Volunteers Transform the World

Unbound celebrates the contributions of volunteers during Global Volunteer Month.

Whether they’re sharing their time and talents with parishes, food kitchens, nonprofit organizations or countless other worthy causes, volunteers are changing the world for the better. 

Global Volunteer Month in April offers opportunities to “recognize the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to tackle society’s greatest challenges, to build stronger communities and be a force that transforms the world,” according to Points of Light, an organization that aims to “create a society where it’s easy to take action.” 

Unbound recognizes the contributions of volunteers year-round but especially during Global Volunteer Month. 

“Volunteers make a positive difference with Unbound on a daily basis,” Program Development Director Dawn Owens said. “We couldn’t make the impact we do without them.” 

Volunteers support Unbound’s mission to “walk with” the world’s poor and marginalized people in myriad ways—giving their time and talents at the international headquarters in Kansas City, across the U.S. and around the world.  

They do everything from serving on the governing board to helping facilitate correspondence between sponsors and sponsored friends to assisting at presentations in Catholic parishes. In the U.S. alone in 2022, Unbound had a total of 2,228 volunteers giving 6,255 hours.  

Volunteer Pat Coleman helps prepare mailings with photos and correspondence between sponsored children and elders and their sponsors. Service Center volunteers are key to Unbound’s ability to facilitate communication between sponsors and their sponsored friends. 

Stacks of children’s and elders’ letters await mailing to sponsors. Volunteers process hundreds of thousands of letters each year. 

Dedicated and passionate service 

Many volunteers with Unbound also sponsor a child, youth or elder on their path to overcome poverty. 

“The special gifts sponsors bring to their service with Unbound is their enthusiasm for our mission and the belief that one person can make such a difference in the life of someone living in poverty,” Owens said.  

That enthusiasm extends beyond the U.S. to communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America where Unbound works. Mothers and fathers of sponsored children, sponsored elders, Unbound scholarship students and others are volunteering for Agents of Change community improvement projects, disaster response, community gardens, taking leadership roles in parent groups, helping children write letters to their sponsors and much more. 

Kylie Hays assists Father John Gillespie at the sponsorship table at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Shawnee, Kansas. Volunteers are a tremendous help to Unbound priests as they answer questions and help parishioners sign up to sponsor a child or elder. 

Bringing sponsorship to faith communities 

Volunteer Coordinator Maureen Ortiz said having sponsors volunteer at Unbound weekends at Catholic parishes supports the priests who are preaching for Unbound. 

“Our sponsors love to volunteer, and some are willing to travel many miles to support our priests,” Ortiz said. “Many of them say it gives them a sense of being a bigger part of Unbound and a good feeling to know that they are doing more to help the families and share the mission of Unbound.” 

One such volunteer is Doris Hidalgo Adams, who sponsors a child in Guatemala. She has a special perspective on the benefits of sponsorship because she was herself sponsored as a child growing up in Nicaragua. She helped at the sponsorship table at Holy Angels Church when Franciscan Father John Anglin visited Oklahoma City to preach for Unbound. 

“It was fun to get to know people from the community, and to get to see the passion of Father John about Unbound was really inspiring,” she said. “It’s not really about me, but I feel like I’m giving back in a way.” 

Maricel, mother of sponsored children Irish and John in the Philippines, led an effort to provide a motorboat to serve as an ambulance for transporting sick patients across the Angat River. Parents of sponsored children volunteer in numerous ways, including Agents of Change. They identify needs in their communities, propose solutions and carry out improvement projects with grants from Unbound. 

Vatican News said that, according to the United Nations Volunteers program, one out of every nine people in the world volunteers, with a total of 862.4 million volunteers worldwide.  

Pope Francis highlighted the importance of volunteers in his prayer intention in December. 

“Being a volunteer who helps others is a choice that makes us free; it opens us to other people’s needs — to the demands of justice, to the defense of the poor, to the care of creation,” the pope said. 

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