Give Smile, US based initiative that encourages artists to create and send art to senior homes and programs. The website provides details of what is advisable to send – mostly drawings with happy messages, animals, and smiles. You can even send your artwork to senior homes in your local area or by going with a local Meals on Wheels service. Artists of all ages and standards are welcome to participate in the project.
http://www.moreloveletters.com/
What about brightening someone’s day by writing and leaving letters of kindness/inspiration in completely random places in the hopes it will put a smile on a completely random stranger’s face, and so brighten up their day. More Love Letters also targets specific people who need to hear a bit of kindness in their lives. Guidelines of what to include in your ‘Love Letters’ are included on the site. You do not need to login or signup to participate in this action.
Quingo is a fun, light hearted combination of trivia and bingo that enables players to support their favourite cause just by playing the game on their iPad or iPhone. Each Quingo game consists of five trivia questions with five correct answers. Some answers are easy to figure out, and others are more challenging. Monies are generated through the game via ads and potential in-app ad purchased goods. Charities earn money dependent on how much Hope (points) are earned during the game play, if they’re selected as the chosen non-profit by a player.
http://www.gameswithwords.org/
Learn about the use of language and yourself whilst at the same time making a contribution to science. Games with words provide online language quizzes that are fun and straightforward to complete and will give you instant feedback on your performance. Simply click on the website link and answer a few short survey questions and then begin the quizzes. You can exercise your brain in the knowledge that you are also providing useful research data. You do not need to log in or signup to participate.
