dimanche 14 août 2016

Is she seriously writing a blog?


I graduated from university last spring. I now can say I have a social work degree (Yay!). Now what? This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot. I’ve been going to school almost every year of my life and now I am finally done. I guess for some people, this is pretty exciting. I am sure others will agree with me though and say that it is also very frightening. Am I right? I think having doubts is totally normal. However, you can’t let doubts scare you away. You have to take risks and try new things in order to live the life you want to (or as I would say : to make your soul shine!).

Well, I've questioned myself a lot but you know what? I am very glad I did because it helped me find my center. I connected with my values, my amibitons, my aspirations in life... Somehow, I knew it was time for me to achieve a dream. I knew it was time for me to make a big move.

Ever since I can remember, I've always had a calling for India. I always wanted to explore that country and discover its culture. I feel like there is so much to learn from it. I always wanted to go there and see for myself the struggles people are facing daily. Still today, I want to see what we could do as human beings to help one another.


The truth is, I strongly feel like we keep on forgetting how lucky we are to live in a country where we can have a decent roof above our heads, where we can have good sanitation facilities, where our human rights are respected... We are so lucky and we keep on forgetting it. Everyday of our life, we are capable of doing things that we take for granted. We do things without realizing how lucky we are to be able to do so. I mean, it just feels normal to us. We don't realize (or at least, we try not think about it) that there are some people in other countries struggling for that same thing. 


I will give you a simple example (but I know you can think of many others) : you just have to open the tap and there you go; you have fresh potable water. If you think that it's that easy in other countries, I invite you to do a little research about it. You might be very surprised to see how rich you are just to be able to that in your kitchen. 


Anyhow, the point is, we are luckier than we think and for some reason I can't explain, I've always needed to see with my own eyes what other people are struggling for. I feel like we can change some things all together, as a humanity, and I think changes always start with initiatives.

So here I am. Leaving for India in a couple of days. Not only to discover the country, but most of all to learn more about an amazing non-governmental organization (NGO) that helps the communities of India help themselves. Basically, I am going to visit the country I’ve always wanted to see and also, I am going to learn more about what we can do, as a society, to help other communities less fortunated than us.

Now you may think this is just like humanitarian work. Well, that’s where you’re wrong. You see, humanitarian work truly has great intentions. It can be very helpful especially in disasters. However, you are only helping the moment you're there. When you leave, the community will mostly be better but next time they will have an issue, they will need help again. The real issues haven't been fixed. What if we could just give these communities some tools so that they can help themselves? What if we would help them grow with all of their potential? This is what we call community development and that’s exactly what I am going to learn during this internship in India. 

What is this NGO I’ll be doing an intern with? It’s called SOPAR Bala-Vikasa and it was founded in 1977 by a Canadian and his wife, herself from India. Yes, my friends, you read correctly, it started from an amazing canadian initiative. Now I have to admit I discovered this organization not a long time ago. I’m already impressed of everything they are doing. I’ll be discovering it more every day during this intern and I’ll be doing so with all of you. 


I like writing, I like talking about my travels, but most of all, I want to share with you my exprience through this intern so that you can yourself learn more about this organization and see through my eyes what they are doing abroad. At the same time, you’ll be able to follow me through this trip (if you care!). Don’t expect anything too big though, I’ll just be sharing my everyday (ish) thoughts.


Now you may like my Facebook page to make sure you don't miss any new articles. You may also follow me on instagram to see more pictures everyday. 

https://www.facebook.com/thetravelingblackbird
https://www.instagram.com/gene_m

Let the adventure begins! 

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