Article

Cast your minds back to 4 years ago. Life was so beautiful with all the happiness. Meeting people, shaking hands, emotional hugs and so much more. Fast forward to 2021, and the reality is so much different. A being that our eyes cannot feel is a terrorist plotting a tiger attack on us and all we can do is sit and wait for it to fade away. But we are humans and we never stop fighting. We fought through all odds to come to the age of science and technology and we are fighting against the Virus to get our new normal; Nepal is not an exception. Political issues, Economic and Geographical issues yet we have not stopped our war against COVID-19. 

Like many of us, staying idle at home had started taking a toll on me. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep myself motivated and positive. That is when my ward office announced its need for volunteers. Then I got to know that my ward office was in search of volunteers. The risk was high as COVID was spreading like a wildfire and going out and working in the field was much more vulnerable to COVID. And due to this reason, I was sceptical about joining the team. At first, I was not sure if I wanted to do this. Then after thinking for a week or so I finally decided to go and work as a volunteer. But it was not that easy. I realized I had to convince my family members. I thought this was the hardest part of this process. But it turned out to be an easy job. I convinced my family very easily. 

Then I finally started to go and work as a volunteer. The first thing I did is go to the ward office to get recruited as a volunteer and start working. I did not get to know other volunteers as I joined a little late and due to that I did not get any orientation or introduction program. Getting into the work I did, the first task assigned to me was packing food supplies. The food supplies had to be given to needy people from our ward. I was so nervous working with the new people, that I messed up the packing many times. Then there were days when I packed so many packages that my hand felt numb. So, after filling the supplies for like one week, we completed packing. Now I got the chance to get my hands on official work. My job now was data collection and verification. Along with that, we also went out supplying relief packages and spreading awareness regarding maintaining physical distance and following the lockdown. Until now, I was getting so much familiar with other volunteers, that I started spending more time in the ward office working rather than at the home. We as volunteers also had to handle COVID-19 patients many times, which was the most stressful time. Getting the patients to quarantine centres, keeping the surroundings safe, and sanitizing the locality were specific jobs that we feared.  

In volunteering, the most important thing is the team. I am glad I had a wonderful team. All the members of our team were extremely helpful and fun. Even our team leader, the ward president was chill. He always made working fun. The most fun time during the day was lunchtime. We used to forget all the stress of work, gossiping, and making fun of each other. Along with all the fun, we also had some small internal conflicts. But to our luck, those conflicts did not last too long. We also used to go for a walk around our ward in the name of the awareness program. Concisely, working as a volunteer turned out to be interesting, fun, and stressful in some ways or another.  

The other thing I realized while working as a volunteer is that people have many misconceptions about volunteering during COVID-19. Some people were positive and appreciated our work as volunteers. But there was the majority of people had negative thinking toward the volunteers. The thing that I had not expected was many people asking me how much I was paid to volunteer. I used to be very furious when this question came up. Another thing I was asked was if I joined this volunteering work only to roam around and go outside. These things were sometimes demotivating, but I and my team worked together to help others during the pandemic. 

Stay Safe and Stay Happy.