Page 15 - Book about Friendship and Future.Stories of Volunteers.

Anna Orlova

General Director
KFC Corporate Charity Fund “Opening Horizons”

I Do Because I Can…

For me, volunteering has two sides, like a coin. Both are pos-
itive.
The first one is self-development. More often volunteering is
perceived as a kind deed for the receiver, nobody speaking about
the volunteers. And I also perceived the issue like that. 10 years
ago, at the charity fair where I took part in my first project. And
5 years ago, when I became a keen volunteer, I still perceived
it like that. And even 3 years ago, when I joined the Fund, hav-
ing worked for 10 years in the KFC Operations Department. And
only after 3 years in the Fund I saw that volunteering was chang-
ing the volunteers themselves. I felt that I have changed myself,
but did not realize that it was my volunteering that caused the
change. Volunteering is a highly effective self-improvement tool.
I was first astonished, observing how quickly the people, who
are doing something good and leading volunteer projects, grow
and develop. And now I keep telling everyone: “Would you like
to self-improve? Become a volunteer!”
No other activity will provide you with such a great opportu-
nity to develop your EQ , stress resilience, persuasiveness and
leadership.
If you learn to inspire the volunteers who are not restricted
by job descriptions and monetary benefits, you will find it much
easier to inspire your team. If you succeed in finding an approach
to a tough lady in a senior people home, then you will surely
manage a challenging guest. If you can arrange a volunteers’ visit
for 10 people working at various sites in different shifts and coor-
dinate that with the animal shelter, then you will easily manage
a shift in a restaurant. Having learnt to understand a teenager
from an orphanage you will see that you better understand your
peers. Your competencies will become more developed than be-
fore you tried all this.
Of course, only volunteering is not enough. Books, training,
on-line platforms and mentors are required as well. But it is vol-
unteering, the practice of sharing one’s warmth, heart and soul
gives an unbelievable impulse for development.