From Volunteering to Transforming Lives.

When I decided to be a part of UN volunteer group, I just looked back at all the qualities I possessed to be a volunteer.

Is it the helping nature I possess? Is it ability to teach without expectation? Is it the experiences of life which readily made me accept or is it the glamour of the tag United Nations ?

It’s a mix of all , In short, volunteering really can have a transformative impact on people’s lives.

Well, when we look at the dictionary definition it says “a person who does something, especially helping other people, willingly and without being forced or paid to do it ”

While discussing with my fellow friends, I realised people volunteer because it makes them happy, because it is fun, because they do not want others in the world to go through what they have been, because they want to help the community, because they want to use their skills expand their knowledge, and many other reasons.

So, going by above points, every one of us should try to volunteer as it expands and helps us to be more knowledgeable. Research also proves that people who volunteer are healthier both physically and mentally and are more understanding and caring.

My take as an educator is that we must teach the upcoming generation to volunteer which is materialistically grounded. We must expose them to fun of discovering themselves.

How do we do that?
1. Sharing ideas: provide opportunities to communicate with peers what they think about volunteering. Ask what they think and then we get people who think similar and may be better.
2. Sharing experiences: Make students realise that the knowledge we possess is nothing without the experience we have in life. And experience makes us amazing volunteers.
3. Sharing skill sets: With experience, add the skills and while we give, we also learn.
And once we have skills, we can take them where ever we go in life, no matter what we do. Help students gain skills and then encourage them to share.
4. Sharing passion: Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes on focusing on what you decide to volunteer on. And this will take you to higher level because this sparks excitement and this will create new opportunities. Let’s translate our passion of teaching to their passion of learning.

So, friends helping others is a noble activity. It feels good, gives you a sense of accomplishment, pride, boosts your self-esteem. It gives us a chance to bring out the best part of ourselves. So, I believe the act of volunteering is life changing . Let’s make Volunteering a part of our identity. Let’s talk about it and make if contagious.

Keep talking of the stories of the people you've helped, keep tapping into that passion show what it felt like to volunteer keep bringing out your best self and then let's see how much better things
can get.

A friendly reminder to all those who are reading, that you will only get a limited time on this Earth. Today is a good day to do something great, lets transform lives by volunteering!