An Enriching Experience!

“The purpose of life is not to be happy but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.”

–Leo Rosten

Since our childhood, we are all in a rat race! Right from getting admission in the best college to bagging the best jobs! But difficult times always force us to think, so was I forced to think during the COVID-19 lockdown. Humans are supreme compared to all the other creatures on Earth. But what an irony that man was caged and all the other creatures were freely moving during the lockdown. With my mind flooded with such thoughts, I was pondering and introspecting about the sole purpose of our existence on this planet. It was when the thought of doing something for the society struck my mind. But how could a person who’s not allowed to move out of the home do anything for the society? Suddenly, I came across iVolunteer and understood how I could sit at home and virtually volunteer to many activities.

With full enthusiasm, I enrolled in a few opportunities available. Starting with small things like reading out stories for small children and making mathematics assignment questions for them, I also got a chance to make questionnaires for NGO’s seeking help in recruitment, creating KRA’s for employees, and creating HR policies. Soon I was assigned a task to help ‘Seva Charitable Trust’ in making their annual reports. Seva Charitable Trust works towards conservation and preservation of mother earth, inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. It also provides alternative livelihood opportunities to the tribals living inside the national park by teaching them skills for earning a living. I completed the annual report but I didn’t want to stop there. I wanted to help more. It was when I asked the Trustee of Seva Charitable Trust about the problems she was facing in managing the people at the NGO. After thoroughly understanding the situation, I realized that the major problem she wasn’t able to manage the interns was that their goals were not clearly defined which led to the delays. After getting in touch with each department head and after understanding their work, I made SMART goals for each intern and also implemented a system of weekly reporting. Additionally, I was assigned the task of managing the interns, giving them weekly targets, and ensuring that they completed it. Sitting at home it was the best practical experience I could get because in the workplace also it is all about managing people.

I wanted to do a more challenging task and explore something new, so I volunteered for another opportunity of teaching conversational English to the trainers of ‘Srujna Charitable Trust’ who help the trafficked young girls in developing new skills through training and workshops. The trainer could understand Hindi, so English had to be taught by explaining everything in Hindi. Initially, it was difficult but with time it became easy. During the sessions, I understood that the trainer was afraid and lacked confidence. In every session, I used to try to boost her confidence after which she started speaking in English. The best feeling ever was when I saw that trainer whom I trained started speaking in English. It was really an enriching experience!

As I cross more than 120 hours of volunteering virtually, I can proudly say that I’ve done my part in doing something for the society and have created a little impact on people’s lives in every way I could. It wouldn’t have been possible without iVolunteer- the bridge between volunteers & NGO’s. Special thanks to Mrs. Aarti for her constant motivation & support.

#ivolunteer #anenrichingexperience