I’ve been volunteering for Copper Rose Zambia from early last year, I started off by being part of a project Copper Rose Zambia had called Zambian Universities Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (ZUPPI). Under ZUPPII, I had many opportunities going on radio and community outreach programs talking about sexual reproductive health and rights. I had done an online course in adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights from John Hopkins University with sponsorship from USAID, but of course I didn’t know everything there is to SRHR but Copper Rose gave me an opportunity to learn and research, this was made easy because I had all the passion and interest and a lot of support from Copper Rose.

Volunteering with an organization that deals with something you are passionate about is fun and interesting, whenever you are called upon to carry out an activity you’ll gladly do it without expecting any allowance at the end of it, this is why you should never make a mistake volunteering for a cause you don’t really care about, you might end up being frustrated because you’ll only be doing it in order to get an incentive and incentives might now always be given to a volunteer.

Volunteering gives you a hands on experience working on a project, this means you’ll gain skills such as time management, critical thinking, team working skills, commitment, hard work and so many other skills that are necessary for when you finally get into full time employment. A volunteering opportunity is a self-discovery journey, through volunteering I discovered my passion to advocate for women and girls as well as gender equality. Volunteering gives you this sense of belonging and purpose. When you volunteer for a cause you offer your time and energy to that particular cause and commit to being part of the solution the cause endeavors to solve… which feels great! Having volunteer experience is a great way to start out your career, it shows that you are self-motivated, willing to work without the motivation of money and shows your commitment and service to your community or country.

Look for an organization or company you can volunteer with in your own free time but be mindful of organizations and companies that only want to exploit youths in the name of giving you experience and exposure. I encourage organizations, companies and institutions to open up meaningful volunteering opportunities for youths especially students to engage in.

“Thank you Copper Rose Zambia volunteering with you is always time well spent”.

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