Suddenly one evening I receive a text message from my Director Shalabh asking me to represent iVolunteer for a youth conclave called Vidh-Youth organised by Centre for Social Action(CSA) at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore.
“Vidh-Youth is a conclave that aims to bring together students from different educational institutions in Bangalore who actively engage in social activities. Through this conclave CSA aspires to bring these young and socially conscious minds together. “
I had a mixed feeling of what I am going to deliver and how I am going to be as a panel member for the first time ever. There was a lot of anxiety and excitement filled at that moment. I just had a day to prepare for the event and started to browse on my topic “To portray mechanism of encouraging volunteering among youth”.
As I browsed through the web, I got more in-depth knowledge on volunteer, and ways of encouraging young people to volunteer. I also made notes to share on the panel.
It was 2nd of March 2019, the day arrived and I reach Christ College’s huge auditorium which can accommodate around 1000 people. And to see many interesting people seated at the front row of the auditorium. The hospitality received from the CSA volunteers was great and assisted me to the front row as I sat next to the famous Mr. Annamalai Kuppuswamy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Division Bangalore! What an honour to sit next to him!I was thrilled and excited to witness the very impressive speech by DCP Annamalai. He is one of the best IPS officers, famous for his sincerity and quick actions taken for the welfare of society to maintain the Law and Order. A clear speech by DCP Annamalai on how young people need to have the passion to do good, was a very effective and motivating speech by him. It is very aspiring to see such people who are in the Government Sector having the passion to do good to our society. Ultimately if all the government officials are like DCP Annamalai, this world would be a better place to live in.
DCP Annamalai! Salut!!! 
Mr.Bezwada Wilson, his fiery speech
A very inspiring speech by the key note speaker, Mr. Bezwada Wilson on the various sanitation issues surviving in India currently. He gave a very strong command to the young people telling them to become part of the politics, as it is a MUST for young good hearted people to serve in the Politics for our Country to become a corrupt free country so that the unreached can be reached and the most deprived people can be benefitted by the various government policies and programs.
Later there was a short film screening of Mr. Vijay Bharadwaj (Film Director), on his recently shot 22 minutes film “Avalokana”, a life journey of two young men who took up their passion as their career and succeeded in their professional life in spite of the various hurdles faced by them.
Finally the Panel Discussion was on and the Moderator of the Panel, Anto Philip an Alumnus of CHRIST and the Co-founder of ‘Under 25 Summit’ invited all the panel members and made each one introduce themselves to the gathering.
On my right sat Mr. Prashanth Ramagiri (Founder of KAARMIC). Mr. Prashanth is Philomath, an autodidact and a serial social entrepreneur from India, working on achieving inclusive growth in an economically diverse country like India. He does so by bridging the education and achievement gap between Rural and Urban sections through a unique sustainable model with State Governments. He believes that in this dynamic era, where education has evolved to “application of knowledge” against its prescriptive purpose of “only absorption of knowledge” there needs to be an exposure to unconventional, experiential & application-based learning. Mr.Prashanth shared on how a volunteer-youth can give inspiration to children to build an atmosphere of joyful learning.
Mr.Prashanth in full swing 
Mr.Vijay with his sense of humour
On my opposite side were seated Mr.Rahul Raghav from U&I, U&I is one of India’s fastest growing volunteer driven charities. With over 2000 volunteers, and 300 leaders across 15 cities in India, Mr. Satish & Mr. Ajit (Co-Founders) lead a new generation of change-makers passionate about providing quality education to students from underprivileged backgrounds and shelter homes. Mr.Rahul shared the challenges of volunteering in social space especially in the context of education enhancement.
Next to Mr.Rahul sat Mr.Vijay Bharadwaj, the budding Film Director and a very sensitive human being. Mr. Vijay Bharadwaj aspired to work in the film direction department for a production company that could help in utilizing his script writing and storytelling capabilities to enthral and excite audiences by creating beautiful cinematic images and visualization. Film making being his passion, he has also enacted in several movies and TV serials. On this day he highlighted the relevance of Media and Technology for youth as an enabler to make a difference. He motivated the youth present at the Christ auditorium to choose the profession that they are really passionate about and to do something that their heart desires.
Lastly, I Saranya Sathish, the Relationship Manager of iVolunteer, Bangalore Centre, portrayed the mechanism of encouraging volunteering among youth. This was a prestigious moment for me as I portrayed completely about iVolunteer, the kind of work we do and encouraged the students present at the Vidh-Youth to spend atleast little bit of their time in volunteering for a good cause. I also added telling that volunteering starts from very small attitude driven action like greeting your neighbour or giving an affectionate hug to a low-wage worker in the college premises. Anything for that matter is of course volunteering. So to kick start, start with a small action of giving which can create a huge impact in someone’s life. To experience it, you have to volunteer for a cause!
Many people these days want to do volunteering and want to make a change in any small ways possible. I would suggest iVolunteer as a platform to exhibit your skills to change their lives.
To know more you can always look up to www.ivolunteer.in for any upcoming volunteering opportunities.
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