The other side of volunteeringprint story
December 15, 2011
Volunteering might seem all glamourous and fun but what is needed to be a good volunteer is a lott of flexibility. What happened to me recently was that I am volunteering at a great organisation and project but I somehow felt that I was not able to contribute enough at the school as there were too many people there already and not as much work. I was feeling dissapointed about it and trying to understand why I was not feeling good about the work. A solution then occurred to me. Instead of moping about it or looking for a different project, I decided to be frank with the founders and had a chat with them where I explained that I would help and contribute with all the other activities that we are doing right now but will go to the school only on puppet theatre days or other days when they actually need me there. Luckily, the founders are great people who are very flexible themselves about whatvolunteers want to do and can do and they agreed that it was okay. So I am now going to independently work on things like updating the orgn page on Omprakash,making puppets for future volunteers to use,teaching amothr of the community to read and write as well as help with all other activities like a charity party etc. So if you are a volunteer and find that you are not suited to the work, dont fret! There´s always a way around to make sure you contribute your best to the organisation you are working with.
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Omprakash volunteers have been posting stories, photos and even videos from their time abroad since 2007. We now have an extensive collection of personal stories from volunteers who've worked with our partners abroad. You can browse through the most recent stories below or use the category selection tool to narrow your search. Alternatively click on the Stories tab for each organization we work with to see specific accounts from a particular organization. Be careful - you might lose a couple hours of your day in here! Happy reading.