A high burden of HIV in many sub-Saharan African countries
has triggered renewed interest in volunteer-based community health programmes
as a way to support treatment roll-out and to deliver services to children
orphaned due to HIV. This study was undertaken as an evaluation of a USAID
project implemented by a consortium of 7 NGOs operating in 52 Zambian
districts. We aimed to examine motivations for becoming volunteer caregivers,
experiences in service and commitment to continue volunteering in the future.
A total of 758 eligible caregivers were surveyed. Through
parallel analyses of different data types and cross-over mixed analyses, we
found shifting patterns in motivations across question type, question topic and
question timing. In relation to motivations for entering service, responses to
both open- and close-ended questions highlighted the importance of
value-oriented functions and higher order social aspirations such as
"helping society" or "humanity". However, 70% of
participants also agreed to at least one close-ended economic motivation
statement and nearly a quarter (23%) agreed to all four. Illustrating economic
need, as well as economic motivation, over half (53%) the study respondents
agreed that they had become a volunteer because they needed help from the
project. Volunteers with lower and mid-level standard-of-living scores were
significantly more likely to agree with economic motivation statements.
Reliance by national and international health programs on
volunteer workforces is rooted in the assumption that volunteers are less
costly and thus more sustainable than maintaining a professional cadre of
community health workers. Understanding individuals' motivations for entering
and remaining in volunteer service is therefore critical for programme planners
and policy makers. This study demonstrated that volunteers had complex
motivations for entering and continuing service, including "helping"
and other pro-social values, but also manifest expectations of and need for material
support. These findings contribute to evidence in support of various reforms
needed to strengthen the viability and sustainability of volunteer-dependent
services including the need to acknowledge and plan for the economic
vulnerability of so-called volunteer recruits.
Read more at: http://ht.ly/S3fjM
By: Stephanie M Topp,
Jessica E Price, Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Drosin M Mulenga, Mardieh L Dennis, and Mathew M Ngunga
Jessica E Price, Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Drosin M Mulenga, Mardieh L Dennis, and Mathew M Ngunga
Centre for Infectious Disease Research, c/- PO Box 30388, Lusaka, Zambia
Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia
Population Council, One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY 10017 USA
Futures Group Global, c/- World Vision Zambia, Great East Rd., Lusaka, Zambia
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv_insight
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