The impact of volunteering: Sue and Henry

We were delighted to have volunteer and ESOL teacher Sue interview our volunteer Henry at the AGM.  Sue started by giving two definitions of the term volunteer:
"Work for an organisation for free” / "Doing something to benefit others”

Sue said these were true but bland and that hearing from Henry would show that there is so much more to volunteering than these 2 definitions.
She also quoted:  “Volunteering is at the core of being human. No-one has made it through life without someone's help.”  (Heather French Henry)

She said that talking to Henry would show the impact of volunteering. He has skills and talents, and also a young family and full time job.

Henry said that he became involved with HWR as he was helping his daughter look for volunteering roles for her Duke of Edinburgh Award; he thought "why not me too?" as he works from home and has time.  The aims and values of HWR resonated with him, from the belief that we're all just products of environment and circumstance, and many in the world end up with significantly worse life chances and quality of life simply because of where and when they were born.

He was interested in teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) as that felt like something he could do by joining HWR and contributing something.
After many months of watching and learning, and supporting classes, an extra class was set up. Paulina Clarke was brought in to teach, but could only do alternate weeks for a while so she suggested Henry could cover the alternate weeks.
Henry found it daunting at first, but he did have a little bit of experience (albeit from 20 years earlier) and went with the theory  that it was good to push yourself outside your comfort zone. He has been been taking classes on and off as secondary or cover ever since and enjoys it immensely.

When Sue asked about the challenges and rewards, Henry said that the main challenge was putting together lesson content that is worthwhile and useful, as it's important to him that the students have gained and learned something from the lesson.
The rewards are being around students who are so polite, positive, enthusiastic and thankful, despite the circumstances they find themselves in. He finds this inspiring, and feels privileged to be involved.

Sue concluded by saying that the benefits of volunteering are not only what we give, but also people we have met, and growth & development in ourselves.
She ended with two more quotations: “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world -  it's the only thing that ever has " (Margaret Mead)
and finally:  “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do!"  (Steve Jobs)
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Thank you so much Sue and Henry for these inspiring words which show how much impact volunteering can have on those who are helped and on the volunteers themselves.