STORY OF AFSAL
I would like to introduce myself as a Volunteer. Volunteering is my evertime passion and life. For the past 13 years, I have been volunteering with different organizations, undertaken 100+ initiatives with the involvement of 10,000+ young volunteers. I had volunteered in the field of Education, Health and Environment Conservation; focusing on Volunteer Management and Programme Coordination.
It was during my school days, I identified my leadership and coordination skills. Being the leader of the class, I always run to help my seniors and teachers in all school activities. I had formed a club with my friends when I was in 5th standard to involve in sports and other activities. This active participation had paved my way to be the Captain of the School. The greatest appreciation and inspiration for me was when I was selected as the Best House Captain of the academic year; that motivated me to believe in my social skills. When I joined college, I realized that everything I was doing in my past years were termed as – Volunteering. My initial days of volunteering life was all about fun and good-spent days with friends. As I began to hold up the responsibilities, I could realise the Incomparable and invaluable efforts to be put in for the success of the events. Every programme appears to be a challenge first, but as we get involved into it selflessly those would disappear.
Once I had visited an orphanage for girls. Their pleasing smile and selfless love was a life changing moment in my life. They have a lot of dreams, but they lacked motivation and support system. So we decided to provide educational aid and support for those students who were not much interested in studies. By our initiative, all of them could pass out with much better grades. I volunteered there for 4 years and I am proud to contribute towards securing their future lives. I realised the importance of working on ground with communities and transforming their lives. We had adopted a village and had undertaken volunteering initiatives in various fields. I volunteered for differently-abled students to create platforms for them to showcase their talents, supported the healthcare workers in palliative field providing aids to elderly people, created awareness on Plastic Bottle Consumption and transformed 13 schools to Plastic Bottle Free Schools. I had also developed a low cost Plastic Shredding Machine with the help of volunteers. For me, this community social volunteering was a life changing experience. Being an engineering student I was supposed to think technically and to just learn and work within the four walls of a company where the thoughts and acts are merely machinery. But when I discovered the real social-being within me through my volunteering journey, I began to devote my time and energy for the welfare and benefit of the society. This helped me to analyse and realize the various horizons of life, eventualy I realized the purpose of living. Thereafter I was able to reach more lives and gift a smile on them. Along my journey, I was able to come across new faces, learn fresh things, which do help me to improve my coordination skills, my talents and I could handle and manage more number of people.
One of the main challenge initially faced was Lack of like-minded and dedicated volunteers to support the initiatives.The young citizens of Kerala were fully ignorant of the vast number of social opportunities before them . They never tried to realise the goodness of these generous acts. So it was a greater task to make these people aware of the necessity of volunteership in every community. But the down-to-earth nature towards every fellow-beings working with, helps us to create a personal bond with them. Appreciating and valuing everyone for their bit contributions have inspired and motivated many others. Apart from our usual volunteering works of scheduled programmes, we gave them real life experiences and exposures that gave them a satisfactory feeling. Their was no boundaries, all were treated equally and was free to share and take up ideas. Thus we created a sense of togetherness among ourselves which make us to be a family. Thus I was able to motivate more youth to the act of volunteering.
My aim was to promote volunteerism and create a network of socially committed volunteers. I realised that most of the volunteers are a part of charity organisations; were the works are not sustainable. I had worked with many organisations and I felt like organisations treating them as unpaid labours to do things for their need. They will not improve them as a person and upskill their capacity and talents. I met a lot of like-minded people, discussed and collected feedbacks about it. As a volunteer I know what the youth exactly needs and how they can be molded. So as an experiment I started a youth-led organisation, The Gulmohar Foundation with an objective of creating young social leaders and social entrepreneurs through capacity development, volunteering and global citizenship education. Our mission is to create physical and virtual spaces that allow youth to meet and bond with their communities that contribute to civil cohesion also helping youth citizens to advance their own cognitive, social and emotional skills. From my experience, I realised that the youth have a great potential to do anything, they can do wonders. But they are not getting chances or they are not looking for it. If we can guide and mold their skills, we can use it for common good. I belive youth can address and solve all problems of the society. They have little exposure to the social activities and opportunities around the world. I beileve in investing in youth, their skills and capacity. Oftentimes young people have only been perceived as learners, but considering their distinct spheres of action in terms of social, economic and educational aspect within the society, they should be recognized as essential agents of change, as leaders, educators, advocates and learners.
My dream project is to develop an institute for volunteers - Institute for Social Volunteering. It aims to promote Volunteering, Volunteer Skill & Capacity Building, Sustainable Development Goals and will connect volunteers with social opportunities and communities. The institute will redefine the concept of volunteering. By this I believe, youth will assume active roles in the development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. The institute is committed to empower youth by providing a platform where young people can meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. We are looking forward to enhance the capacity of youth leaders by facilitating dialogues, sharing good initiatives and practices, building communities, and strengthening advocacy skills to build leaders who drive our society in the coming future.The institute will provide courses on various social-volunteering practices and opportunities along with self-transformation and discovery.
Now I am working to develop CAPTAINS Social Solutions, a youth-led Social Enterprise, working with an objective of creating an inclusive sustainable ecosystem for social volunteers and organizations, through practising and promoting initiatives addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are a one-stop destination for volunteers and social organizations to ideate, design, executive & outreach social projects. We incubate ideas, evaluate solutions & act as a support system to enhance the growth and impact of social issues and initiatives. We are creating a platform for volunteers and organizations to network, collaborate and undertake social initiatives to bring sustainable changes in the society. This community of changemakers and peacemakers is named Social Solutions India - An initiative in association with Peace First, global incubator of youth-led social change. We are enhancing the capacity, potential and creativity of youth to address social issues and to create sustainable impact in the society. We believe in youth and invest in them by providing tools and skills, connecting them with like-minded volunteers & organisations and sharing their stories and impact to the world. We are looking forward to bridging the gap between opportunities, volunteers and organisations.
It was during my school days, I identified my leadership and coordination skills. Being the leader of the class, I always run to help my seniors and teachers in all school activities. I had formed a club with my friends when I was in 5th standard to involve in sports and other activities. This active participation had paved my way to be the Captain of the School. The greatest appreciation and inspiration for me was when I was selected as the Best House Captain of the academic year; that motivated me to believe in my social skills. When I joined college, I realized that everything I was doing in my past years were termed as – Volunteering. My initial days of volunteering life was all about fun and good-spent days with friends. As I began to hold up the responsibilities, I could realise the Incomparable and invaluable efforts to be put in for the success of the events. Every programme appears to be a challenge first, but as we get involved into it selflessly those would disappear.
Once I had visited an orphanage for girls. Their pleasing smile and selfless love was a life changing moment in my life. They have a lot of dreams, but they lacked motivation and support system. So we decided to provide educational aid and support for those students who were not much interested in studies. By our initiative, all of them could pass out with much better grades. I volunteered there for 4 years and I am proud to contribute towards securing their future lives. I realised the importance of working on ground with communities and transforming their lives. We had adopted a village and had undertaken volunteering initiatives in various fields. I volunteered for differently-abled students to create platforms for them to showcase their talents, supported the healthcare workers in palliative field providing aids to elderly people, created awareness on Plastic Bottle Consumption and transformed 13 schools to Plastic Bottle Free Schools. I had also developed a low cost Plastic Shredding Machine with the help of volunteers. For me, this community social volunteering was a life changing experience. Being an engineering student I was supposed to think technically and to just learn and work within the four walls of a company where the thoughts and acts are merely machinery. But when I discovered the real social-being within me through my volunteering journey, I began to devote my time and energy for the welfare and benefit of the society. This helped me to analyse and realize the various horizons of life, eventualy I realized the purpose of living. Thereafter I was able to reach more lives and gift a smile on them. Along my journey, I was able to come across new faces, learn fresh things, which do help me to improve my coordination skills, my talents and I could handle and manage more number of people.
One of the main challenge initially faced was Lack of like-minded and dedicated volunteers to support the initiatives.The young citizens of Kerala were fully ignorant of the vast number of social opportunities before them . They never tried to realise the goodness of these generous acts. So it was a greater task to make these people aware of the necessity of volunteership in every community. But the down-to-earth nature towards every fellow-beings working with, helps us to create a personal bond with them. Appreciating and valuing everyone for their bit contributions have inspired and motivated many others. Apart from our usual volunteering works of scheduled programmes, we gave them real life experiences and exposures that gave them a satisfactory feeling. Their was no boundaries, all were treated equally and was free to share and take up ideas. Thus we created a sense of togetherness among ourselves which make us to be a family. Thus I was able to motivate more youth to the act of volunteering.
My aim was to promote volunteerism and create a network of socially committed volunteers. I realised that most of the volunteers are a part of charity organisations; were the works are not sustainable. I had worked with many organisations and I felt like organisations treating them as unpaid labours to do things for their need. They will not improve them as a person and upskill their capacity and talents. I met a lot of like-minded people, discussed and collected feedbacks about it. As a volunteer I know what the youth exactly needs and how they can be molded. So as an experiment I started a youth-led organisation, The Gulmohar Foundation with an objective of creating young social leaders and social entrepreneurs through capacity development, volunteering and global citizenship education. Our mission is to create physical and virtual spaces that allow youth to meet and bond with their communities that contribute to civil cohesion also helping youth citizens to advance their own cognitive, social and emotional skills. From my experience, I realised that the youth have a great potential to do anything, they can do wonders. But they are not getting chances or they are not looking for it. If we can guide and mold their skills, we can use it for common good. I belive youth can address and solve all problems of the society. They have little exposure to the social activities and opportunities around the world. I beileve in investing in youth, their skills and capacity. Oftentimes young people have only been perceived as learners, but considering their distinct spheres of action in terms of social, economic and educational aspect within the society, they should be recognized as essential agents of change, as leaders, educators, advocates and learners.
My dream project is to develop an institute for volunteers - Institute for Social Volunteering. It aims to promote Volunteering, Volunteer Skill & Capacity Building, Sustainable Development Goals and will connect volunteers with social opportunities and communities. The institute will redefine the concept of volunteering. By this I believe, youth will assume active roles in the development process with their creativity, potential and capacity to bring changes at local and global levels. The institute is committed to empower youth by providing a platform where young people can meet, share, and work together to drive sustainable changes in different dimensions of the society. We are looking forward to enhance the capacity of youth leaders by facilitating dialogues, sharing good initiatives and practices, building communities, and strengthening advocacy skills to build leaders who drive our society in the coming future.The institute will provide courses on various social-volunteering practices and opportunities along with self-transformation and discovery.
Now I am working to develop CAPTAINS Social Solutions, a youth-led Social Enterprise, working with an objective of creating an inclusive sustainable ecosystem for social volunteers and organizations, through practising and promoting initiatives addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are a one-stop destination for volunteers and social organizations to ideate, design, executive & outreach social projects. We incubate ideas, evaluate solutions & act as a support system to enhance the growth and impact of social issues and initiatives. We are creating a platform for volunteers and organizations to network, collaborate and undertake social initiatives to bring sustainable changes in the society. This community of changemakers and peacemakers is named Social Solutions India - An initiative in association with Peace First, global incubator of youth-led social change. We are enhancing the capacity, potential and creativity of youth to address social issues and to create sustainable impact in the society. We believe in youth and invest in them by providing tools and skills, connecting them with like-minded volunteers & organisations and sharing their stories and impact to the world. We are looking forward to bridging the gap between opportunities, volunteers and organisations.
