Social Work Volunteer Opportunities

This is our first installment in a series of conversations with Jaago Re! volunteers. We are trying to get in touch with the young change-makers to hear their stories and what inspired them to take that big step towards change.

We succeeded in getting Ankit Nandwani on the phone last week. Ankit, 21, is a part of Concepts— an intercollegiate forum of students from Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering (BVCE) in Pune. We were really charged up after the conversation. Ankit not only impressed Jaago Re! with his enthusiasm but also inspired us to do more for the youth. Read on to find out how. —  Jaago Re! 

India—what does it take to trigger your conscience?

A tragedy. No?

After Mumbai, Pune witnessed a terror attack which killed 17 people and left dozens injured.

At a condolence meet held in memory of their friend who was killed by the bomb blast at German Bakery Café in Pune, Ankit Nandwani and his friends resolved not to go on with their lives as if nothing had happened.

“We were sick of the hateful blame game that had engulfed the country immediately after the terror attack,” Ankit says. “We didn’t want to be a part of it.”

A month later, Ankit and his friends launched a month-long anti-terrorism awareness event in Pune with the help of Open Space, an NGO based in Pune.

Ankit, also a treasurer at Concepts, says, “I was looking for an NGO which could support our event and I found Open Space on Jaago Re!”

Open Space is a public forum that encourages citizens, especially youth, to explore and engage with issues such as diversity and pluralism, gender, human rights, inclusion and sustainable development. Open Space's youth outreach programme aims to involve young people in activities that pivot on social justice issues, and so to promote their understanding and perhaps involve them as change-makers in society. You could set up an Open Space club in your college, screening films, holding discussions, organising campaigns, workshops, theatre, book readings etc that prompt young people to think and act towards social change.

“We wanted to make the youth aware of their rights through this event,” Ankit says. “We knew we had a challenging task at hand. We thought, ‘Even if we could make one percent difference, it’d be a great achievement!’ ”

As part of Tranquility, Concepts organised a two-day art workshop to prepare a canvas where the students would later paint their visions for peace. They also put up a Citizen Charter in different colleges across the city to provoke the students to speak up for peace and security.

“We also asked for short videos on the theme ‘My Vision of Peace – How to create awareness about peace to yourself and society.’ We screened all the videos that we got during the final event,” Ankit says.

“The last and the main event was a panel discussion on the theme ‘Human Rights Response to Terror.’ It was the most memorable event of all. There were 257 participants. They all took part in great discussions on a wide range of topics from terror and violence to Kabir and Ramayan!”

Aswathi Nair, another BVCE student, says, “The event was success [thanks to] the great panel and great participants. It was good to see that youth are actually coming up and thinking for the nation.”

The idea behind the Tranquility was simple, Ankit says. “We didn’t want to wait for another tragedy to wake us up.”

Ankit believes Jaago Re! could make a greater difference if we could reach to youth influencers/leaders in colleges across the nation. “Jaago Re! can do that. It can really awaken the youth,” Ankit says. “You’ve to reach out to ten youth leaders who could then awaken a hundred more!”

Now you probably know why we were so charged up after our first conversation with a Jaago Re! volunteer. We can’t wait to hear stories of other volunteers. If you’re one of them, please drop us a mail. We’ll get back to you. If you haven’t given your spare time to a cause, you could start immediately here. Jaago Re!