‘Volunteerism is still alive in Jamaica’

A RECENT Bill Johnson poll seeking to examine the extent to which Jamaicans give has found that those who say they have made contributions correlate directly with age and socioeconomic group, and that those who go to church regularly donate more often than those who are infrequent church attendees.

“This could be true because of their upbringing. Many older people are willing to give back based on their good Christian values and strong upbringing, as against the young people, who will always cite building wealth capacity as their main goal,” executive director at Food For The Poor, David Muir, told The Gleaner.

Sixty-two per cent of persons polled say they have attended church at least once a week, while 51 per cent admitted to going to church at least two times a month, but a bigger number of respondents, 65 per cent, say they attend church only once per month.

Twenty-one per cent of respondents say they were more likely to donate to directly help children, with a further 17 per cent saying they have no worries giving to an organisation that assist the poor.

Only 7.3 per cent saying they would give money to help pay school fees, educational programmes, help the elderly and to assists children’s homes.

“Volunteerism is still alive in Jamaica, given what this poll has shown. And while at one point it appeared to have fallen off, it is instructive that what we are seeing, based on these findings, is that people are once again beginning to give back,” Mair said.