Why did you decide to volunteer abroad with Projects Abroad in Nepal?
I was planning on volunteering abroad last summer but initially my plan was to volunteer in Africa. However, I saw pictures from my friend’s volunteer trip in Nepal and fell in love with it. My next step was to find a safe organization to go with, so I opened many review and ranking pages to find the best one. After talking to few, I decided to go with Project Abroad.
They were really nice and emailed all the information I needed and even provided Skype username for one of the staff so I can contact if I have any question. I applied around mid-January to go on May and they kept in contact and updated me every step of the way of what I should do next. They even had a handbook that was really helpful. Moreover, they have blogs that people that can write in and that definitely prepare me for my volunteer trip.
What was the best moment of the trip?
To be honest I can’t really pinpoint a moment to be my best moment since the whole month that I was there was the best experience of my life. Meeting people from all around the world and getting to work and interact with them was one of them. I live in a multicultural country, Canada, but my experience with people that I met over there was different.
I volunteered in a hospital and English club, which was a house for orphan young girls in Bharatpur. You experience a lot in a hospital and you can talk to the doctors and nurses and they can explain everything for you. One of the best memories in the hospital for me was the week I was volunteering in the maternity ward. There was this girl who had just given birth but she looked so young and innocent. I asked the nurses and turned out, she was 19 years old.
After that I tried to communicate with her in my broken Nepali and her broken English. We got close each day and when they brought her baby to her, I fell in love with that baby. That baby was the tiniest baby that I’ve ever seen, so each day that I was trying to talk to her I would look at that baby for few minutes and enjoyed every tiny movement of that baby.
One day she pointed at the baby and then at me as if telling me to hug her, I was the happiest girl at that moment. That baby was so fragile and precious. The way he held my finger and gave me that baby smile. I could not let go of him. But meeting that girl and her baby was one of the greatest memories of mine.
Do you feel like you made a significant impact on the local community? Why or why not?
I definitely feel like I made a significant impact on the local community. I think by volunteering in hospital, we helped them speed up. Especially when I was volunteering in the Emergency room. As an example, when we had bus crash and many patients that needed to get head CT and x-rays, we helped the staff to take them to radiology and stayed with them and gave them emotional support while waiting for their turn. Our presence was definitely helpful for the patients.
Also in English club, we practiced English with those girls and played games with them and showed them love. We also went to their school and taught dental hygiene to them. These definitely made a significant impact on the local community.
How has this experience impacted your future?
I am planning on applying to medical school and volunteering in different wards of the hospital definitely helped me understand where my passion lies. I volunteered in Emergency room, maternity/gyn ward, Psychiatric ward and OR. I found out that Psychiatric ward is such an emotional ward and how much personally I get attached to the patients there and I can’t go into this field. However, I found out that my passion is in OR and emergency. I did not know I would like emergency before, this came as surprise. It was definitely an eye opening experience and helped me understand which path I should take.