Transcriber: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Ana Díaz Moreno
Six years ago, I was sitting in my car, parked outside a butcher's shop
when I saw an old woman, probably in her seventies
going through the feathers of slaughtered chickens.
She took out the intestines and other parts that we do not eat,
put them in a plastic bag got up slowly, and left.
Then I realized that she was looking for food to cook for her family.
I thought about that woman for days
and questions like, who does she cook it for?
Does she even have basic ingredients like salt?
Maybe she cooked it for her grandchildren, kept going through my head.
What I had witnessed made me angry and sad at the same time.
Moreover, it made me realize my greatest fear
which I will share with you after taking you through two scenarios.
Scenario one:
you go grocery shopping and when you come back home
you tell your family that you bought everything for Rs. 8,000.
Now your help, whose salary is a mere Rs. 9,000
overhears you and thinks:
"My family of 6 people spend their entire month
on the amount that they bought their groceries with?"
Scenario two:
You go to buy clothes for yourself
and on your way back home you call your friend in front of your driver
and tell her excitedly: "You should go to ABCD store.
They have an amazing sale, everything is so cheap.
I just bought a shirt for Rs. 12,000."
Now, your driver, who is listening thinks to himself:
"I can't afford to buy my son a book worth a few hundred rupees
and she went and bought a shirt for Rs.12,000 and is calling that cheap?"
As lame as it might sound, what goes on in the minds of the underprivileged
when they look at those from privileged backgrounds is my greatest fear.
Hopefully during this presentation, you will feel that fear with me,
and the satisfaction that I get with my way of overcoming it,
which is through volunteering.
One of my first projects as a volunteer was with a Cameroonian non-profit.
I worked for them as a grant writer and a fund raiser.
They asked my entire team to raise $100 each when inflation was at its peak.
It was really difficult for me
to raise the amount, the money,
and eventually in six months I was able to raise $225.
With this money they plan on sending ten orphans to school.
$225 is a really small amount,
but what it did to the lives of ten orphans is immeasurable.
They were able to buy books, stationery, and even were able to go to a school.
Back in 2010, I worked in an international project with the British Council
in which I taught English to children from underprivileged backgrounds.
One day in class, I asked them to tell me what they wanted to be when they grew up.
A student raised her hand and told me
she wanted to join the police force and become an inspector.
This is a twelve year old girl who goes to a public school.
Her father is a milkman in a dairy farm,
but her dream is like that of any other child.
I only taught her English for six months
and played a really small and short role in her life
but it makes me really happy that I did.
Currently I'm working on my favorite project by the name of Impossible.
It is an action project which aims to create awareness about article 25-A
of the Pakistani constitution.
This article says that education is free and compulsory for every single child
in this country.
And the fun part which also happens to be my favorite part is
that if a single child is out of school, the government can be held responsible.
Since I stand for education,
I'm really excited to be a part of this project.
(Applause)
My journey as a volunteer has been one of great fun, adventure, and development.
And I've met some great volunteers doing fantastic work to end poverty,
like living on one pound for 5 days
to experience how it is to live below the poverty line.
Or teaching children from poor backgrounds before going to work themselves.
Moreover, volunteering has helped me
go beyond borders and form international linkages
by meeting amazing young people from all over the world,
engaging in dialogue with them and breaking stereotypes.
A couple of years ago I was working as a volunteer councilor for a non-profit,
and I got to counsel this teenager
who was angry and frustrated at the state of the world
with the wars, poverty, and the bad economy.
She reminded me of myself as a teenager
who wanted to make the world a better place,
but had no idea how to, except by arguing about the causes that were close to me.
This of course was doing no positive...
It was not making any positive difference in the world
and neither was it changing anybody else's perspectives.
To feel what I feel about volunteerism,
I would like you all to close your eyes and imagine with me
that this hall is the world
and if everyone in here starts volunteering at the grassroots level,
we would be able to create an unimaginable impact all over the world
and my greatest fear would be conquered once and for all.
Thank you.
(Applause)