The pandemic had put a pause to everyone’s lives – forcing us to get back within the four walls of our respective homes and live in isolation for more than a year. As the world is slowly opening up, with vaccination drives going on in full swing across most of the countries and we are (kinda’) thinking of getting back to the normal (NEW NORMAL is what they say!) – would you care to travel and volunteer abroad and make a meaningful difference to the society?
To put it in the words of Albert Pike, “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
With so many people less fortunate than those of us who can afford to travel, and with funding for social services being brutally slashed in the post-pandemic times, volunteering has become increasingly important these days. Whether it’s about working at an under-staffed clinic and taking care of the people or providing education to underprivileged kids – there is no shortage of ways volunteers can help make a difference.
Source: andysto.com
Organizations like Volunteering Solutions are providing meaningful opportunities to people who are keen to serve the developing societies while abiding by all safety protocols.
Here are 29 motivational quotes to inspire you to give back by donating your time, energy, and resources to the causes you’re most passionate about.
1) “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands — one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” — Audrey Hepburn.
2) “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” ― Barack Obama.
3) “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” ― Abraham Lincoln.
4) “Volunteering is at the very core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.” – Heather French Henry.
5) “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Sir Winston Churchill.
Source: projects-abroad.ae
6) “Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart.” – Elizabeth Andrew.
7) “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead.
8) Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller.
9) “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” — Muhammad Ali.
10) “Our generation has the ability and the responsibility to make our ever-more connected world a more hopeful, stable and peaceful place.” — Natalie Portman.
11) “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” — William Shakespeare.
12) “The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter– to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.” – Leo Rosten.
Source: pinterest.com
13) “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James.
14) “If you become a helper of hearts, springs of wisdom will flow from your heart.” – Rumi.
15) “The broadest, and maybe the most meaningful definition of volunteering: Doing more than you have to because you want to, in a cause you consider good.” – Ivan Scheier.
16) “How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank.
17) “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss.
18) “Help one another. There’s no time like the present, and no present like the time.” – James Durst.
19) “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” – Mother Teresa.
20) “Even if you just change one life, you’ve changed the world forever.” – Mike Satterfield.
21) “Compassion is not weakness and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.” — Hubert Humphrey.
22) “If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.“ — Karen Blixen.
Source: volunteerforever.com
23) “Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.” — Voltaire.
24) “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” — Albert Schweitzer.
25) “We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people’s hearts.” — Pema Chodron.
26) “The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” — William Jones.
27) “The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.” — Lao Tzu.
28) “Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.” — Leo Tolstoy.
29) “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” — Buddha
Source: unv.org
Volunteering is like a double-sided coin that not only benefits the receiver but also impacts the giver in various ways. While you contribute towards making someone’s life better, you become a more compassionate human being. When you travel abroad and volunteer, you get to know more about a different culture, get closer to knowing the problems of people living in another part of the world, understand how society functions, and thus, your vision widens. And once you choose to take a step out of your comfort zone and volunteer abroad, you can encourage others as well, engage and motivate them to grow, and together, you can spread happiness while making this world a better place to live.
