Today I remember that emotion and uncertainty when defining where to do my internship, what should I take into account, what should I do to graduate? What should I improve? How to be useful? Difficult decision, suddenly we are notified of a call for a volunteer.

At that moment I started to find out about the benefits of the program, how difficult it was to enter, how it could help me to be better, and that curiosity led me to the answer that with this program I could get to know my country and give my grain of sand in the education of thousands of Colombians, great pressure, great responsibility.

Undoubtedly one of my best experiences I met hidden places in Colombia, people, cultures, improved my weaknesses.

I still remember it like yesterday, the trip, I remember a paisa voice telling my companion “huy china I hurt my box”, I remember all those accents, all those faces, the laughter, the loneliness, leaving home, going to places of extreme need, adapting to the environment, living with the dust, the mud, the poverty, and getting to know, getting to know and continuing to know. It is beautiful to remember the committees we got together, we shared experiences, I remember being a manager, a teacher, a technician, a friend and I even felt like family. I have engraved the phrase of a beautiful old lady “sir but that is expensive are a thousand pesos” imagine how difficult it must be to get that modest sum for her to consider it expensive less than what our parents gave us for the usual snack.

And now the question why be so, here are just a few of the many reasons you will find.

• First and foremost a great motivator to feel useful, which is very rewarding
• Learning and creating bonds with the community, I assure you that learning first hand about cultures, interacting with them and above all seeing how in spite of the adversities humanity does not give up as is happening in this time of pandemic where we all fight to win, an image that I can’t forget is that of children walking in the mud barefoot happy to go to school
• Testing yourself whether it’s going out in the field or in a school or whatever the volunteering is, it tests your knowledge and your being in a cross-cutting way
• Become an agent of change and give a helping hand to those who need it most
• Have a good time and of course enjoy a unique experience that will make you a better person

I would like to add that

I would like to add that thanks to the digital world it is easier every day to be a volunteer and what is better to help others no matter where you are in the world.

or the language you speak either with a youtube channel, organizing communities to share knowledge, participating in volunteer programs, creating a blog. No matter the way I invite you to share and help that this time and everything we have gone through invites us to be more supportive and to realize that we are one, we are humanity.