iVolunteer, do you?

iVolunteer, do you?
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: When you see a beggar on the street, are you overwhelmed by a sense of guilt or helplessness? Are you confused about what you can do about issues that bother you? Then iVolunteer is just the place for you.

At iVolunteer you can volunteer your time and skills for the issue you most feel for!

“We first meet the volunteers and after talking to them about their area of interest, we place them in the social organisation that best suits them, their time and the specific location in the city where they want to work,” says Antoinette Lopez aka Anna, Manager of iVolunteer Bangalore.

The organisation, with its main office in Delhi, has branches in Mumbai and Chennai too. At the moment it has a list of 300 volunteers, and about 600 are indirectly involved.

With a tie-up with 50 NGOs in Bangalore, anyone with any skill can volunteer. A journalist can volunteer to help in documentation or writing, and a management executive can help in handling accounts, says Anna. Volunteers could go fully creative and make films or take pictures to help the NGOs.

“You can volunteer for a few hours, a day, a month or even more. It depends on how long you wish to give to social service,” explains Anna.

Volunteers have made a difference in the education, women’s rights, human rights and children’s rights areas. A few volunteers have actually inspired slum children in Whitefield to rejoin day-care schools.

Says Rohit, a volunteer for this programme, “Volunteering, in the spirit of doing something for these kids, is inspired by the innate desire to make meaningful use of one’s time, money and potential.”

iVolunteer is also looking at working with large corporates, by involving their employees on a regular basis. It will soon hold a large event next month to sensitise those who wish to volunteer.

The large poster in the iVolunteer office aptly describes the organisation’s work, ‘Stop thinking about making the world a better place... Because intentions don’t make a difference. Volunteers do!’

For details contact Anna at: bangalore@iVolunteer.org.in / 2546 9242.