The Unseen Impact: Stories We Don’t Tell Enough

 Recently, the company I work for asked about our volunteer activities. Once a year, one can apply for the Volunteer of the Year award. .

If you’re volunteering within the company, it’s likely that people know what you do. But this also gives a chance to those who are volunteering outside the company’s radar to be seen and recognized.

COVID changed how we volunteer. Many of us found our passion, started volunteering more, and innovative ideas flew in from everywhere. The causes for volunteering changed too.  Who would’ve known that simple ways of paying it forward could serve a bigger purpose in life?

This award comes with a generous donation to a charity of your choice. That was tempting enough for me to think about applying. I thought it would be easy writing about Desi Mom’s Network.

But when I started writing, I hit a roadblock. I didn’t know what I do with the mom’s network. I just connect mothers to one another, connect them to resources. It doesn’t sound like a big deal. There are people cleaning the shore, saving turtles, working every weekend in soup kitchens, teaching underprivileged kids, cleaning highways and roads, volunteering in hospitals and orphanages, donating tons of money for various causes.

In comparison, my mom’s dinners, hangouts, and phone calls seemed so worthless.

I gave up the idea.

Then I got another email on the last day, and that gave me a kickstart. I thought: I’ll write one thing at a time. Everything I did came from my heart. It was never about comparison or competition.

I needed a reminder that every small bit helps. You never know what is needed. Maybe you bring a smile to someone’s face, or just change the course of their day.

I finally finished writing about it. At this point, award or no award, the list made me smile. It made me feel good. It will also serve as a reminder on a day when I feel like I’m not doing anything worthwhile.

Maybe I needed that.

Hopefully, you have smiles to remember, words to read, voice messages to listen to—that somewhere, someday, you supported someone in a totally unexpected way.

I should always remember: one simple step at a time, and things change for someone, somewhere.

 A bengal taant for an afternoon. 

In Surat - A friend and his staff serves food to the underprivileged every weekday afternoon, A quiet deed, not published, not mentioned anywhere but what a way to start the work day.