Voluntary Work.

In many countries, the government helps to care for people.

Governments give money to workers like doctors and nurses. When
there isn't enough money, more help is needed. More help is needed
after an emergency, too. Volunteers give this help. Anyone can do
voluntary work. Volunteers can be young or old. Many volunteers
work with charities that help people all around the world. Some doctors
and nurses fly thousands of kilometers to do voluntary work in another
country. They work in hospitals or clinics for many weeks or months.
They sometimes give vaccinations so that people do not get serious
diseases. Every year in the USA, about 62 million people do voluntary
work. About 8 million volunteers are 16 to 24 years old.

1. In many countries who help to care for people?

2. Who kind of workers does the Government give money?

3. What happens if there isn’t enough money and more help is

needed?

4. Who can be a volunteer?

 Teaching Others
People who teach others do one of the most important jobs. Education
helps people to get a better job and to have a better life. Education is
important for everyone. When we are very young, we don't know much
about anything. Our parents and other people in our family teach us
many things at home. Before we go to school, they help us to eat, walk,
talk, and play they help us as much as possible at the start of our life.
 At School
School teachers have a very special important job they get children
ready for adult life, school teachers help very young children to read
and write and to do art and simple mathematics, they also teach older
children subjects like geography, history, science and languages, many
other people help in schools classroom, assistants give more help to
children who need it, for example, children who are disabled in some
schools, cooks make snacks and lunch for children and their teachers,
playground assistants help children to stay safe when they are in the
playground, sadly many people in the world can't have a good
education, today only about 82 percent of people who are more than 15
years old can read and write.
 At College and University
Education isn't just for children, after school, many young people go to
college or university. Some people go to college or university when they
are older adults. Others study different subjects at home after work.
Professors teach college and university students many different subjects
- from architecture to zoology-. One of the most popular university
subjects is law. Professors need to know a lot about their subject so that
they can help students to do well and get better jobs through life. One of
the biggest universities is Indira Gandhi National Open University in
India. It has about 2 million students.
 Volunteer Teachers
All around the world there are volunteer teachers doing voluntary work
is a wonderful way to see new places and meet new people volunteers
also help many children and adults to learn information that can help
them through their life volunteer teachers work in different ways some
volunteers move to another country to teach there for a few months or
years others stay in their own country maybe they go to a school for
just one or two hours a week to help young children with subjects like
reading and mathematics maybe they teach their country's language for
example French Spanish or English to people who move there from
another country education doesn't stop after college or university
trainers teach workers new information for example information
technology or a new language to help them to do their job better
education really is for life listen and practice growing food some
people are lucky because they have many different types of food to eat
in other places people can't always grow or buy all the food that they
need many people work to try to provide food for everyone healthy
food helps people to stay well because it has lots of important nutrients
when people grow food they help themselves and other people too
some people have a garden or other land where they can grow fruit and
vegetables for family and friends maybe they can't provide all the food
that they all need but they can help farmers grow most of the food that
people eat in asia farmers grow a lot of rice and in europe they grow a
lot of wheat in north america farmers grow a lot of corn farmers also
grow vegetables like potatoes carrots and onions and fruits like apples
oranges and bananas some farmers raise animals so that people can eat
meat like chicken and beef listen and practice not enough food people
in some parts of the world have as much food as they need to be healthy
people in other parts of the world don't have enough to eat and
sometimes they are so hungry that they can die in some places people
can't grow crops because the weather is too hot and dry or too wet this
often means that they don't have enough to eat sometimes people can't
buy food because of a war or a natural disaster like a bad storm maybe
food is too expensive and people don't have enough money to feed
themselves and their families around the world more than one billion
people don't have enough food without food and water people can die
after only four weeks listen and practice helping hungry people many
people work to help others who don't have enough food some charities
give people seeds so that they can grow food experienced farmers
teach other farmers how to grow the strongest healthiest crops like corn
or sugar cane some charities help farmers to become fair trade farmers
fair trade farmers usually sell their crops straight to stores and
supermarkets so that the farmers get more money this helps them to
buy more seeds and to grow more food now scientists are even making
seeds that can grow with little water in some countries scientists have
learned to make rain they put special chemicals into very cold clouds
listen and practice water for everyone our planet earth and almost
everything on it needs water without water plants animals and people
would die in some places there's a lot of water in other places there
isn't enough water and this makes life very difficult a lot of water is
used for farming crops need water to grow and animals drink water in
industry people use water to help machines to work and so that they can
make the things that we need and enjoy water is also important at home
we drink water we use water to wash ourselves clothes and dishes and
to clean the home we also use water when we flush the toilet listen
and practice working with water many people work to provide water
for farming and industry and for the home most of the fresh water that
people use comes from rivers lakes or under the ground people build
reservoirs to store this water they also build pipes to take it to different
places in places where there isn't enough water volunteers sometimes
work with local people to build wells to provide water for families
they also help to keep water in wells and springs as clean as possible
most of earth's water is salt water in the oceans or frozen into ice only
about one percent can be used by people for drinking cooking washing
farming and industry listen and practice clean water if people drink or
touch dirty water they can get very sick people need clean water to stay
healthy people in richer countries are lucky because they have all the
clean water that they need in the water industry people use chemicals
to clean the dirty water that people have used in many poor countries
people have no clean water every day they have to use dirty water for
cooking drinking and washing more than one billion people don't have
clean water to drink in some countries charities give people life straws
life straws make dirty water clean and safe to drink listen and practice
saving water today there are about six billion people on our planet
every day there are more many people don't have enough water or they
have to travel a long way to collect water we need to do things now to
make sure that people in the future will have enough water we can all
help to save water don't use too much water when you wash your
hands and face brush your teeth and wash the dishes turn off the water
when you have enough put water in the refrigerator so that you don't
have to turn on the water and use lots of it every time you want a cold
drink take a shower not a bath if you have to take a bath don't fill the
bathtub listen and practice i hate using taxis here the drivers drive too
fast and really dangerously and they're often rude the cars are mostly
in pretty poor condition but what i hate the most is that they aren't air
conditioned it's so hot here they really need air conditioned taxis by the
time i arrive somewhere i feel really hot and uncomfortable listen and
practice i find the taxis here are okay they're pretty comfortable most
of the cars they use are new and they keep them pretty clean they're a
little expensive though i paid 75 to come from the airport that's too
expensive i guess the thing i hate the most though is that the drivers
don't speak english very well it's very difficult to explain to them
where you want to go listen and practice the taxis here are okay i guess
the drivers take credit cards that's the thing i like most about them it's
really convenient but the taxis are pretty old so they're not very
comfortable half of them don't have seat belts or air conditioning listen
and practice oprah winfrey is a famous american tv talk show host 49
million people in 134 countries watch her show every week she lives in
california but she also has an apartment in chicago where she works
oprah is one of the richest women in america she earns millions of
dollars every year she gives a lot of money to charity she was born on
january 29th 1954 in kosciusko mississippi her parents were very poor
her father vernon winfrey worked in a coal mine and her mother
vernita cleaned houses they couldn't look after oprah so she lived with
her grandmother hattie may oprah was clever she could read before
she was three and when she was 17 she received a scholarship to
tennessee state university where she studied drama she also started
reading the news at the local radio station in 1984 oprah moved to
chicago to work on a tv talk show called am chicago she talked to lots
of interesting people about their problems oprah says people's
problems are my problems the show was very successful so in 1985 it
was renamed the oprah winfrey show in 1993 she interviewed michael
jackson and 100 million people watched the program last year she
earned 260 million dollars in 1998 oprah started the charity oprah's
angel network this helps poor children all over the world in 2007 she
opened a special school in south africa the oprah winfrey leadership
academy for girls she says when i was a kid we were poor and we
didn't have much money so what did i do i studied hard there are 152
girls at the school oprah calls them her daughters the children she
didn't have in real life listen and practice help for refugees some
emergencies are because of a natural disaster like a tsunami or an
earthquake others are because of something that people do like fighting
in a war in emergencies people need help very quickly people become
refugees when they have to leave their home in an emergency or when
their home is lost there are millions of refugees in the world most
refugees have had frightening experiences they have often lost
everything their home their job and their school maybe they have lost
people in their family too they often live in refugee camps special
places where refugees can live and be safe listen and practice refugees
try to help themselves but this can be very difficult they usually need
help from others too refugees need food water and somewhere to live
they also need to see a doctor if they have been hurt or if they are sick
sometimes a country's government cares for refugees international
organizations like the united nations usually help too charities are also
important some charities help to build refugee camps and to give
refugees food and clothes other charities help people who are hurt or
sick charities also help refugees to go back to their home when it's safe
listen and practice i'm a flight attendant many people think it's a boring
job but i love it i get to travel all over the world and i meet lots of
interesting people i like that the job is pretty easy really we don't work
non-stop for the whole flight we have plenty of time to sit down and
take a break on long flights we can even take a nap also the money is
very good because all our expenses are paid when we're working listen
and practice there's a new chinese restaurant just five minutes from my
house it's a very simple place a little boring inside actually just a few
tables in an empty room they need to add more dishes to the menu too
right now they only serve four or five things but they're all delicious
and very cheap you can get a good meal there for around fifteen dollars
all the people who work there were very friendly and helpful so i left a
good tip listen and practice the tsunami in indonesia 2004 one of the
worst natural disasters happened in indonesia on december 26 in 2004
a huge earthquake under the indian ocean caused a giant wave or
tsunami that traveled thousands of kilometers across the ocean at great
speed by the end of that day more than 150 000 people had died many
thousands more people were hurt and millions of people in many
countries lost their homes lots of people helped after the tsunami
families friends and neighbors helped each other many people came
from countries all around the world to help too governments sent
workers to help and charities sent volunteers one of the biggest jobs
was to clean up the beaches and towns people saved things like wood
and stones to build new homes and buildings listen and practice there's
a new chinese restaurant just five minutes from my house it's a very
simple place a little boring inside actually just a few tables in an empty
room they need to add more dishes to the menu too right now they only
serve four or five things but they're all delicious and very cheap you
can get a good meal there for around fifteen dollars all the people who
work there were very friendly and helpful so i left a good tip listen and
practice the earthquake in haiti 2010 another terrible natural disaster
happened on january 12th in 2010 there was a huge earthquake near
port o prince the capital of haiti more than 250 000 homes were
damaged and thousands of other buildings were destroyed more than
two hundred thousand people died about three hundred thousand more
people were hurt and more than a million people lost their homes the
people of haiti worked with many people from other countries who
came to help one of the most important jobs was to care for people
who had been hurt and to find people who were lost dogs also helped
to rescue people from under-damaged buildings people helped to get
food and clean water to everyone and medicines to people who were
sick they also made refugee camps for people who had lost their homes
listen and practice caring for animals there are more than 6 billion
people in the world but there are very many more animals lots of
people help animals veterinarians or vets care for animals some vets
work in veterinary centers in towns and cities people take their pets
like cats and hamsters when they are sick or hurt or for vaccinations
other vets go to farms wildlife parks and zoos to care for animals these
vets are caring for a snow leopard in a zoo snow leopards are very rare
there are only about 4 500 wild snow leopards in asia listen and
practice the airport is far away from the city and it's a pretty horrible
place it's very crowded and there aren't many facilities there you know
like stores or restaurants anyway my flight was okay it was a bit
bumpy the food was awful though it was dry and tasteless the service
was fantastic the flight attendants did their best to make everyone feel
comfortable the worst problem was the other passengers the plane was
full of loud college students on their way to spring break in florida
next time i won't travel during spring break listen and practice animal
charities there are lots of animal charities some charities are small and
they help local animals other charities are large international
organizations that help animals all around the world charities help
animals in many ways but they need money to do this many people
give money to animal charities some people give money to adopt an
animal the animal stays in its home but the charity uses the money to
help to keep it safe some volunteers from an animal charity in
germany collect toads that are migrating near dangerous roads then they
take them to a safer place listen and practice i had the worst thing
happen to me this morning i was running to catch the bus and i was
talking on my cell phone at the same time anyway it was raining hard
and just as i got to the bus stop i dropped my phone in a gigantic
puddle some nice man helped me find it it was completely soaked the
man told me to take the battery out and let all the parts dry out during
the day it sounded like a good idea so i tried it i put the battery back
this afternoon and tried to make a call but it doesn't work at all now i'll
have to go to the phone store and get a new one listen and practice i
used to lift weights but i didn't really enjoy it so that's when i started
swimming now i do it about twice a week it's much more fun i go to a
nice pool near my office it's never too crowded which is great there are
friendly people who go there so it's a good place to meet people listen
and practice i used to lift weights but i didn't really enjoy it so that's
when i started swimming now i do it about twice a week it's much more
fun i go to a nice pool near my office it's never too crowded which is
great there are friendly people who go there so it's a good place to meet
people listen and practice this campus is really beautiful it's like a park
there are lots of plants and trees everywhere that was one of the
reasons i decided to come here another was the teachers i heard the
teachers were really great but a lot of them don't seem to be very
interested in teaching they give boring lectures and they don't seem to
have time to talk to students after class another problem is my schedule
i have trouble getting into the classes that i need it's because the school
is overcrowded however the other students i've met have been really
great i've made some wonderful friends listen and practice i've been at
this school for two years now it's not the most attractive campus the
buildings are ugly they look like cement blocks and there are hardly
any trees or plants one thing that i do like here is the gym it's a great
place to go between classes you can swim in a beautiful pool and the
workout room has modern equipment it's funny that the gym looks so
nice while the rest of the campus doesn't i'm pretty happy with my
classes and my teachers are very helpful they have plenty of time to see
outside of class i have a great schedule right now all of my classes
start in the afternoon so i can sleep in i love sleeping in listen and
practice i'm afraid i haven't been happy here at all i think i made a
mistake it costs a lot of money but just isn't worth it the classes are
really boring and they don't seem very useful i want to take a computer
science class and they don't even teach that here i haven't made many
friends either everyone thinks it's so easy to meet people but the other
students seem very unfriendly to me they do have a lot of interesting
clubs there's a photography club i might join one thing that's nice is the
campus it's very attractive there are a lot of trees and nice places to sit
outside there's even an outdoor cafe i guess that's what you're paying
for listen and practice i came here because i wanted to study art the
photography department is famous the teachers are well known
working artists some people think that just because you're good at
something doesn't mean you can teach it but the teachers here are great
the campus is really just a building downtown so it isn't very nice to
look at there's no gym or cafeteria or clubs or anything my schedule is
terrible all my classes are at eight in the morning that's hard for me
because i like to stay up late and work on my photos i'm so busy that i
haven't really paid much attention to the other students but they seem
very nice sometimes at art schools the students are too competitive i
think this place is different though listen and practice saturday morning
i got a phone call from an old school friend i haven't seen her for a long
time she was one of my closest friends in high school but she moved to
los angeles for work she was in town for four days so she invited me
to a restaurant for lunch we had such a pleasant time together she was
telling me about her job in los angeles it sounds really interesting and
she works for a movie company and she has to find places where they
can film movies you know places like restaurants hotels lobbies parks
and streets listen and practice protecting life on earth there are many
millions of species of plant and animal they live all around us on land
in water and in the air without them earth and everything on it would
die species are important in many ways all species need each other
animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals too people eat
plants and animals people also use plants as medicines and in industry
all individual plants and animals die but when every plant or animal in
a species has died the species is extinct this means that it's lost forever
when one species dies maybe others that need it will die too people
need to protect all the plants and animals on earth if they don't many
species will become extinct in the future listen and practice helping
our planet for millions of years there has been life on our planet earth
earth has everything that people animals and plants need air water and
land everyone should care for our planet people damage earth with
pollution that comes from vehicles like cars and planes and from
electricity used at home and in industry to make electricity people burn
fossil fuels like coal and oil this makes too many gases like carbon
dioxide and they make earth too warm many scientists think that this is
changing earth's climate some countries are becoming colder and
wetter others are becoming hotter and drier people use a lot of land to
build towns and cities they cut down millions of trees to clear land so
that they can grow crops and keep animals all these things can damage
the environment and many of earth species of plants and animals listen
and practice protecting the environment governments charities and
individuals are working to find ways to protect the environment
environmental campaigners teach people about problems like pollution
they talk to governments and news reporters they tell people about
ways to stop pollution many volunteers help to protect the
environment after a disaster for example they clean beaches after an oil
spill or they plant new trees after a fire some scientists have found
ways to make clean electricity that does not use fossil fuels instead
they use energy from the sun wind or water this is important because
we all need electricity but there won't be fossil fuels forever today
most cars buses and trucks use gasoline that's made from oil some
engineers have designed cars and buses that use biogas instead biogas
can be made from waste or from plants listen and practice some
friends and i were on vacation in china last summer i went shopping
one day and got some really fabulous things i got nice running shoes
and tennis clothes i thought the prices were reasonable and i hate
bargaining so i just paid the price they asked the next day one of my
friends went back to the same store and decided to bargain she got
things for much cheaper prices than i paid next time i go traveling i'll
be sure to bargain when i buy something listen and practice i just got a
new neighbor in the apartment upstairs for me i haven't met her yet but
i can hear her tv set every night because she turns the volume up really
high she should really be more considerate of her neighbors listen and
practice i guess i really need to get some exercise outside in nature
right now i exercise all the time but it's always indoors i lift weights at
an indoor gym and i go swimming every weekend at an indoor pool i
even go jogging on an indoor track i was watching tv last night when a
bicycling competition came on now i'm totally excited about bicycle
racing i would really love to try it listen and practice i was a big
athlete in high school all i did was swimming swimming and more
swimming but i work now and i never go swimming i know that i
should exercise more but i'm just too lazy jogging that's way too much
work and it really makes my knees hurt a lot of people i know are into
bicycling but i don't have a bike i guess there's tennis though my wife
loves it and wants to teach me how to play i'd like to play i think listen
and practice exercise is really important to me i like doing things
where i keep active things that are good for my health my roommate
isn't like that at all though he wakes up and surfs the internet for hours
then he plays his guitar in his room all afternoon i just hate sitting
around indoors i especially hate surfing the internet i want to meet
other people i also want to get out and visit new places like out in the
country where you can see some real nature listen and practice after
my husband got sick last year the doctor told him to lose 20 pounds
since then i've been trying to help him lose the weight by exercising
with him there isn't much we can do together though we sometimes
jog in the morning but when he works late he doesn't want to wake up
early our community center has an aerobics class in the evening but he
won't go he says it's just for women so neither of us does that he
wanted to try weight lifting but the doctor said it was too dangerous so
now i'm thinking about getting him golf lessons for both of us actually
the walking might even be a little romantic too listen and practice i try
to stay very active i play tennis with my daughters every weekend and i
go golfing every day i used to lift weights too and i'm talking about
heavy weights but i had to stop recently because i had to have an
operation on my back now i'm really worried that i'll have to stop
playing tennis and golf too i don't really have a lot of hobbies or
interests besides sports so i really need to keep doing them the doctor
said swimming would help my back improve so maybe i'll try that
listen and practice i live in a big city so i love being around lots of
people my brother is completely the opposite last weekend he took me
to the country to go bird watching i was so bored the whole time i like
talking to people and doing creative things i'd just love to get all my
friends together at my apartment in the city and do something we could
have a dinner party maybe or we could bring over some guitars and
drums and stuff like that and sing and dance listen and practice i grew
up near chicago i really wanted to be a gym teacher at a school i love
sports and i used to play them a lot after i graduated i tried to get a job
as a gym teacher in my town but i couldn't i didn't want to move away
because my father was sick so i had to find something else to do well i
was always kind of interested in cooking my mom taught me to cook
and i often used to make meals for the family when i was a kid
anyway my dad's friend had a small restaurant and he asked me if i'd
like to help out my first job was helping in the kitchen and that's
where i really learned to cook i used to watch the chefs at work so that
i could pick up their techniques then a year later the owner asked me to
be one of the chefs then a couple of years ago i decided to open up my
own restaurant it's done really well we have three chefs and we're
usually very busy especially on the weekends listen and practice other
ways to help earth if we all use less electricity we will use fewer fossil
fuels this will reduce pollution when we aren't watching television or
using the computer we should remember to turn them off when we go
out of a room we should turn off the lights too we shouldn't use very
hot water to wash ourselves or our clothes because we use a lot of
electricity to heat water we all need things like beds chairs and tables
but many people buy too much making lots of new things uses lots of
electricity we should use things for as long as possible this will use
less electricity we should also reuse or recycle things as much as
possible this will make less waste which is good for the environment
when you turn off electricity you can help to keep seals safe harp seals
have their babies on the ocean ice in the arctic if earth gets warmer the
ice will melt and the seals could be threatened in small ways we can
help the environment in a big way we can all help our planet listen and
practice the man who lives next to me is moving i can't say that i'm too
upset about it he's lived next to me for almost five years but i don't
think he's spoken to me more than three or four times sometimes i'll
wave to him in the morning and he doesn't even wave back listen and
practice my neighbor stacy is incredible you wouldn't believe all the
things she manages to get done she works at a big law firm downtown
and works really long hours she also volunteers on the weekends to
top it off her house is always spotless i honestly don't know where she
finds the time listen and practice i work for a market research
company we do research for companies that are planning to develop
new products i call people and ask them questions about products they
are using now sometimes i invite people to come to meetings we
discuss plans for new products with them it's pretty interesting work
i've been doing it for nearly 15 years now and i've got no plans to
change jobs the thing i really like about my job is that each month i'm
working on something completely different so it never gets boring
listen and practice i have my own design company it's very small just
me and two assistants i design brochures advertisements for
magazines menus and things like that it's a very creative job i started
the company just two years ago just after i graduated from design
school things have gone pretty well for me i have two big clients and
most of my work is for them sometimes i have to work very late at
night if i have a big job to finish quickly i always have plenty of work
to do and i am always busy listen and practice i've had my own
restaurant for 10 years when i first bought this place i thought it would
be easy to run but it's very hard work i work long hours sometimes
we're very busy and sometimes we're very slow we usually have a lot
of customers on the weekends during the week it's sometimes quiet i
never have a day off because there are always so many things to do i
don't do any of the cooking myself i have three very good chefs to do
that owning a restaurant is a tough job but i love it i don't want to do
anything else listen and practice i've always collected things even when
i was young i used to collect everything comic books baseball cards
you name it but they're all packed away in boxes now now my favorite
pastime is gardening i spend all weekend outside with my flowers i
love seeing them change that's what i like best about it i guess they're
these little seeds at first and then one day they're big beautiful flowers
listen and practice when i was a teenager all i did was sit around
playing video games but i can't stand them anymore i work in an office
now so i sit in front of a boring computer screen all day now i like
being outdoors i belong to a hiking group and we go someplace
different every weekend i keep fit and healthy this way the best thing is
that i can make some really great friends listen and practice i always
loved reading as a kid so for a long time i wanted to write children's
books i tried to do it for a few years after college but it was really hard
to come up with good stories i guess i'm not very good with words
now i'm happy just painting i've won a few prizes too in art
competitions for my watercolors and oils the pictures are important to
me though not the prizes what i enjoy most is creating pictures it
makes me so happy listen and practice this is great you can use it to
clean the sofa or the inside of your car it's rechargeable so it runs for
about 30 minutes when it's fully charged also if you drop stuff on the
carpet it picks up the dirt very easily it's very light too so it's really
easy to use it only has a small bag inside to collect the dirt so don't
forget to change the bag regularly you can see when it's full through
the plastic cover be sure to put it back on the charger after you use it
or the battery will run down and it won't work you