Volunteerism & Sustainability

By on April 5, 2016   /   Center of Development, Education, Empowering Women, Health & Wellness, Life in India, Reflections, Social Enterprise, Tailoring Training Program   /   Leave a comment

In 2015, U.N. officials and leaders of international development programs announced that volunteers would be an essential part of efforts to meet the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals. It was also a year in which volunteers demonstrated their potential to create change. Thousands of volunteers responded to the Ebola crisis in Guinea and helped to strengthen social services in Togo; however, despite the scope and significance of volunteers’ accomplishments, their contributions are often unrecognized or

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My Journeys in the Landscape of Volunteering

By on April 5, 2016   /   Center of Development, Children's Club, Education, Empowering Women, English Language School, Health & Wellness, Life in India, Natural Resource Management, Reflections   /   Leave a comment

98 teddy bears – looking back, that’s what marks the beginning of my longtime commitment to volunteering. As a child (and with the help of an obliging mother), I volunteered several hours of my time to collect donations of teddy bears to be sent to a local children’s hospital. 98 bears and 15 years later, I can say that volunteering has been one of the longest “constants” in my life.  However, my thoughts on the

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Trends of International Volunteerism in the 21st Century

By on April 5, 2016   /   Center of Development, Education, Empowering Women, Health & Wellness, Natural Resource Management, Reflections   /   Leave a comment

The U.N. Volunteers program defines volunteerism as an action that an individual willingly undertakes, that is not financially compensated, and that generally contributes to the common good. The act or employ of volunteers essentially serves to elevate the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the larger society; consequently, volunteerism values and promotes solidarity, reciprocity, trust, as well as feelings of belonging and empowerment. In the 21st century, general trends in international volunteerism fall into three categories:

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Reflections of a Citizen of the World

By on October 28, 2015   /   Center of Development, Education, Empowering Women, Life in India, Reflections   /   Leave a comment

Ever since I started my college life, about a year ago, I have always found myself extremely busy. Being very ambitious (to say the least), I decided to take 5.5 credits in school, besides all the extracurricular commitments I had already assigned to myself. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to dedicate to anything else other than studying when classes started. I couldn’t be more wrong. As days of classes and nights of study

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The Lives of Manual Scavengers

By on October 28, 2015   /   Center of Development, Education, Health & Wellness, Life in India, Natural Resource Management, Reflections   /   Leave a comment

Although there is sometimes legislation to prevent it, caste systems are still in place in the 21st century. In some regions of India, such concepts have become ingrained in cultures. The most discriminatory practices victimize manual scavengers, who experience lifestyles that are hard to fathom to citizens of a first-world nation. Scavengers represent the lowest rung of the untouchables in India, a group of lower-class citizens that are legally considered equal citizens but are culturally

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