**1. Introduction**

Volunteering is an essential and natural part of cultures across the world rendering significant multi-dimensional benefits to individuals, organisations and society [1–4]. Volunteers contribute to economic development and boost socio-economic phenomena such as social cohesion, citizenship, community development and social transformation [3,5–7]. Per definition, volunteering is an unpaid, planned, proactive helping activity where someone's time, effort and energy is given freely for the benefit of other people, groups or organisations [8] to help solve social problems [9]. To continue volunteering over time, such commitment typically incurs personal costs, frequently under very difficult personal and economic circumstances [10,11]. Volunteers often operate in emotionally taxing environments, with limited organisational resources and inadequate training and they suffer stress and burnout [12,13]. Therefore, even though volunteering holds physical and psychological well-being benefits for the individual [2,14,15], these benefits may be compromised by the challenges volunteers face [16]. This may be especially relevant in an African context where volunteerism is typically constrained by poverty [6] inadequate training, poor support and lack of supervision, as well as logistical and financial limitations [17].

Volunteering infrastructure in non-Western countries such as South Africa is fast growing and promises to bridge the challenges that international volunteers face by volunteering in non-Western contexts [18]. For the 2017/2018 financial year, research with 74 leading South African companies showed that 80% of these companies run formal employee volunteer programmes and 46% employed designated full or part-time staff to manage volunteers [19]. Considering the high unemployment rate in the country, it is worthy to note that the reported 610.4 million volunteer hours in 2014, were equivalent to more than 293,000 full-time jobs, valued at R9.8 billion [20]. Volunteering in South Africa has played an important part in addressing key socio-economic and political challenges, yet lack of research and government support hamper its effectiveness [21]. The call for consistent research on volunteering in low income contexts [16] further underscore the value of such research in the South African context.

The study of volunteering in non-Western countries is important, however frequently relate to Western, international volunteers who come to Africa to volunteer [22,23]. Although this is similarly true of South African volunteering and native South African volunteers also stem from higher socioeconomic spheres of society, volunteering in the country is frequently conducted by disadvantaged people [6,24,25] who suffer the same physical and psychological health needs as the people who they care for [17]. It is this type of volunteer that stimulated the interest of the researchers because of the particular resource challenges they experience and have to cope with. There are many volunteers from less privileged backgrounds in the South African context. A study on volunteer characteristics in the country show that Black people volunteer more than double the hours that people from other population groups do and these volunteers report significantly lower levels of education than white and Coloured volunteers [24]. Of the Black volunteers in the study, 61.1% were unemployed and 37.6% of White volunteers were also unemployed [24]. Contrary to European, UK and American studies linking a higher level of education [26,27] and a higher social class and income [28] to volunteering, the 2014 South African volunteering activities survey (VAS) reported no relationship between hours spent volunteering and education and income [20].

Volunteer well-being in the work context is as important as that of paid employees [29,30] and understanding their coping resources and positive adaptation is beneficial to developing and sustaining volunteers [31]. In view of South Africa's socio-political uniqueness, high unemployment and poverty rates, there is a need to conduct research on developing and managing the well-being of volunteers in this country's context. South African volunteers working in high-risk medical care, further highlights a distinctly stressful and psychologically demanding work environment, with high performance demands, yet very limited support [32].

Psychological resilience is defined as a dynamic process of positive adaptation in the face of adversity [33,34]. Stressful work-life circumstances increase the risk for poor mental health, yet many people resile despite the difficulties they must endure [35]. Psychological resilience—the process whereby individuals maintain well-being despite adversity—is, among others, attributed to intrapersonal coping resources or positive psychological strengths that facilitate adaptive coping [35]. Salutogenesis originated as a stress and coping model [36] and is defined as a meta-theoretical paradigm focusing on the resources for health [37]; or a stress resistance resource approach emphasising one's capacity to effectively apply available coping resources [38,39]. Central to salutogenic theory is the sense of coherence (SOC) construct, which is described as a wellness-protecting orientation to life that facilitates coping and positive adaptation in trying circumstances [40,41]. People with a strong SOC view life's challenges as meaningful to engage with and believe that they have the ability to comprehend, manage and respond constructively to challenges [42]. These beliefs reflect the three SOC subcomponents of comprehensibility (cognitive component), manageability (behavioural component) and meaningfulness (motivational component). SOC plays a predominant role in promoting psychological resilience under stressful circumstances [43].

Another core construct in the salutogenic model namely generalized resistance resources (GRR) denotes person, group or environment characteristics that facilitate positive adaptation and coping despite stressful circumstances [36]. Generalized resistance resources play a dual role in positive adaptation. On the one hand they strengthen a person's SOC and on the other they enable the use of specific resistance resources (SRR) in one's immediate environment [44]. The aim of this study was to explore the psychological resilience of eight volunteers in a South African public health context from a salutogenic perspective. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by offering an in-depth understanding of the GRRs that strengthen volunteer resilience.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

In this section, the research methodology and the research setting are provided, and the research methods are described in terms of sampling and participants, data collection, data analysis and ethical considerations.

#### *2.1. Research Methodology*

A qualitative study was conducted following a hermeneutic phenomenological approach and the epistemological notions of social constructionism. In this tradition, knowledge generation is based on the researcher's interpretation of participants' lived experience in a social context [45–48]. Findings of the study present the co-constructed meaning between the researcher and researched [49]. Findings do not claim a single or ultimate truth, but rather a perspectival, socially constructed meaning [46,50]. Such an approach is particularly appropriate to context specific research because meaning is derived from participants located in specific social and cultural contexts [51,52]. The hermeneutic agenda calls for critical interpretation by employing an established meta-theory in making sense of the research phenomenon [47,53]. The meta-theoretical orientation applied in this study pertain to the salutogenic perspective on well-being.

#### *2.2. Research Setting*

The study was conducted in a faith-based non-profit organisation (NPO) operating in 13 hospitals in the Gauteng and Western Cape provincial health sectors. The hospitals are government run; some situated in developed urban suburbs, and some in townships on the outskirts of a city. Government hospitals in South Africa are characterised by poor service delivery and hygiene, old and poorly maintained infrastructure and medical negligence [54]. The volunteers provide spiritual care and counselling, as well as emotional, social, trauma and physical support to patients and their families. Most of the volunteers come from poor communities and are faced with unemployment and poverty challenges.

Access to the research setting was gained through the management of the NPO, who provided written permission for the study to be conducted. A volunteer coordinator at the NPO was appointed as gatekeeper and assisted to identify and contact volunteers fitting the research inclusion criteria. Eight participants were contacted telephonically and informed about the nature of the study, the researcher was introduced as a psychologist and doctoral student, and they were requested to participate on provision of anonymity, confidentiality and their right to withdraw. All eight agreed to participate and interview logistics were arranged. Before proceeding with the interviews, each participant signed a consent form after perusing a participant information sheet, explaining the nature and purpose of the study as well as their rights as participants.
