Takaful Academy · Level 1
Foundations of Volunteering
What volunteering is, why we do it, and the principles that govern it — and how to protect yourself and those you serve from day one. Built on international standards, for any volunteer in any organisation, anywhere.
What you will learn
Module 1
What is volunteering?
A precise definition that separates volunteering from everything else — because confusion here causes problems later.
Volunteering is an activity undertaken of a person’s own free will, without the aim of material gain, for the benefit of others or the community. These three criteria go together: if one fails, the activity is not volunteering.
1 · Free will
A choice that comes from you — no coercion, social pressure, or academic requirement.
2 · No material gain
No payment for your time. Reimbursing genuine expenses does not cancel volunteer status.
3 · Benefit to others
The benefit extends beyond you and your immediate family to the wider community.
✔ Volunteering
- Helping distribute food parcels with a humanitarian organisation
- Running a recreational activity for displaced children
- Training peers in a skill you have mastered
- Designing awareness materials for an association
✘ Not volunteering
- A mandatory university placement required to graduate
- Paid work, even at a token rate
- Service imposed as a penalty or condition
- Helping your own immediate family
- Direct service: working face to face with people
- Indirect support: coordination, documentation, logistics
- Advocacy and awareness: raising a cause
- Digital volunteering: remote translation, coding, content
- Leadership volunteering: leading a team or initiative
Check your understanding
A university requires a student to complete 40 hours of community service to graduate, and they choose to spend it with an association. Is this volunteering?
Module 2
Why do we volunteer?
The impact runs both ways: on the community, and on you. Acknowledging the second is not selfish — it is realistic, and it makes commitment last.
Volunteering fills gaps that formal institutions do not always reach, and builds social capital — the network of trust and cooperation between people. In communities under strain, organised volunteering becomes one of the most important tools of resilience.
📊 The scale of volunteering worldwide
According to the UN State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (2026), an average of 2.1 billion people volunteer each month — 34.5% of the global working-age population. Strikingly, informal volunteering (25%) is more than double organised, institution-based volunteering (11.7%). You are part of the largest workforce in the world, and the most overlooked in the statistics.
- Transferable skills: communication, leadership, time management, problem solving
- A network that opens later opportunities
- A documented record: your hours and certificates are formally logged
- Direction: you test fields before choosing a career path
- Better wellbeing: meaning and belonging are among the strongest protective factors
🔁 Skills that go beyond volunteering
What you learn here is not confined to volunteering. Listening without judgement helps your relationships, professional boundaries protect you at work, and deciding under pressure is a life skill in its own right. A volunteer who masters these becomes a more capable person, not just a better volunteer.
Check your understanding
Which statement reflects a correct understanding of volunteer motivation?
Module 3
The principles that govern our work
These are not slogans. Each principle answers a practical question you will face in the field.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement adopted seven Fundamental Principles, now a reference for most humanitarian work worldwide:
Humanity
To relieve human suffering wherever it is found, and protect life and dignity.
Impartiality
No discrimination by nationality, race, religion or opinion. Priority to the most urgent need — not the closest relationship.
Neutrality
We do not take sides in political or sectarian conflict, so that we remain accepted by all.
Independence
Our decisions remain ours, not subject to a funder’s or a political agenda.
Voluntary service
Our work is not prompted by desire for gain.
Unity
One organisation, open to all within its area of work.
Universality
All societies are equal and share responsibility in helping one another.
🔑 The Do No Harm principle
Good intentions are not enough. A disorganised distribution can spark conflict between families, publishing a child’s photograph can expose them to danger, and a promise you cannot keep can break a whole community’s trust. Before acting, ask: “What is the worst thing that could come of this?” If you do not know, ask your supervisor before you act.
Dignity: assistance is a right, not charity. This is the heart of the Core Humanitarian Standard (2024 edition): people affected by crisis are rights-holders, not passive recipients of goodwill. In practice: we consult them, respect their privacy, give them a way to complain, and never ask them to perform gratitude for a camera.
Field scenario
What is the right action?
During a food distribution in a neighbourhood, a local notable asks you to serve families from his clan first “because they are from here”, hinting that it would make your future work easier.
Module 4
Your rights and responsibilities
Volunteering is not a one-way relationship. You have rights the organisation owes you, and duties towards it and towards those you serve.
Under the IFRC Volunteering Policy (2022), the organisation carries a “duty of care” towards its volunteers:
- To receive adequate training before, during and after the assignment
- To have your role and responsibilities clearly defined
- To work in a safe environment with appropriate protective equipment
- To be protected from harassment and exploitation, with a complaints mechanism available
- To be reimbursed for genuine expenses under the organisation’s policy
- To be treated as a partner, not a tool, with a voice in decisions
- To have your work documented and recognised — hours and certificates
- To decline a task beyond your capacity or that puts you at risk
- Commitment: if you promise to attend, attend. A sudden absence shifts your load onto colleagues
- Respect for principles: apply the seven principles and Do No Harm in every action
- Confidentiality: what you learn about people is held in trust — never published or retold
- Ethical conduct: never use your position for personal advantage
- Honest record-keeping: log your hours accurately. Inflation corrupts the organisation’s entire dataset
- Following instructions, especially in safety and emergency situations
- Reporting any incident, breach or hazard you notice
💡 Why does honesty about hours matter so much?
Your approved hours feed the organisation’s reports to donors and authorities. A single inflated figure puts the credibility of the whole organisation in doubt. That is why a supervisor approves every hour before it counts.
Field scenario
What is the right action?
You are assigned to carry heavy boxes up a steep staircase. You have an old back injury and feel the task could harm you. Your colleagues have already started.
Module 5
Your safety and professional boundaries
You cannot help anyone if you are harmed. Your safety is not a luxury.
- Never go alone: field activities are done as a team, not individually
- Tell your supervisor where you are and when you expect to finish
- Wear your identification: badge and vest protect you and make your role clear
- Assess before entering: if a place feels unsafe, withdraw first and ask afterwards
- Do not transport people in your private vehicle without prior permission
- Do not give money from your own pocket to beneficiaries
You are a volunteer — not a personal friend, a therapist, or a funder. Crossing these boundaries, even with good intentions, harms you, the person you serve, and the organisation.
✔ Within your role
- Listening respectfully
- Providing the agreed service
- Referring the case to your supervisor or a specialist
- Communicating through the organisation’s channels
✘ Outside your role
- Giving your personal number to beneficiaries
- Offering psychological or medical advice
- Promising aid you have no authority to approve
- Individual visits outside the activity framework
Confidentiality and data protection: people’s names, circumstances and images are held in trust. Never post them on social media, never retell them in private company, and never photograph without explicit prior consent. Publishing an image of a family receiving aid can expose them to stigma in their own community.
🛑 For volunteers under 18
In organisations that accept volunteers below the age of majority: do not take part in field activities without written consent from your guardian, do not accept night assignments or work in areas classified as high risk, and a responsible adult volunteer must always accompany you. If you are asked to do otherwise, inform the organisation’s management immediately.
Field scenario
What is the right action?
After an activity, a woman you have been assisting asks for your personal phone number “to reach you directly when needed”, explaining that her situation is hard and that she trusts you in particular.
Module 6 · Mandatory
Child safeguarding
If your volunteering brings you anywhere near children, this module is non-negotiable, and the pass mark is 80%.
🛑 The golden rule
Never be alone with a child in a closed space or out of sight of others — ever. If circumstances force it, stay in view and tell a colleague immediately. This rule protects the child, and protects you from any accusation.
Organisations worldwide follow the International Child Safeguarding Standards published by Keeping Children Safe (2024 edition), built on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and resting on four pillars:
1 · Policy
A written commitment to preventing harm, setting out what must happen if an incident occurs.
2 · People
Clear responsibilities for every member of staff and volunteer, and training so they understand and act.
3 · Procedures
A child-safe environment through procedures applied across all programmes and activities.
4 · Accountability
Monitoring that ensures the standards are genuinely applied, not merely declared.
✔ Safe behaviour
- Working in groups and open spaces
- Respectful language appropriate to the child’s age
- Respecting the child’s privacy and body
- Referring any concern to your organisation’s safeguarding focal point
- Obtaining written permission before any photography
✘ Absolutely prohibited
- Being alone with a child out of sight
- Any unnecessary physical contact
- Personal contact with a child outside the activity
- Photographing a child or publishing their image without guardian consent
- Promising a child you will keep a secret
- Showing favouritism towards one child
- Listen calmly, showing neither shock nor judgement
- Do not promise secrecy: say “I will help you, and I will tell someone responsible who can protect you”
- Do not investigate or interrogate: ask no detailed or leading questions
- Record immediately what the child said, in their own words, accurately and without your interpretation
- Report to your organisation’s safeguarding focal point the same day
- Never discuss the matter with anyone else
⚠️ Organisation-specific field
Every organisation delivering this course must insert here the name and direct contact of its own child safeguarding focal point.
Sensitive scenario
What is the right action?
During a summer activity, a nine-year-old whispers: “I want to tell you something, but don’t tell anyone — I get hit at home.” He looks at you, waiting for your promise.
Sensitive scenario
What is the right action?
You took a lovely photograph of children laughing during an activity, and want to post it on your personal account to document your volunteering experience.
Standards this content is built on
- • IFRC Volunteering Policy (August 2022)
- • The seven Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
- • International Child Safeguarding Standards — Keeping Children Safe (2024)
- • Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (2024 edition)
- • State of the World’s Volunteerism Report — UN Volunteers (2026)
- • Do No Harm principle in humanitarian action
- • UN Sustainable Development Goals