Ethics

I’m a lucky person.

Actually, let’s use the real word: I’m privileged! There are advantages and benefits that I enjoy for no other reason than because I am White. I’m not always aware of them – and I certainly haven’t always felt privileged. But I am.

I’m White, cis-gendered, and fully able-bodied. I know that my path, mostly because of things outside my control, has been amazingly smooth. For example, I’ve never been detained for hours at airport security just because of my skin colour. Friends of mine have.

In March of 2020, much of the in-person and organization-based formal volunteering came to a halt in Europe and North America. While informal volunteering and spontaneous people-helping movements forged on, the  organizations where many of us contribute our professional skills made drastic changes to volunteering and made them very fast. Organizations were forced to come up with solutions to provide or not provide services that were needed but had not previously been designated as paid positions.