Well i’m gettin back to my blog after a long time..I too had those “Ah-nothin-in-my-mind-to-post-on-a-blog” times..A break!!
I thought today would be a better day to restart posting..
I took an off from work cuz..um..no particular reason as such..Just needed some time off..
So i thought i’d do somethin useful today..Talked to one of my frenz and gotta know that there was an orientation program regarding social service in this association called “Youth For Seva”..
The name of the organization seemed pretty familiar cuz i had read about it sometime when i was surfing the web a couple of days ago..SO i thought to give it a shot and i attended it..
Turned out to be a disappointment actually..Major reason was the fact that the orientation was for ppl who were ready to volunteer full-time..Sadly i cant..
So it was pretty much of an info session for me today..However i did take off during the first break..But when i was sitting thru the first session a couple of things hit my mind actually..The person who was orienting us was talkin about a thing where a lot of ppl actually do social service just for recognition..
But a very contradicting thing i felt was the simple fact that whenever anybody goes to an organization to join social service,be it full time or part time, the first thing they do is to orient them to the organization rather than social service..
A simple opinion is that social service is not something u teach in class or by telling ur experiences but is something u have to learn on the go..Quite similar to the “On the job” training given by corporate companies,it would be better to actually learn about social service WHILE doing it instead of sitting in a room and listening to experiences or DISCUSSING it..
Ppl who are novices in Social service, all they can do is analyze the situation by looking at it but not experiencing it..And for ppl like me who lack patience in such things, tend to lose interest cuz there are a lot of formalities of knowing the organization instead of actually helping somebody..
There are a very few places where formalities should be avoided and this should definitely be one of those.
A very hypocritical thing about few of such organizations are that they are more interested in explaining about the organization rather than making the volunteers do social service..
They do not want people to do social service just because they want recognition, but they want their organization to be recognized..Isnt this hypocritical??
A better thing to do by such organizations would be to actually take the novice volunteers directly to the place where they can indeed do some social service instead of trying to explain it to em..Once they actually have an on hand experience about it at least for a couple of times,then it would make sense to discuss about it and take some actions..
One more advantage of this is that if the volunteer is satisfied about the kind of work the organization does, he automatically develops interest in knowing more about the organization..It need not be forced to him..If he doesnt feel they’re doin a good job he would quit and join some other place where he finds solace..
Is this something to be thought of or just my misconception!!
P.S – Youth for Seva do seem to be a promising organization..However no solid opinion from me as of now..Ppl can join it either full time or part time..FYI visit www.youthforseva.org
“Half Knowledge Is Dangerous”Basically you attended only the first session.. so u cant decide everything in that session. I agree to rest of your points… umm but see da they cant take everyone of us, those who are interested to the NGO and teach us. this was just an orientation, they tell what they expect from us.. that’s it!! n they did a pretty good job!!
Hmmmm..i think u misunderstood wat i’ve written. :)I dint say they did a bad job nor shud they take every1 in..I said they were just hypocritical about the “Doing social service for Recognition”..Dont cal it bad when ur doin the same is wat i thought :)And yes..it was an orientation to “Youth for Seva” not to “Social Service” and orientation to the latter wouldve been better though is wat i feel..
I completely i agree with “orientation to service” is wat needed n not to the organisation. My point is jus that… IF u had attended the entire thingy…. may be u wudn hav written this blog at all!! :)Its jus that the guy must have refined the presentation he gave!! this wat i feel!!
Ok. Here I go. :)When people go out with a motive of helping somebody, when they truly believe in giving back something to the society, then the “recognition” does not come into picture. Here’s a situation: A volunteer expresses interest and the very same day he’s sent to a school to teach. He’s suddenly put in front of 30 children of the age group 5-10. He has to spend 5 hours with them. First of all there’s a question of whether the volunteer will be accepted by the children or not. Volunteer has to teach math/science/english/computer to the children in a manner such that all the children remain attentive and understand. If the children get bored he has to play some games with them, games which are easy to be understood by the children or he might have to tell a story. And if he cannot think of a story on the spot, the children might just run out of the room. The children cannot be expected to keep quiet. This is a simple case. Now consider with the orientation. 1) The volunteer in the orientation program will be taken to the schools so that they familiarize with the children. The next time these volunteers go to the same schools, their faces won’t be new to the children. 2) In the orienation program, the volunteer is taught how to approach the child, what the child’s background is etc. Also the volunteer is given some flexible guidelines(similar to a syllabus) based on which he can teach. This is done because if there is already an existing teacher guding the children and if the volunteer teaches the children in another way, they might get confused. 3) Also there is a story telling session in the orientation program, so if the volunteer is asked to narrate a story, he does not waste time trying to come up with a story in front of the kids. There are many such trivial things which people who have been volunteering will know as oppossed to the fresh volunteers. There’s no point trying to re-invent the wheel. Solutions to certain problems can be directly given to the volunteers. The volunteers in the orientation program are given an overview of these issues so that if they face similar issues they are ready for it. And when a volunteer is working for an organization it is a MUST to know about the organization. If a parent of the child asks the volunteer what the organization is all about, the volunteer needs to be in a position to respond. Its not recognition. Its basic knowledge. I agree, nothing is better than hands on experience. But preparing the volunteers to face the challenge is a must. The places the volunteers are exposed to are not the conditions they grew up in. The harsh reality needs to be understood by the volunteer. Thus the orientation.
Ah Exactly..Totally agree with u..BUT..U just left out one part of the analysis..U have told about two scenarios which are extremities..The point of view i was lookin at is wat u can call the “MODERATE” side..Well consider this situation which i think would be better and appropriate..The volunteer is taken to the school(this is just one particular case,i was thinkin more of a generic social service thing in the post) where there are children..As u said there already are ppl who’re into the social service(Experienced ones)..So they can infact give a “Practical Demo”(contrary to their lecture in a conf room) due to which the novices wil get a better and clear idea of how things are supposed to be done..Whatever uve mentioned in the couple of points which they’re supposed to know,they WILL know thru this way TOO which is infact better than the classroom way cuz here they will get to see a live example of how it is done IN REAL..AFTER this u can THEN have a classroom discussion to analyse what is required exactly to do social service and then the discussion would be even better cuz now, the novices already have an idea of what is really out there..So retrospecting the scenario,they dint DO it themselves but they still have a practical and better perspective now..Isnt THIS better than experienced ppl sharing their experiences in a conf room??And about the recognition part..Yes i agree they do need it..BUT that can be done later too is what i meant..Only when the volunteer feesl that the org is doin a good job then only will he be interested in knowing about it..Suppose he sits thru the entire orientation OF THE ORGANIZATION and then realises that its not worth it(U must’ve had such an exp sometime atleast) then he wouldnt be interested in knowing the org..So its actually better to first SEE what the org is doin and THEN get to know more about the org..Isnt it??
well am not too much into charity and ALTRUISM..:-)but i feel an orientation prog is necessary to understand what all activities the org is doing and in which we can take part according to our convenience…not too much of classroom coaching but just an info session is req…then as tej said demo or taking to the place to give a frst hand experience will really develope interest in the new volunteers…
Well, thr r alwayz opinions floating around and everybody is right, in THEIR own way(s) :)But to shed some more light to this topic – I think its just a matter of theory and pragmatical approach…Whether its a charity or a school or professional job, or even mil training…everything starts will a classroom training or in other terms a virtual tour of wots going to happen in reality (not necessary everything will go accordingly to wot being thought in class, it will be a foot step)….Even though this is out of topic, just a practical situation why classroom orientation(training) is req…Lets say a solider isn’t given enuf training of a battle field and will be directly taken for “Hands of Experience” then outcome, practical exposure will be 100% but combat skills 0% due the fact wht needs to be done in that situation he/she doesn’t know…..So, i personally feel orientation/training gives an idea for a person wot they are going to do/how they are going to handle ahead of time. A theoretical approach followed by a practical exposure gives the novice to handle any situation..