Hammad Abedin- A young Development Professional and a Volunteer at heart!

Meet Hammad Abedin who volunteered with Nai Umang Positive Welfare Society for 5 months and strengthened the non-profit through many ways.

Tell us about yourself

Hammad – is a Lebanese name which means a person who praises God or praiseworthy. I believe in the motto of ‘we have only one life to live, so don’t waste it and live it to the fullest’. I was born & raised in the Great walled city i.e. Old Delhi, and enjoy roaming around the historical monuments. I went to Jamia Millia Islamia for pursuing Commerce in Bachelor’s &Masters in Social Work. I have worked with organisations like Pratidhi, Saalam Balak Trust (on child rights)Kaarak (on livelihoods generation, social research) Pradan (for Value chain analysis) and Maitri India (for homeless population in Central Delhi). I believe in the potential of technology for good, which led me to join NASSCOM Foundation (for skill development, digital literacy of youth population).

What does volunteering mean to you?

Firstly, volunteering is all about passion to help someone without expecting anything in return. And when one volunteers, he / she works on a new project with a new team with a new goal, a vision towards a new target which leads you to the achievement of something beyond from your regular job. This drives me to start volunteering.

Describe the Impact projects you were involved in with iVolunteer. 

Initially, I joined Nai Umang (a community based organization working towards empowering HIV positive families and individuals), keeping in mind that I will be working on Marketing & promotion strategy of their products. But, when I joined, their requirement was much beyond this. So, after a thorough discussion I started working with the Nai Umang team on different verticals of communication, fund raising & event planning.

In Communications – I worked on their Facebook page (on increasing number of likes, regular updates, what to share on FB etc.), Brochure (helped them to design their latest brochure), mailers (crafted standard PPT, mailers, templates for them to use in their all communications), press releases (wrote press release for their annual AIDS day celebration)

Fundraising – I did a secondary research & created list of banks in Delhi / NCR who can be potential donors for Nai Umang. I also trained / helped the team members on how to communicate with donors.

Event planning, proposal writing – I helped them in planning of their annual event of AIDS day celebration. I also helped them in writing few program proposal for financial assistance.

How was your experience, volunteering for this project? 

There was support from both ends- iVolunteer  and Nai Umang. iVolunteer guided me well with my work. Nai Umang always tried to utilize my knowledge, skills & experience in the best possible way. I’ve been humbled by the kindness and warmth that I’ve been shown by team members.  After this, all I can say is Volunteering will be a constant part of my life from now onwards.

Any interesting learning you took away from this project? 

Empathy – before Nai Umang I have not worked with any such group who deal directly with PLHIV (Persons Living with HIV). It was a great learning from the team – the way they counsel PLHIV & their families.

What do you feel is the best thing about Impact Projects?

“Impact projects” is a great platform to cater to the demands/ needs of the various community based organizations (CBO) with the supply of skilled volunteers. The way iVolunteer team manages both sides of the coin (i.e. CBO’s & volunteers) is truly commendable. The very recent Impact Gup Shup was a very innovative concept of meeting, engaging volunteers in a mix of casual & formal manner. I feel that I have lots more to learn & achieve, and this experience will really go a long way to help me in my future volunteering rendezvous.

What advice/pointers would you like to give to other “Impact Volunteers”?

We always want to take a break from our regular routine lives no matter who we are – student, professional, home maker etc. But most of the times we can’t take the desired break due to different reasons. If you want to do something different, achieve something without expecting anything in return, hone your talent/skill then Volunteering is for YOU!

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