Findings, Challenges, and Implications

Abstract

This volume contains information of interest about volunteer actions and acts of solidarity in Mexico, and represents one of the first investigations of its kind in the country. Due to its methodology and scope, it is a pioneering work offering information at a national level. The intention is to validate these activities, quantify the number of volunteers and people expressing solidarity, as well as the hours worked, and, particularly, to understand, as far as possible, not only the nature of volunteer work, but also its geographical distribution in the country, its characteristics and principal motivations, the insertion and participation of volunteers in social organizations, and to provide a closer approximation of the role played in these organizations by those we have identified as volunteers, and people expressing solidarity in three ways: intense, typical, and sporadic volunteers, in accordance with our own classification.

This chapter brings together what we think are the main contributions of the study presented in Mexican Solidarity and also brings together the two main complementary components of this study, i.e., the results of the ENSAV and the findings of the 15 completed case studies. It also poses some suggestions and indicates certain implications for engaging in these activities in the Mexican context. We considered that all solidarity and volunteer activities and actions by the Mexican people were valid and pertinent for inclusion in this investigation, and the study and methodology were designed based on this reasoning, which was considered to be appropriate for the work presented.