How did volunteering change my life?

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I first started volunteering while I was still a law student, maybe 4 years ago. I remember, I just got my bachelor's and I thought that it would be a good idea if after my first year of my master's, I find a summer internship in a legal firm. I had it all planned out. I was a student in Business Law and really wanted (at least, I thought I wanted that) to find a company where I could practice what I have learned in college. But I didn't have any previous experience and I knew that this will be a big problem. It is always difficult to find your first internship or job. So I decided to be “proactive” and look for alternatives. And there we go! I decided to start volunteering. I am not going to bullshit you and tell you that I wanted to be a volunteer because I was driven by pure altruistic desires of changing the world. The truth is that this was my way to have a first experience and a nice CV. I still think that if you want to have a good first experience, volunteering is a great way to start form somewhere.

Anyway, so I had all figured it out. It was the best plan ever! At this time I was living in Lyon (France) and firstly, I wanted to find an internship at one of the big NGOs like Amnesty International or UNESCO. Of course, I understood very quickly that getting a volunteer position for one of those organizations was like getting the job of your dreams – they needed at least 2 years of experience, cover letters, CVs, a degree in law (of course, a master degree, the bachelor's was not enough) and so on... I started wondering why the people who had all the qualifications for the volunteering position would apply for it. They could directly apply for a normal job position, right?

So I started looking at the job positions. I couldn't understand why you needed to have so many skills and qualifications to be a volunteer. It is true that if you want to volunteer for an organization that has an impact in a specific field like medicine or law, you need to have a basic knowledge about the field but not a whole CV and at least 2 years of experience. Everybody can be a volunteer because everybody can do something, whatever it is. Now I can tell it even with a bigger certitude, as I work for an NGO.

So I gave up on the big organizations and started looking for online positions. And voilà! I found my first NGO I volunteered for in my life. It was a small American NGO trying to help inmates by replying to their legal questions and giving them legal advice, as they couldn't afford a lawyer. Many of them were in prison for years and years waiting for a sentence to be pronounced and nothing was happening. They couldn't pay a lawyer or they had a lawyer from the state who apparently didn't really wanted to waste his time working on a case he would not earn any money from. So these people were completely desperate.

I was not only giving them legal advice and consultations, but I was also talking with them. It was all via letters. Many of them told me their story. Many of them were really guilty. They had really killed another human being which was kinda terrifying for me. It was terrifying because I was also seeing the humanity in these people. I was seeing how many of them made bad choices because they didn't know what else to do, because they were felling trapped, because they needed help and nobody was there to give them a hand, because they were very very scared. Of course, I do not excuse by any means what they have done, I'm just trying to say that it is not all black and white and sometimes when we feel lost, we can make really bad decisions.

While I was “working” with these inmates I slowly started realizing that I was finding for the first time in my life a real meaning in what I was doing. I was doing it for free and it did not border me at all. Many people asked me why I was doing it if I am not paid and my answer was “because I like it and it makes me feel useful”. I was ready to stay up until late so I could make my researches and reply to the letters. The fact that I was helping these people, that my letters were giving them hope and a smile on their faces was maybe the most amazing feeling I had ever felt in my life. The feeling that you do something good and you don't want anything in return. Just helping someone because you can.

I also saw my law studies from a completely different angle. I didn't want anymore to work in the corporate business. My goal was not anymore to “make big money and to have a great career of a lawyer”. I was not even sure that I really like my studies or I was doing them because of the prestige, the title.

I wanted to help people in need because there were (are) so many. Maybe it sounds cheesy, but this is the truth! I completely woke up for a reality I didn't want to see before – the reality that people suffer, people starve, people are not treated right. We say that everybody has rights but this is not true. Some people don't have rights because they have been taken away from them and not many people are fighting against this injustice. I was so angry with the government, with this system that makes some people starve and live in poverty. I was angry with the humanity because we allowed that!

So this is the moment I realized that I couldn't sleep anymore peacefully knowing all that. I couldn't live anymore in my small pretty world knowing that for some people every single day is another battle. And some may think that “this is not my problem”. Well, it is my problem! It is everybody's problem. We live and exist in this society and we are completely responsible for everything happening in the world!

So this is how it all started. Eventually, I didn't want to continue my Business Law studies. I failed massively, so bad, it still hurts. But everything happens for a reason. Corporate law was not my path anymore and the universe told me that in a very direct way.

So I continued being a volunteer for another organization which was more focused on the impact of culture in poor neighborhoods. We were painting and drawing with children in a park... pretty sweet, except the fact that we were doing this in “the real hood”.

This was a whole new experience showing me how people in these neighborhoods live, showing me theirs everyday struggles. Kids in these areas see things they should not see. They see violence, drugs, guns, the police is there all the time. People live in fear. They live in small flats in tall buildings where you see and hear everything. And what you see and hear is not very pretty.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Maybe you will ask why we wanted to have this art workshops in exactly this type of neighborhoods. It is because everybody has the right to have access to culture. Everybody has the right to express themselves trough a painting, colors, music, writing. It does not mean that because you live in a poor neighborhood, you don't have the right for that or you will not understand it. Culture is for everybody, not only for rich people. It is so massively important for the development of a human being. Culture and knowledge make us who we are! They develop our character, our personality, our perception of the world. (Soon I am going to write a whole blog post on the impact of culture on people living in poverty). It is so important to understand that people don't need only money and food, they also need culture!

Back to my story. At this same moment, I also found an internship at the NGO I am now working for. I realized that I wanted to dive more into this social area and understand more about the real world not the world we see on TV or in the newspapers, judging and stigmatizing everybody who is “out” of the system. I wanted to see how people live and think while they live in poverty. If we don't try to understand theirs needs, their mindset, we will never be able to help them and put an end to the poverty in the world.

This internship was again a life-changing experience. While doing the art workshops, I was still in the poor neighborhoods with the kids who were living there, during my internship I had to actually meet adults living in extreme poverty. And when I say extreme poverty that means people who don't really have any money to eat. And no, they were not homeless, they were not on the street, but they were still living in extreme poverty. In small, almost destroyed flats with rats and a bunch of insects! I was completely shocked that in a country like France (one of the richest countries in the world) there are people who live like that! French people! Not foreigners, not refugees... I couldn't believe it. We often tend to think that people who live in extreme poverty are people in Africa or another country from “the third world” (I hate this name!), or immigrants, but no. People in extreme poverty live also in Europe, in the USA, everywhere in the world, even in rich countries. And it is not because the poverty is not the same in Africa and in Europe that people don't suffer the same way and don't feel like being the outsiders, the black sheep of the system.

As I said, these were all life-changing experiences making me realize that we have to do something for this society. There are so many injustices, so many people who need real help. Many of them don't even need money, they need someone who is going to listen to them and to understand their pain. People need someone they can hold on to, someone who can encourage them to keep moving forward even if it is difficult, even if it is painful.

Photo by Louis Smit on Unsplash

For myself, I made the decision to start working for an NGO and this is how I think I can have a positive impact on the society, for now. I don't tell you to do the same thing, but wake up! There are so many things that we have to stop accepting in this world. Find a way to make a positive change. Find a volunteer position (it does not take a lot of time), donate your clothes, recycle, try second hand shops, buy old books, do not trow away your food knowing that some people are starving, do not waste too much water, cook your own food and stop buying processed, ride a bicycle, grow some plants. When you buy something, look where it was made. Try to buy local products, if you can. This is a great way to support the small local businesses and to have better quality products. You can actually make so many small things that have a huge impact on the world and you can start today!

I have always believed that when people start making conscious decisions and choices, the world will get better. When you do something, ask yourself why you are doing it and what will be the impact on the world and on humanity. I hope that my story will inspire some of you and you will also start seeing the world from a different perspective. Maybe some of you have already started. Being conscious about what is going on in the world and making small changes every single day, is just the beginning of a big change. Let's start this big change today, immediately! Love, Elena