items of interest

with contributions from Andrew Weaver, James Garbarino

"Volunteers are everywhere! ... [They] play a significant role in both developing and industrialized countries. They are an essential part of Civil Society," said Margo Vliegenthart, State Secretary of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands. She was responding to news that the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers.

The U.N. focus on volunteers was announced this month at the 16th World Volunteer Conference of the International Association for Voluntary Effort (IAVE) in Amsterdam.

"The spiritual dimension is important and a lot depends on how you define spiritual," writes Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., in response to a question about how physicians should relate to patients' spirituality. "Some people define spirituality the same way as religion and in my own case that might be so. However, this definition may not be the same for all patients. Usually ... I see spirituality as that which brings patients to confront the most important questions in life such as 'What is the meaning of my life' or 'Where is my life going?'"

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