The budget part of a project proposal in our institution contains a Theoretical Counterpart. These are values that are not really used, consumed or spent. At first, I was weirded out with this, and asked the then Director on what this is about.
As explained, these are theoretical values given to volunteers such as volunteer students working in a community development project, volunteer faculty spending time to help, the same with administrators, alumni, and of course, members of the community who helped in making the project come into fruition. I was still stumped, if these are volunteers, why are there amounts? I had an 'aha' moment of insight on the explanation that yes, they are volunteers, doesn't mean that their work does not have value.
In an accounting perspective, if these were not volunteers, so how much did their work clock in? Because they're volunteers, the project got to save this particular amount, and that adds to a former unseen value in the work.
I find it as an 'aha' moment. So, we don't really budget that amount, we don't raise that amount, we don't release that amount, because these people volunteered. It's not that we are slapping money on volunteer work, it's that we're giving justice to the act. Yes, no amount of money can equal such volunteer work. But for one, it simply satisfies the basic accounting of savings. For example, when I conducted research on the social and economic value of zero-waste practices on solid waste management. People may not be earning from zero-waste, but people can save money. More so, there are by-products of a community system of zero-waste. This is what the theoretical accounting does.
That's just one, it's also a reminder of justice. The scenario harks back to my freshmen days as an MA Political Science student and I had Prof. Maria Jesus Izquierdo in Social Justice, Ethics, and Care special visiting professor course. In one of our readings, was the injustice of care such that mothers who are not gainfully employed but are housewives have the potential for abuse or to not be cared for simply because they do routine, unrecognized volunteer value. Yes, they do it voluntarily. It's up to us to give these value, to remind people of such, and thus to advocate for a community whose volunteers have value.
The same applies to one of the principles of ethics. Prof. Maria Carinnes Alejandria discussed the principle of justice in a faculty meeting on research ethics, saying that when we ask an ambulant vendor for time during an interview, then we take that person's time from his or her livelihood. The same applies to community work. Yes, again, I iterate, they volunteer. Thus, it's for us, the beneficiaries, the stakeholders, to ensure and advocate that volunteerism becomes a welcoming condition for our fellow volunteers.
