"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."
-Marianne Williamson
Believe me, the course on New Media added a new dimension to my education. It helped me to bring a new perspective to the table for discussions in my other courses.
I got to experience with blogging and microblogging. Initially I wasn't quite happy when my professor made it a requirement for the course. I had to sign up in Twitter and start a blog to meet the course requirements. When I was excited about writing a blog (as I had wanted to do it from a long time), I wasn't quite impressed with Twitter. It seemed to be a waste of time. Following people seemed to be a bit odd when I wasn't quite interested in others perspectives. Tweeting to an empty space felt more like a one-way conversation until others (whom I hardly knew) who were interested in the same topic replied to my tweets and shared their views. I got to meet new people and learn more from their views and opinions. I am also a part of different communities where we have same interests. From my own experience I realized how powerful and efficient micro blogs are. I got to know why there is a rising popularity for social media sites. Gradually, I got to realize what my professor meant while wanting us to experience new media. Whenever you research on a specific culture or community, you want to be an ‘insider’ rather than an ‘outsider’. Being an ‘insider’ is about actually knowing what you are studying. It was quite effective to analyse new media as an insider- one who has experience on the platform she is studying about. Now when someone says that when minds interact, new ideas emerge, I can clearly hear that person.
This overall experience has helped me in thinking and processing information differently. My thinking patterns have changed. It has also changed the way I interact with others.
In this fast evolving social media world, the course has equipped me with specific tools that one needs to compete on the new media landscape.
You can find the facebook page linked to this blog here.
In this post I would like to introduce you to one of
the inspirational student volunteers at my university. She has initiated her
own organization – WE CARE. We have a couple of similar leaders in our
university. Her story is slightly different because it is her childhood experiences
that have influenced her to initiate WE CARE.
She started on by volunteering with Volunteer for
Bangladesh (VBD). She joined the group two years before as an Asian University
for Women (AUW) representative. Her role was to attend the meetings organized
by VBD officers and to promote their programs within AUW. She says that it was Volunteer for Bangladesh’s
(VBD) promotional video that inspired her. She has been quite successful in
getting the word around as we had around 150 AUW students volunteering in the
Universal Childrens Day (UCD) campaign 2012.
For her, the incentive is self-satisfaction. She
says that by stating “if you don’t give, you don’t get back” and explains how
the initiative of one professor has changed her life. She doesn’t want to take
that help as granted. Rather, she is committed towards lending helping hands to
as many lives as possible. She had some
of the worst experiences in her life just because of her stammer. She never
used to talk in class under the fear of embarrassment. Her advisor who came to
know about this talked with the university’s authority and managed to send her
to Mukundapur medical hospital in India for a three week program. In this program, they identified her level of
stammering and helped her in figuring out the letters that were uncomfortable
for her to speak. She was lucky to get into this Indian government sponsored program
which was open only for Indians.
This event changed her life. Don’t misunderstand me.
The program wasn’t a miracle. It did take time for her to be the person she is
today. From the program she realized that there is no cure for stammering. She
had to accept it. She successfully got over it and eventually got a scholarship
to go to third One Young World summit in Pittsburgh (2012,) where she
represented Sri Lanka.
For her rather than the nationality it is the
subjects that matters. She chose to work with kids and subjects with special
needs irrespective of the communities they are from. She views volunteering as serving people regardless
of boundaries. At the same time she admits that there are challenges in being a
Sri Lankan and volunteering in Bangladesh. The main challenge is language.
Also, in a cross-cultural program she is always titled as an ‘outsider’ though
she has tried her best to be an ‘insider’. Therefore, she has to put an extra
effort to gain the subjects’ trust.
Her future goal is to get a post-doctoral degree.
She prioritizes education over everything else because she strongly believes
that without education people will not recognize you. WE CARE is been sponsored
by One Young World and she is devoted towards making a change with her
organization.
Asian University for Women (AUW) provides liberal arts education to young women from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to become service-oriented leaders and promoters of intercultural understanding. Most of them are committed towards contributing to a change. Here are some pictures of recent community activities in which these young women were involved in.
Whenever you ask someone why he/she is volunteering, you will get many answers; for a good cause, it’s fun, it’s a good experience, etc.
Taking initiative for a better cause does seem to be a structured plan with a well-defined objective, but in reality Volunteerism is never black & white. Always there is an absence in absoluteness. It is messy and at the same time it is a great experience. Usually most of us interpret it as going somewhere, doing something and finishing the work we have initiated. Most often times it doesn’t work that way.
One of the important character traits a volunteer should possess is patience. It is the key. You might encounter many unexpected challenges on the field. Things might not go as you plan. You might not get to do what you wanted. Sometimes you ‘can’t’ as you ‘want’. Having expectations while volunteering might hurt you as there is a high possibility that it can’t be met. People out there might not want your free help.
What a volunteer needs to understand is that the main objective of volunteering is ‘helping’ which is doing good and making positive footprints. In that case presence itself is huge. Knowing that you are available itself makes a huge difference. It is all about that special drive to do something great. It is always about people you are helping, not about ‘us’ or ‘credit’.
The very first question that I was asked after starting this
blog was “why volunteerism?”.
My interest in exploring further into this subject
roots in my personal experiences. When I graduated from high school, I hardly
knew about volunteering. Neither my teachers, nor my mentors mentioned about it.
The education system never taught me the significance of volunteering and its
benefits. Whenever I look back, I wonder about the importance of creating a
volunteering culture. Later, knowing and experiencing volunteerism made me realize that in a
civil society, volunteerism is of great significance. The quote by Marianne
Williamson, which is also highlighted under my blog tittle, cuts the long story
short. “In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there
are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” This is one
of my favorite quotes. It powerfully captures the significance of volunteerism.
Especially in communities where the government falls behind in efficient provision of services ,volunteerism is a great resource for making necessary social advancements. If we just look around, we will find voluntary workers in
almost every field ranging from education to politics. It is because there are
many different reasons to volunteer. Not only the community benefits from such
actions, the actors (volunteers) also benefit from it. Why do you think the
companies that hire skilled workers also look into the candidates’ voluntary
experiences? The only reason behind it is that these experiences help the
volunteers in developing and enhancing the skills and abilities necessary to
succeed in a civil society. It makes them a stronger candidate.
In last five years, I got the opportunity to involve in a couple of voluntary works, especially in the fields of education and
environmental issues. Thanks to liberal arts education system. In the process,
I also got to interact with other volunteers. The unique aspect of being a volunteer is that they realize and experience the power of their heart and thereby stand out with their special ability in inspiring others. Apart from
all these benefits and mental satisfaction, volunteers can also improve
physical health and cognitive abilities. I was quite amazed by this report published by
the corporation for National and Community Service.
While talking about the inspirational volunteers, we must also be aware that the interests behind volunteering can be questioned. When selfless volunteerism does exist, there are also volunteers who provide services for material benefits (title, certificates, etc.). The reasons behind those interests are obvious. As I mentioned earlier these titles make you a stronger candidate in the competitive capitalistic markets. One might also argue that the interests behind volunteering does not matter if their actions lead to social advancements.
Personally I feel that it is high time to encourage a volunteering culture, especially in communities with economically impoverished sections. The process has already started. In past couple of years, number of volunteers have drastically increased. At the same time, one might also wonder if the heart of volunteerism will be able to compete with our busy and competitive lifestyle.
The uniqueness of volunteerism is that once you realize the
power of your heart, you cannot stop yourself from using it. (Can it be weakened by our busy and competitive lifestyle?....need to explore further!)
What
actually is “Volunteerism”? The word which is used since 1844 is defined indictionary.com(our primary source of definitions) as the policy or practice of volunteering one’s time or talents for charitable,
educational, or other worthwhile activities, especially in one’s community. This particular
definition made me think twice. On one hand, it is not a complete definition as
“volunteering” is used to define “volunteerism”. What is volunteering? Who is a
Volunteer? On the other hand, I was not quite comfortable with the very last
part of the definition; especially in one’s community. Is that actually
relevant in defining volunteerism? Does it matter which community I am
volunteering in? How is the volunteerism involved in the act of me
working in my community different from that of me working in a different
community?
As I was
not persuaded by the definition, I looked it up ononline
oxford dictionarywhich
defines "Volunteerism" as the use or involvement of volunteer labor, especially
in community services. This definition seemed to be a better one. Though
both of the above definitions does emphasize on ‘community’ service, there is a
slight difference in their meanings. The former definition stresses on "one's"
community, while the later does not. However, I was not quite satisfied with
this definition either as this one seemed to be incomplete as well.
The fact
that I am not an expert in this field pulls me back from interpreting and
nuancing these definitions beyond a certain extent.
That is
when I decided to go a bit deep into the word, to define it by defining its
roots – “volunteer” and “ism”. Oxford dictionary defines “volunteer” as a
person who does a job willingly without being paid for it and “ism” refers to a
set of ideas or system of beliefs or behavior. Putting both of them together,
we can read “Volunteerism” as a system of beliefs or behavior related to people
who do a job or service willingly without being paid for it.
For
the time being, I would prefer this definition over the other two. But, at the
same time, I do believe that we might be able to nuance it in a better way
after exploring further into the real world of volunteerism. During this
journey, feel free to contribute your ideas and interpretations, because the
shoot of social knowledge always sprouts out from sharing, interpreting and
questioning.
