Friday, January 19, 2018

“Finding Myself- Volunteering with VSO Bangladesh”

“Finding Myself- Volunteering with VSO Bangladesh”
“The best way to finding yourself is
 to
 Lose yourself in the service of others”
- Gandhi
I think knowing oneself is a challenging & rewarding process. It may take a lifetime of pleasurable work & courage. I really want to know who I am and what I want to do for the real success in my life and a true sense of well-being. I also think every person should be looking to redefine their life personally & professionally.
Oh! I talk to much when I start to speech and also forgot to introduce. My name is Md. Shamim Reja, I am 27 and Studying Ms. In CPE (Crop Physiology & Ecology). I live in Bangladesh and my city is Khulna.
Today I am going to talking about my experience and good time I’ve had with VSO volunteer. I started my volunteer journey from Dhaka and now I am working in Dinajpur, The northern part of Bangladesh. I am a member of SRHR (Sexual Reproductive Health Rights) team of ICS-2(International Citizenship Service) Project. We are working in a rural and we are trying to find the local problems and possible solutions with the help of local YC (Youth Club) members related with Livelihood, Governance and SRHR issues.
I said I am a proud team member of SRHR, so let’s start to talk about SRHR. In this community of Dinajpur is a typical community of Bangladesh. People are living together with their social norms, believe and habits. We are finding the biggest problem in this area is child marriage and this is related with all the issues of life. These issues are Health (Maternal health, Child and Mother Death, Malnutrition, Mental health, Breast and uterus cancer etc.), Education, Poverty, Dowry, Divorce, Polygamy and social imbalance. So, we are trying to prevent all the problems. After the baseline survey found the people are heavily at risk of child marriage that is the cause of other SRHR issues.
We did a CAD (Community Action Day) for women empowerment and another for child marriage and dowry prevention. Beside that we organized rally, made posters, handbills & placards to create awareness. Also Governess team made a CMDPC (Child Marriage and dowry privation committee) and billboard for stop child marriage. We did two CYS (Courtyard Season) about puberty & Child marriage. The YC member, Peer educator and community people are responded well. We did a lot of activities and worked hard on this SRHR issue.    
Now, the delightful part of today’s diary about how I find myself here with VSO Bangladesh. We volunteer are worked alongside UKV’s and ICV’s from different educational and cultural backgrounds. We make debates sometime on working issue and we enjoy our free time where we play together, sharing host home, try new food, fight with home sickness and bad moods. We enjoy natural beauty, apologize for our mistake, happy to complete tasks, sad when it’s not done to our satisfaction, we celebrate moments and lot of fun on our holidays like shopping and traveling.
At the start of my journey , I asked myself why else could I be doing this , what is my potential value to this team, how I need to maintain my values & what I need to do to achieve my professional value. Hahahahaha !! However now I am not asking myself that typical question. I feel now I enjoy work, learn from mistakes, try new things, I am apologetic. I feel I am not perfect and this not my best time to prove I am contributing and am a respectful person.     
I am really not capable of writing the sentence about how I discovered myself in the journey of VSO ICS Volunteer team. I think it’s something you can feel but hard to express or impossible to show expression. I’d like to say thanks to VSO and I would like to keep my love for all of my friends we found here. It’s an unforgettable journey in one short life.
     
Md. Shamim Reja
VSO Volunteer
Facebook:web.facebook.com/shamimraza.rana