⚫ A daughter of a domestic help who received support in completing her education fulfilled her promise of teaching 10 other children while she was doing her BEd.
⚫ A driver ensured that his daughter did law but was disillusioned when she was unable to get work. Her challenge was communicating in English. She got a scholarship for a course which helped her bridge the language barrier. She is now working in a school.
Examples of volunteering — both collective and individual — and how they had made a difference in the lives of many were shared at an online programme on Thursday.
The alumni of London School of Economics (LSE) were responding to a call by their alma mater to celebrate volunteering and discuss how they can do more to reach out to many and be relevant in today’s day and age.
The LSE is observing the first global day of volunteering on March 9.
It is to celebrate volunteering undertaken by LSE students, employees and alumni who take out time to support charities and causes across the globe.
Nayantara Palchoudhuri at the online session on Thursday. The Telegraph
“A range of activities has been planned both on the LSE campus and around the world, like we are doing today, to celebrate the impact this kind of volunteering has on the community around us and in shaping the world. I think today’s programme will also provide some guidance to those who want to take up volunteering for the first time,” said Nayantara Palchoudhuri, alumni leader for LSE.
Palchoudhuri added that as part of the global day of volunteering, “the London School of Economics is requesting us, the alumni, to tell the school about their volunteering activities so that the school can record it as contributing towards the LSE’s 100,000 volunteer hours for their shaping-the-world campaign”.
At the one-hour online session, she highlighted some of the work done in the tea estates.
In 2018, the Indo-British Scholars’ Association (IBSA), which is the umbrella body of all UK alumni, approached the British Council with a proposal to create a bursary for deserving individuals who could benefit from learning English in their lives, in education or at their workplace.
The scholarship has touched the lives of many.
Some of the examples were shared by Roshan Choudhury from the English Language Teaching Centre at the British Council, Kolkata.
“When the programme started, we had a discussion about how we can use the fund effectively. There is a process of application for the IBSA scholarship. After that we got to interact with many deserving, inspiring individuals who come from different walks in life who have different aspirations from diverse backgrounds,” said Choudhury.
The keynote address was by Ravi Sehgal, past district governor of Rotary International, who spoke about the importance of volunteering.
“We often forget that we are not living on an island. We are not just individuals. We have to take collective responsibility for this world, whether it is for other human beings, animals, birds or even if it is the earth, the environment. The responsibility has to be taken and has to be shared,” he said.
Sehgal shared the example of the girl who has been teaching 10 children on a rooftop. Its not just education, one can give a better life to person, he added.
“How the volunteering by one has created 10. Imagine if those 10 become volunteers to teach more... and the number will keep growing,” he said.
A special LSE’s global day of volunteering webpage has been created where the alumni can find more about how to record their volunteering hours, share their volunteering story, engage with LSE’s volunteer centre and to share volunteering advice with current LSE students on campus.