Being thoroughly bored with my
Chartered Accountancy coursework and keeping well in mind that I will be
required to show some amount of volunteer work on my resume to apply for
B-schools, I applied to a charitable organization in Mumbai to start
volunteering there. While work took up my weekdays, going to the NGO was going
to be my every Saturday goal. On the first day, I was asked to reach their
office in Mumbai where four other volunteers and I were given maximum possible
details regarding the organization and work done by it; at the end, we were
asked to provide the nearest possible location that we could volunteer at, accordingly,
I was assigned a BMC (BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation) school. The school,
located in Parel, was a government run school where Marathi was the main medium
of coaching. However, the NGO had co-ordinated with the school to provide
additional teachers and extra volunteers (like yours truly) to provide English
medium coaching. On my first day, being completely clueless as to what needed
to be done, I reached the school and was assigned two very mischievous children
to whom I had to impart the basics of English and Math. May I add Class II
English and Math, something us adults take for granted, I had to actually teach
the nuances of.
Only two words can possibly
describe my experience, exhausted and exhilarated. The enthusiasm with which
the kids started doing Math was sincerely shocking for me. It made me think
about how lightly I had taken school just because my parents could afford to
send me to one of the best schools in the state. At the end of day, I spoke one
on one with the principal of the school and to my shock, heard myself say “I’d
rather have back-end work, like managing the library or something.” After
giving much thought to my words, I realized that taking the future of a couple
of kids in my own hands is some responsibility I would not at all be
comfortable with! What if the kid can’t understand these basics and fails in
advanced Math, what if the kid doesn’t understand the grammar and vocabulary I
am teaching and fails in English in an English medium school! The next
Saturday, I was given the task of arranging books in the library and that has
now become my Saturday chore at the school. I love the work. I love books, I
like order, I like things being organized, I love the fact that at least
someone is benefiting from my work.
Only recently it hit me with full
force that my CA course is about to come to an end and all the future decisions
that I had put off, will have to be made soon. I enjoy the work at the school
so much, that I know for a fact that I wish to work toward education, toward
betterment of society through literacy. While I was earlier focussed on joining
an MNC post my qualification and drowning deeper into the work I no longer
genuinely had fun with and obtaining an M.B.A. to worsen my life, I now want
something I enjoy, even with a lower pay but with satisfaction at the end of
the day. After thorough research day-in and day-out, my ultimate goal now is to
join the AFID- Accounting for International Development and provide volunteer
accounting work as frequently possible, what better way to utilize the
knowledge I learnt? This organization does volunteer accounting across the
world and helps various charitable organizations in improving their financial
management with a thorough assessment and consultation.
But, only armed with an
accounting degree and no knowledge or background in social services, I researched
various universities across the world offering a degree in Social work. While a
Master of Arts is out of question for want of a Bachelor of Arts degree, a
Master of Science in a related social service major is my goal. I particularly
like the MSc in Social Work offered
by the University of Portsmouth, England.
The coursework includes an introduction, basics of social work, practices
thereof, scope for improvement, practice placements, policy analysis and need
for change therein, and social work on a local, national and international
basis. This course, spread over two years is, in my opinion, one of the
stepping stones for me to get my wish. There can be no greater satisfaction to me than to see my qualifications being put to use by charitable organizations primarily aiming toward improving education worldwide. Knowledge is great, literally!!