My First Volunteer Job

In 2006, I volunteered to work as an environmental and psychological counselor to help physically and mentally abused minors at a local non-governmental organization named Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (CCPCR). At that time, I thought that there was only one advantage for me to work as an unpaid employee there, and it was receiving a recommendation from the organization which would be useful for me later on when I graduate. However, much more than what I had initially expected, as time went by while I was working there, I gradually realized that the volunteer job I had chosen did not only give me the job recommendation, but it also offered me what I had never thought I would need so much until I got it.

First of all, the initial advantage that emerged from this pro bono work is being able to be acquainted with what has truly been happening to Cambodian under-age people, especially female children. During working there, I was allowed to read the organization’s data that gave me detailed information about causes leading to prostitutions and using drugs. I was shocked to know how vulnerable Khmer kids can be. Some children staying there whose age were just around 7 to 14 years old had been subjected to brokers and smuggled again and again up to 6 times throughout the country and even abroad. As the name of my position implies, this job also enabled me to have very personal talks with all the kids there. Through this, I could profoundly understand how difficult the kids had felt about their unforgettable afflictions and what a relief that they were rescued and secure. Knowing all these information could truly help me be more careful about my own siblings, it also encouraged me to contribute more in other NGO funds.

In addition to being aware of the inconvenient fact as I said above, this job also benefited me by providing a good opportunity to help the kids without having to spend money but with my knowledge that was always ready to be used. By doing this job, I was able to easily apply my theoretical lessons into reality as well as to help the children gain awareness of the nature and comfort in their communities when they get back. I taught them my in-that-time-newly learned environmental lessons on how to make compost and convert their compact and unused soil to be fertile for gardening and farming. Likewise, I also helped them recover their feelings so that they can sooner go back and fit in with their communities. In short, this job let me have a strong hope that I could a least help a handful of people in becoming environment-friendly and once-again comfortable dwellers in their communities.

Last but certainly not least, the most significant advantage arising from this unwaged work was nothing else besides adjusting a big piece of my personality. I have changed for the better since then. It is such a shame to speak out the fact that I had been so racist, particularly toward Vietnamese and Thai people, before I took the job; nonetheless, I am so proud to say that I am not anymore. Instead of being discriminated, I personally think that both the Vietnamese and Thai kids living in the organization were even more pitiful because during my working period there, we often had conversations, and it was so hard and frustrating that they could not speak their minds at all besides showing pathetic faces and shedding their countless drips of tear. Furthermore, I have also become more considerate. I have most of the time reminded myself about the victimized kids before I spend much money on something, and hence I have never been so spendthrift ever since.

All in all, my first voluntary job did not only give me what’s good for my future job opportunity, but it also gave me invaluable treasures: filling my head with facts, giving my hands chances to work, and cleaning my heart with sanity. It was truly a milestone of my life. Thus not ever again will I take volunteer job for granted, and if in the future I have another pro bono position to take, I am sure that it will give me other benefits that will last a life time.