Volunteer Diaries — Xiang Wei. “Volunteering is a very simple action…
By: The Skills For Good Team
Tags: Volunteering, Youth, Skills, Singapore, Virtual Volunteering

“Volunteering is a very simple action but it can create such a big impact on someone. You may not get to see the impact on the person forever, but at least you can tell that the person is really enjoying the moment and this kind of moment is being captured in their mind.”

Everyone, at one point, would think about what he or she wants to achieve in life. For some, it might be a sudden thought that popped up one day, and for 24-year old Xiang Wei, a final-year Business student at Nanyang Technological University, it was during his army stint. While serving National Service, Xiang Wei started thinking about what he wanted to do in life. Not wanting to spend his life merely studying, he decided to be more active in volunteering after entering university.

Like many other Singaporean students, Xiang Wei started volunteering through compulsory community involvement programmes held in school. Back then, volunteering was simply a process of instructions and actions. However, as time passed, Xiang Wei discovered the significance of volunteering. “The kind of feeling that you get from volunteering is very hard to describe in words. You just feel happy when you see that people are smiling and enjoying the activities you planned!” he explained. Xiang Wei mentioned that his volunteering experiences better solidified the passion that he carried towards volunteering, which he claims is something that is very amazing. He then went on to do various volunteering activities, including a skills-based volunteering project with Skills For Good.

Xiang Wei’s project with Lakeside Family Services saw him unleashing his creativity skills and experience gained from his professional attachment to create orientation slides for e-volunteers. In addition, Xiang Wei also helped redesign some orientation activities which the volunteers took part in. Although the organisation staff members were. busy with their own coordination plans, he was grateful that the coordinators were supportive and receptive to his ideas. “It’s nice to know that I can further value-add to their service.” Xiang Wei explained as he, too, discovered his interest in designing while executing the project.

The volunteering landscape has changed over time. One discovery that Xiang Wei made is the difference in availability of volunteering opportunities that grew over time. In the past, finding a volunteering avenue was not easy as volunteering was not common. However, as time passed, Xiang Wei noticed that volunteering opportunities became more readily available for all. This includes the establishment of volunteering Telegram groups which have opportunities listings and organisations such as Skills For Good that matches volunteers’ skills to the different projects from various social organisations in need of help.

Having gained such a positive experience with Skills For Good, Xiang Wei went on to join the volunteering management team in the hope of inspiring more volunteers to take the leap in volunteering more often. “There is a very big supply of volunteering opportunities out there to choose from. The first thing you should do – identify one that resonates well with yourself.”

About Skills for Good

Skills for Good, a local volunteer-matching organisation, with a base of eclectic volunteers with skills ranging from marketing and communications to information technology to fundraising. We seek to empower volunteers through convenient and meaningful skills-based volunteering opportunities that help social organisations to achieve their mission.​ Volunteer with us today and wake up tomorrow with the warm and fuzzy sensation of ‘volunesia’.

Read our previous post to learn more about our volunteer stories!

Some exciting news

For our upcoming stories, we will be featuring first-hand accounts of volunteers. If you have been positively shaped by Skills-Based Volunteering, drop us an email to share about it with us!

Author: Kok Nee Tsu & Nur Laili