Cape Town's 10 000 volunteers for all seasons
By Karyn Maughan

Amid the chaos of this week's weather, you can be sure that the unsung heroes of the city - its estimated 10 000 volunteers - are out there coping with emergencies.

These are the people who help to ensure that everything from emergency care facilities to rural schools keeps functioning.

"If Cape Town's volunteers all decided to quit, I believe that the city would shut down," said Charmaine Overmeyer, a United Nations volunteer and co-ordinator at the Volunteer South Africa 2001 Centre at Somerset Hospital.

Jobs range from reading to the blind to assisting ambulance

Overmeyer said there were 225 Western Cape volunteer organisations registered at the centre.

"The numbers of volunteers have definitely increased over the past five years and we are finding that more and more township residents are coming to register as volunteers.

"I think that working as a volunteer helps to give people a sense of purpose. People, who may not have work, get an enormous sense of satisfaction from being able to do something."

The centre attempts to match volunteers with appropriate organisations.

Jobs range from reading to the blind to assisting ambulance and emergency rescue crews over busy weekend periods.

Cleeve Robertson, head of emergency medical services in the Western Province, said volunteers were an essential component of medical and rescue services in the province.

"We are trying to get people to serve as ongoing volunteers, so when there are disasters, they are able to slot in easily. We hope that, by volunteering, people start to feel that they own the emergency services, because they are interacting with them directly."

There were three kinds of volunteer:

• The corporate groups that sponsor equipment or donate money.
• Individuals who may not feel that they can handle actual emergency medical treatment, but want to help by contributing blankets, making tea and offering other support.
• Professionals who donate their time and expertise, such as doctors who help on the ambulances or trained rescue personnel who work free.

Robertson said there were ambulance services running on a voluntary basis in Hout Bay, Fish Hoek and Table Bay.

"Emergency Medical Services supplies the ambulances and offers guidance, but these services pretty much run on their own otherwise.

"They are important, because they save precious time when people in those areas need medical attention and would have to wait over half an hour for an ambulance to get to them."