Volunteering

So I started volunteering a couple months ago. I help teach English to seniors who are refugees or immigrants from East Africa, mainly Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritria. It's immensely satisfying, hopefully helpful, and I'm very glad I started. The organization is the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, and I volunteer at Africa House, one of its branches.

Volunteering is something that I've really always wanted to do, but never did for one reason or another. It wasn't something really done in the community where I'm from. People there have their own problems and mostly keep to their own. So community service was never really ingrained in me. I have always tried to donate to worthy causes when I had the money, but wasn't motivated enough to do the volunteering myself. I just barely started getting a glimpse of it a few years ago. We had a friend who volunteered with IRC (International Rescue Committee) which aids refugees. We started donating things like clothing and baby items and got to see a little bit of how this impacted a refugee family's life.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something quick for anyone who might someday look at this blog and was thinking of volunteering. Find a place and dive in. It's so worth it, so very needed, and the people will appreciate your efforts in any way you can help.