‘We were intrigued by the name of the NGO’

Interacting with young minds can not only be energizing but instills a sense of responsibility. What you say and do can influence them greatly. This is something that my colleague and me experienced when we had college students from a nearby university at our office. They were required to complete their 25 hours of internship with us. They were just straight out of high school and in their first year of college education. One of the students who interned with us has shared a blog on her experiences. Sharing her thoughts with you…

I am Yasmin Naaz. I am pursuing BBA from Christ University, Bangalore. I love reading books, listening to music and enjoy the beauty of the nature. I like helping others so when the opportunity of volunteering came up I just could not let it pass. We were required to spend 25 hours with an NGO as a volunteer for our Social Responsibility Project.

Volunteering is about serving others and giving whatever you can without expecting in return, wholeheartedly.  I and my friends chose the NGO – iVolunteer, for our Social Responsibility Project. We were intrigued by the name of the NGO; moreover we saw good feed-backs from people who volunteered there. The fact that it was nearby was an advantage for all of us.

iVolunteer is an organization which helps in promoting volunteering and encourages the volunteers. It renders its services to other NGOs by providing the volunteers they need.

None of us had a clear idea about volunteering and how a NGO which helps promoting volunteering works, but we decided to give it a shot. We were nervous about what would we have to do or if at all we would be able to do the tasks, but in the end it was worth it.

On our first day, we were asked to search stories for children on moral values like humility, honesty, service, dedication etc. Though the task seems small but it revoked forgotten memories of our own childhood and helped in remembering that no matter of what age we were these, morals will always guide us. We had fun while finding good stories. The next task for that day was to make a poster for an upcoming event for the NGO, which was equally fun. We actually got to imply what we learnt in English all these years.

The task for our second day was to write about volunteering, different kinds of volunteering and recognizing the NGOs which support and promote volunteering. While doing this task we got familiar with what volunteering means for different kinds of organization and the kinds of volunteering that exist providing a wide range of choices for people to choose from if they are interested. Last but not the least, we got to know different NGOs around which promote volunteering. This task was an eye opener for us, as we all weren’t familiar with how an NGO works which promotes volunteering.

On our third day, each of us was asked to pick two NGOs and write about its vision, mission, and causes it supports, kinds of volunteers it needs and how it operates. After this were asked to work on iVolunteer’s database (of NGOs) in terms of removing duplicate data and filling the missing information.

All in all, it was a learning experience for all of us about how an NGO works and the importance of volunteering.

We had a enjoyable experience with you Yasmin! Here’s wishing you and your friends a brighter future ahead 🙂