1- Introduction: What is volunteer work?
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Tips You will find the definitions and examples for the words in bold (examples: animal shelter, firefighter, etc.) in the ‘Vocabulary’ section of this content. The underlined ideas in this content are examples of zero conditional statements. You can find them explained in ‘Expressing Cause and Effect: Zero Conditional’ section of this content. |
Helping others can be one of the most significant experiences in a person’s life. Additionally, when you help other people, you can change their lives. Are you interested in helping others? Do you know any charity?
You will read a set of opinions given by people volunteering in programs aimed to help different causes.
A) Anne, animal shelter volunteer
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My name’s Anne and I’m 24. I’m a veterinarian. I work in a vet clinic, and I love my job! Also, I’m a part-time volunteer at an animal shelter. We rescue stray cats and dogs and keep them safe until they get adopted. Our NGO has different roles to offer you, depending on your qualities and qualifications. For example, if you’re a vet, you can give medical care to cats ang dogs, such as performing surgeries, give them periodic medical checks, etc. If you have no experience at all, but you want to make the difference, you can donate part of your free time to help raising funds, feeding cats and dogs, answering donors and potential donors’ emails and calls, managing our social media profiles and webpage, helping us clean our facilities, etc. You can help make this world a better place… if you donate part of your time, you can improve innocent animals’ lives! |
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B) Enzo, firefighter
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Hi, I’m Enzo. In this picture I’m with my wife, Melinda. We’re both firefighters. We have been working in the same fire station for 14 years. Being a firefighter is not an easy job. I mean, it might be dangerous at times, and you need to stay in shape to respond to emergencies fast, especially if you have to put out fires and rescue people from burning buildings, car accidents, and so on. Although in my country firefighters work voluntarily, we all have paid jobs. Also, we have permission to respond to emergencies during our working hours. I like to think we are doing something for the community, that we are doing our part because if you rescue someone, you can give them a second chance. Isn’t it amazing? |
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C) Eduardo, volunteer teacher
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I’m Eduardo. I’m a teacher and I work as a volunteer in a charity aimed to give humanitarian help to people in countries where human rights are not respected. In my case, I teach children and adults how to read and write, and practical subjects like growing their own food, building their own houses, making furniture with recycled materials, etc. This way, they can access different opportunities to escape poverty. In my experience, you can change people’s lives through education. Currently, my adult students are learning how to grow their own vegetables. Next year, I am teaching them how to create banking accounts, calculate prices, etc. so that they can start their own businesses. So, as you can see, they will learn a lot of math next year. |
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2- Expressing Cause and Effect: Zero Conditional
The zero conditional can be defined as statements we use to express what happens (consequence) when we do something (condition). This content aims to teach you how to use correctly.
2.1- What do we use it for?
Zero conditional is used to make statements about the real world, such as:
– Habits or how something usually works. For example: You don’t have dessert if you don’t eat your vegetables.
– Scientific facts. For example: If plants receive sunlight, they can do photosynthesis.
– General truths or facts. For example: If you don’t type your password, you can’t access your email account.
2.2- How do we use it?
It is made up with 2 statements: a condition and a consequence. Both the condition and consequence must be expressed in the present simple tense.
See the examples:
A.
B.
Look at the table below to learn how to use of zero conditional through sentence analysis.
| If |
Condition |
Comma (,) |
Consequence |
| If |
you do volunteer work |
, | you are a good person. |
| If | you can imagine it | , | you can achieve it. |
Also, a zero conditional statement can begin with the consequence, followed by the condition. The only noticeable difference is that this structure does not involve the use of a ‘comma’ (,). Look at the examples:
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Consequence |
If | Condition Present simple sentence |
| You are a good person | if |
you do volunteer work. |
| You can achieve it | if | you can imagine it. |
3- Vocabulary: Volunteer Work
In the table below, you will find some expressions related to volunteer work. Learn their definition and uses in context.
| Concept & Definition |
Examples |
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| Animal shelter (noun): a place where animals (that have been mistreated, are lost, or not wanted) can live temporarily or permanently. | – I went to the animal shelter to adopt a kitten, but instead I adopted two adult cats that had been abandoned. They really needed a home. |  |
| Cause (noun): an idea that people support or fight for example: poverty, human rights, etc.) | – I’ve always been interested in environmental causes. In fact, I did volunteer work at Greenpeace to save and monitor sea turtles three years ago. |  |
| Charity (noun): it is an organization aimed to help people in need or a cause (examples: environmental causes, animal rights, etc.) | – Volunteering to do charity work involves donating your time, and sometimes money, to help others. |  |
| Donate (verb): to give money, food, clothes, etc. to a charity. | – Don’t worry! if you don’t have money, you can donate food, blankets, clothes, etc. |  |
| Humanitarian help (noun): When an organization or group of people provide help to people to improve their conditions. This help come in different forms, such as food, shelter, education, health, etc. | – Our organization aims to provide humanitarian help to the homeless. We collect food and clothes to give to them. |  |
| Human rights (noun): basic rights that everyone has to be treated fairly and not in a cruel way, especially by their government. |
– One of the most relevant human rights is education. – Human rights aim to protect every person’s dignity. |
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| NGO or Non-Governmental Organization (noun): a charity/association/organization that is independent of government and business. |
– This NGO aims to help people living in poverty. – Working as a volunteer in a non-governmental organization is a beautiful responsibility. |
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| Non-profit (adjective): (of an organization) without the aim of making financial gain. |
– Our non-profit association collects cat and dog food to help homeless people. – We’re attending a fundraising event to support a non-profit organization. |
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| Poverty (noun): the state of being poor i.e., not having the basic human conditions to life comfortably. |
– I believe education is key to escape poverty. – This community is recycling waste to fight poverty. They collect, classify, sell, and reuse products and materials to make new ones. |
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Volunteer (verb): to offer to do something, especially without getting paid for it. Volunteer (to refer to a person): a person who does a job without being paid for it. |
– Jason volunteered to clean the seashore with us. isn’t that great? – I’m a part-time volunteer at an animal shelter. |
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4- Practice Activity
Complete the ideas with the correct causes / conditions. Be careful with the structure of ideas; otherwise, you may match two consequences or conditions, and the idea would not make any sense.
| People can change their lives through education |
… you care about other people. |
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… more non-profit organizations can help the less fortunate. |
If you want to find out more about our non-profit organization, |
a) If you do volunteer work, __________________________________________________________.
b) __________________________________________________________ if you teach them to read and write.
c) __________________________________________________________ you can visit our website and social media profiles.
d) If you donate money, __________________________________________________________.
5- Reflection
Write a paragraph to answer the questions below. Remember that these questions are aimed to make you reflect upon the importance of volunteer work from your point of view.
a) Why do you think people do volunteer work?
b) How helpful is volunteer work for humanity?
c) Which cause(s) would you be interested in volunteering? Why?
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Although this activity is not mandatory, we encourage you to do it, so that you can improve your writing and reflecting skills. You can send the answer (in a Word or PDF document) to either: your English Teacher during the lesson related to this content; or to the Online English Teacher, in case you want to do this activity earlier on. |
Answer Key (4- Practice Activity)
a) If you do volunteer work, you care about other people.
b) People can change their lives through education if you teach them to read and write.
c) If you want to find out more about our non-profit organization, you can visit our website and social media profiles.
d) If you donate money, more non-profit organizations can help the less fortunate.
Bibliography
Cambridge Dictionary (n.d)
