To Share with Happiness
During the eve of the New Year, the whole world fills with kindness, warmth, lights and bright colours. We are all in a hurry to enjoy our native holiday of our childhood. During the night of 31st December to 1st January, we passed in 2019, full of joy and hopes of miracles that will come true.
However, all of us will still remember the past 2018, because it was The Year of Volunteers — the people who carry love and care in their heart, spreading it to the people around. That is why we decided to talk with a few students in order to get some inspiration to do some wonderful deeds.
– The university provides a variety of possibilities to improve our creative potential. So, why did you choose to be a volunteer?
– I am often asked: “Why volunteer?”. This is a difficult question to answer properly. Probably, as it is true for most volunteers, this desire comes from the heart and soul. It is difficult to do something if you don’t have empathy, sympathy and good thoughts. I like receiving the words of appreciation and human smiles from those whom I’ve helped, regardless of whether they are from children or adults.
– What is the main function of your volunteer team?
– Our team was created by the department of pharmaceutical, toxicological and analytical chemistry. At first, there were only the nine of my groupmates involved. Later on, more senior guys joined us. Now, we also have students from the first year course. We work with the children and teenagers of Kursk schools in hopes of improving the health lifestyle field. We chose this field because practicing a healthy lifestyle was and always is a problem to many people. Who will resolve it if not us, the medical students?
– Can you share about the memories that you have made?
– Of course. One of it was our first lesson. Or more exactly, the way we prepared to carry out that lesson and the process of writing the script, which was finished in the night before the lesson.
– What would you say to students who are interested to join you?
– Come join us! We will be glad to see you and support your ideas!
– How did you start being a volunteer?
– Before university, I had never been involved in volunteering. However, in the first-year course, I joined a meeting in the Center of Rehabilitation of Blind People, where they asked me to help them in an event. Later on, I met the people who were involved in this team as well as the people whom we were helping. I liked their openness, their desire to help and how they were all united by the same goals.
– Tell us more about your volunteer team and by volunteering, did it change you?
– The team of “The Step to Meet” works with the blind and partially-sighted. Their main purpose is to integrate the disabled people into our society. The team members work not only as organizers of events, but also as companions of the disabled, helping them in their daily life. I enjoy this type of work because I get to see the feedback and reaction of the person as well as the outcome of our finished actions firsthand. Whenever you spend 2–3 hours volunteering for the Pension Fund or in a hospital, you can help resolve the problems of a disabled person which he/she cannot handle on their own. Furthermore, working in a team of course, has helped me improve myself. First off, it helped in the development of empathy, personal skills, and organizational abilities. Moreover, the team has helped me to better understand the structure and specialty of working, in the future.
– What precious memories can you share with the readers?
– I have many fond memories and all of them are warm. For instance, I remember camping in Oboyan, where we were there as volunteers. We spent five days in tents, in the open air together, with thirty disabled people, and the closest shop was seven kilometers away. It has been one of the most memorable and interesting experiences in my life.
– Tell the readers about how you began volunteering.
– I was a volunteer since I was in school. In the 8th grade, I moved to a special school where the practice of volunteering had only just started to develop. It started with some charitable events for children’s welfare. For example, we sold paper chamomile flowers made by pupils of the primary school for their cause. Additionally, we collected clothes and toys to donate to the children’s community. In that time, something had changed inside of me and I decided that I wanted to help people. Therefore, we formed a volunteer team. When I started studying in the university, I had absolute certainty that I would continue being a volunteer here as well. In the beginning, at the “The Center of Accreditation and Simulation Education”, I helped in the organization of the New Year events with the team “Pediatrists to Children” and later in the creation the Headquarters of Volunteer Teams of KSMU.
– Our readers would like to know the kind of work you are doing with your team. Can you share some information about it?
– I am currently involved in two teams: “Volunteers-doctors” and “The Center of Accreditation and Simulation Education”. Also, I am the vice head of The Headquarters of Volunteer Teams of KSMU. “Volunteers-doctors” provides a wide range of opportunities for self-development, as well as so many options for medical students and for people who just like medicine in general. In that team, I was responsible for stomatology education. We held interactive events in schools and hospitals, where we taught kindergarten children the proper method to brush their teeth. I believe that in the current society, stomatology education needs to be more competent and have more available coverage. Furthermore, in the team of “The Center of Accreditation and Simulation Education”, I was one of the volunteers for the project “Learning” [“Учения”]. We accompanied big events in the city, where we introduced medicine to students.
– Great, I would like to ask, since volunteer works take up a lot of energy and strength, how do you overcome the difficulties?
– It is important that the activity you do gives you some means of enjoyment. When you serve and benefit others, you will get the emotional charge to do more. My advice is to occasionally switch from doing one activity to another. This way your work will not feel like it’s too much of a routine. In my opinion, volunteering is not just any ordinary activity, by doing it, you can help work towards a meaningful change.
text Tatyana Fedyaeva
edition in english by Law Yi Wan, Reshma Durai
