“A Poor Man Cannot Volunteer”

Researchers from the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda Project (RYVU) present their findings on the diverse and sometimes contradictory meanings and understandings that the term ‘volunteer’ holds in Uganda, and the knock-on effect that these diverse understandings have on how organisations and policy-makers facilitate volunteering. The piece ends with three challenging questions: (1) Do volunteer engaging organisations understand and address how vulnerability shapes access to and experiences of their volunteering opportunities?; (2) Does being more inclusive in volunteering help address the inequalities and vulnerabilities that shape the lives of groups such as young refugees, whose voluntary labour is sought?; (3) Does the spread of ideas of volunteering originating in the Global North undermine efforts for more inclusive volunteering that tackle inequality within the Global South?