volunteer's participation print story

July 26, 2012

Parijat Academy, India

 One  Volunteer  wrote:

What type of projects am I doing a Parijat Academy:

·         Teaching basic English grammar, reading and writing skills to students.

·         Developing a volunteer handbook for future volunteers (to provide future volunteers with tools and resources to help them have a successful experience at Parijat Academy)

·         Organizing a Summer Festival for the children. The children of Parijat Academy are generally very poor based on western standards (most living on only a few dollars per month) but they are rich in love. Thus, I wanted to have a day to celebrate the children. The Summer Festival is a day of games, activities and food for the children to enjoy and relax.

·         Researching the relationship between poverty and women’s development. Women usually do most of the labor in the world, yet they make the least amount of money. While in Guwahati, I have been conducting interviews with local women to begin to understand their perspective. I wanted to give the women a voice because in many developing nations (and globally) women are overlooked. I will be working with a professor from FSU to organize the data and eventually share it once I return from India.

·         Environmental Awareness Campaign. In India, the streets are often littered with trash. The Principal of the school encouraged me and some of the other volunteers to teach the children about recycling. The idea of recycling is very new to the children, thus we are teaching them the basics and we have provided bins for them to start their own recycling project.

·         Health Awareness Campaign. I’ve been working with another volunteer to promote health awareness amongst the local villagers. The other volunteer Kevin organized a Health Fair for the students in which students had a chance to interact with a local doctor. Please visit to see some of things we have already done: http://www.assamtimes.org/social/7081.html

Why am I volunteering all the way in India and not in America?

I came to India because after reading the story of Parijat Academy and seeing how much the Principal has given to better his village I wanted to come and be a part of that legacy. I wanted to meet these beautiful resilient children of Parijat Academy. I also understand that living outside of my comfort zone in a new place will help to grow and become a better person. More importantly I wanted to serve. In fact, Rachel Naomi Remen said, “Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.” I’m not volunteering because I want to fix Parijat Academy. I’m here because I want to serve children who have taught me the value of what it means to be humble. I embarked on my journey to Parijat understanding that it is not my job to “fix” or change the people of Guwahati, India. I also came with the understanding that though I will be teaching, I will learn a lot more from the locals than I could ever teach them. Lastly, I serve in America year-round in various community service projects. I recognize the importance of helping my own community as well as helping others. But, I truly believe we are all God’s children and helping anywhere is helping the world.

My time at Parijat Academy has been nothing short of amazing and fulfilling. I’m truly thankful God provided me with the opportunity to come to such a beautiful place to learn from such a strong, resilient group of people.

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