THE POWER OF OBSERVATION IN A VOLUNTEER

When you go somewhere to volunteer, you think that just after saying two words, your work is complete: WE ARE HELPING AND MOTIVATING PEOPLE. Thank you all, it was nice meeting you. But that is not how it is. That is not how we go about it. And that is what I learned in a training session before volunteering. I believe that this was the first place where I got the true feeling of volunteering: Family Education Service Foundation. And that is not entirely because of the projects we did but the training we received from our facilitator. Whenever we are planning to venture into a new business, we plan it beforehand. We consider all the pros and cons before entering the battlefield. Why? Because that is when our money and respect is at stake, so when it comes to volunteering, why don't we? Well, first, our money stays in our pockets and respect? We are earning that through volunteering itself. Why put any more efforts than we already are. What we don't consider is that just by saying that we need to help and motivate people, we are not actually doing it. We need to understand what they need and then devise a proper plan to give it to them. In these training sessions, we learned how to do that. We learned how we could be a good leader. We learned that a leader does not need followers. We learned how to acknowledge our own mistakes. We learned how our best work can turn into trash in just eight minutes. We learned how to work as a team. We learned how to raise funds. We learned the benefits of asking. We got to know why we should praise someone. In short, we not only learned how to become a good volunteer, but also, how to become a good person. To be a good volunteer, we need to learn to respect people. We need to learn how to save money and spend it efficiently. We need to earn people's trust. We need to take charge in a way that nobody feels left out. We need to realize our teams abilities and use them in the way best suited to the situation. And for all that to happen, we need to see. As Robert Baden-Powell rightly said: "If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk"