Volunteers are generally not the ones with the most handsome qualifications. They are generally the people who understand humanity better. They are the people who take responsibility to improve at least a minute part of society.
You need a heart to create a difference by improving the lifestyle of the people in a community and working for their benefit. You can be anyone, at any phase of your life and still be a volunteer.
Like the rest of the people out there, even you might be confused about what qualities a volunteer should have. This blog clears all those misconceptions and doubts you have. Let us begin.
The Qualities Of a Good Volunteer
A volunteer should have a heart to see the improvements society needs to grow. Apart from this, there are a few other qualities a good volunteer should possess, as mentioned below:
Compassion
Compassion in volunteering is the starting point for everything else. Giving your time is already an act of compassion, and people who bring genuine empathy become the greatest assets to a project. You should be able to feel what the people around you are going through, and when you see a clear solution to their issues, you should be able to implement that as well.
In some areas of Tanzania, people still follow old ways of living, and some of those old ways have become part of their lives, but for their growth, they need to change them. As a volunteer, one of the biggest challenges you will face is changing people’s mentality. You need deep compassion to do this.
In practice, this means noticing the child who has gone quiet. It means treating a patient with the same dignity you would expect for your own family. It is not sentimentality. It is attention.
Patience
Nothing here moves at the speed you are used to. Buses run late. Materials do not arrive. A lesson you spent an evening preparing gets cancelled because the school has an unexpected assembly.
Patience is one of the most tested qualities of a good volunteer, particularly for anyone working with young children, older adults or people with disabilities. The volunteers who thrive can wait without becoming frustrated, and understand that a slow morning is not a wasted one.
Reliability
This one matters more than people realise. Our projects plan around you. If a school expects two volunteers on Tuesday and one does not appear, a class of sixty children goes back to having a single teacher.
Reliability means showing up when you said you would, telling someone if you cannot, and treating an unpaid commitment as seriously as a paid one. It is unpaid, but it does have a lot of learning and experience for you.
An Open Mind
You will be working inside a culture that is not your own, alongside people who were solving these problems long before you arrived. The most useful thing you can do in your first week is watch and ask rather than suggest. Understand the process, the people, and their approach first; only then will you be able to suggest a few solutions that will be acceptable to the people here.
Almost every volunteer finds that first week hard. Between the language barrier and culture shock, it takes time to settle. Those who stay curious rather than defensive move through real fast.
Flexibility
Flexibility is a mentality more than a quality. You need to convince your mind to adapt to the work style here. Plans change constantly. A placement may shift, a project may need you elsewhere, or a task you were not expecting may land in your lap. Volunteers who can adapt without complaint are the ones project directors ask for by name.
Self awareness
Self-awareness is the single quality that separates outstanding international volunteers from everyone else. We completely agree with this. Self-awareness means understanding your own strengths, admitting honestly when a task is beyond you, and recognising that your mood and your words affect everyone around you.
It also means knowing your limits. Burnout is real in this kind of work. Taking a rest day so you can give your best to the project is not a failure of commitment. It is the time you take to process the situation and rebuild your confidence.
Teamwork and Energy
You will work with local staff, fellow volunteers and community members, sometimes leading and sometimes following. Many roles are physically demanding too. Enthusiasm carries you a surprisingly long way. Keep your energy high to inspire others around you to work in a similar pattern.
A Willingness to Help With Whatever is Needed
Some of the most valued volunteers we have hosted are simply the ones who say yes. Yes to staying an extra hour. Yes to swapping projects when a school suddenly needs cover. Yes to washing up, carrying chairs or doing the unglamorous job nobody put in the brochure.
The willingness is among the hardest qualities to recruit for and the most useful to have. Manual work, farming and household chores come up regularly at our orphanage placements, and volunteers who treat those tasks as real contributions are the ones projects remember.
Organisation
Turning up prepared, keeping track of your own schedule and completing what you started saves everyone’s time. It is an underrated quality but a highly visible one. This is a common quality you need to have as a human to live in a society. Always arrive prepared and let the confidence in your aura inspire everyone around you.
The Values Of a Volunteer That Matter Most
Qualities describe how you behave. Volunteer values describe what you believe, and they shape the whole experience.
Respect For Local Leadership
Every project we work with is locally led. Volunteers exist to enhance the work of Tanzanian teachers, nurses and community organisers, not to replace them. We divide large classes, offer individual tuition and take on extra activities so local staff can do their jobs better. As a volunteer, your job is to enhance the work that is already going on.
Commitment To Community
A genuine commitment to community means caring about what happens after you fly home. It is the difference between community service as a line on a CV and community service as something you actually mean.
This is why we ask volunteers on women’s and community development projects to stay at least three months. Trust takes time. So does anything worth building.
Humility
You are a guest. Dress conservatively, learn a few words of Swahili, greet people properly and accept that you will be the least experienced person in the room for a while. Our blog on the dos and don’ts of volunteering covers this in practical detail.
Honesty About Your Own Motives
Wanting personal growth from your placement is completely fine. Most volunteers do. Being honest about it helps you choose the right project rather than the most photogenic one.
What You Do Not Need?
You do not need a degree in development. You do not need to have travelled widely. For most of our placements, you do not need formal qualifications at all.
The most valuable things a volunteer brings are compassion, an open mind, a willingness to help wherever needed and a positive attitude. Everything else can be taught. We have written more about this in our blog on the core values of a volunteer.
Why Any of This Matters?
It is tempting to treat qualities and values as soft, secondary things next to qualifications. In this setting, they are the opposite.
A skilled volunteer who is unreliable creates more work than they remove. An unqualified volunteer who is patient, present and respectful can change a child’s whole year.
How We Support You?
Nobody is expected to arrive already possessing all of this. When you land, our hostel managers give you a safety briefing, help you get a local SIM card and walk you through how your project works. You live alongside other volunteers at our hostel in Moshi, which means there is always someone who understands exactly what your week has been like.
Our volunteering guide covers visas, health, weather, costs and what to pack, so you can arrive prepared and focus on the work rather than the logistics.
Ready To Find Out What You Are Made Of?
The qualities of a volunteer are not fixed traits you either have or lack. Most are built in the doing, usually around week three when you realise you have stopped counting the days. Blend in the culture and the colours of Tanzania to create an impact.
If that sounds like the kind of challenge you want, take a look at our volunteer programs in Tanzania and get in touch. We would love to hear more about what you hope to bring.