Serving their communities.
They say when you do something you love you don’t have to work a day in your life. And this is the joy volunteering brings to people. Sanaa and Rima are two volunteers with World Vision, under the Nurturing Care Groups project, who find joy through helping and supporting others.
With the support of World Vision Hong Kong, World Vision Lebanon is targeting 3,000 Syrian refugee Children and vulnerable children from other nationalities, in addition to their caregivers. The project aims to implement the Nurturing Care Groups project model that focuses on behaviour, attitude and worldview change in parents and caregivers of most vulnerable children at risk of violence, exploitation and abuse.
First but definitely not the last time.
Previously a kindergarten teacher, Sanaa decided to explore other options and possibilities to make changes in the lives of children and ended up as a volunteer for Psycho-Social Support (PSS) sessions with World Vision with her 15 years of experience. “I sense a connection with children and I am comfortable around them, I feel my spirit is young”, she explains.
Sanaa used to volunteer to give PSS sessions to children from other organisations. “This is the first time I give PSS sessions to women. In the beginning, I was a bit hesitant. But after I met them, I felt much better, especially when I see how much they are benefiting from the sessions”, she admits.
When she reads the lessons and prepares them, Sanaa believes that it is helping her. “It is like I am manifesting this into my life as well”, she says.
These women are very engaged during the sessions and they like to come to learn and benefit, “we are forming a bond”, she expresses happily.
The sessions are around positive parenting and child protection, different types of violence against children, and how to report abuse. Sanaa explains, “They feel safe to talk about their experiences and what they witness. I feel proud when I hear them say that they are becoming more aware of violence and how they are changing their parenting style”.
According to Sanaa, the community she is working with lacks this sort of information, “I was surprised when I realised how much they did not know about parenting”, she adds.
The joy volunteering gives Rima
Rima, who is also a volunteer with World Vision, is implementing the Nurturing Care Groups (NCG) project with women in her community. “These sessions hold a lot of information and details that sometimes we do not notice in our daily lives”, she affirms.
These sessions focus on Child Protection, especially the forms of violence and positive parenting. Rima thinks that they are extremely important, “I have noticed that some mothers were unaware of how much impact their behaviours could have on their children”.
Because of these sessions, Rima is also benefiting and changing her parenting style with her own children, “unconsciously, when I am sitting with my neighbour I tell her about violence now”, she declares. Thanks to the sessions, parents are becoming calmer with their children and are listening to their problems and communicating with them.
Rima feels happy when she hears the positive comments and practices of the parents. “I take my role very seriously towards the community I am working with”, she declares, “I am also proud of myself that I am making a difference in the life of others”.
In her opinion, the society where she is lacks a lot of life skills and psycho-social support for children and adults. “They know some stuff, they know some wrong information, depending on their norms and the way they were raised. They don’t understand that the previous technics to raise a child are not applicable anymore, we cannot raise our children as our parents and grandparents did”, Rima says firmly.
Sanaa and Rima emphasised the importance of such sessions. They both stressed the importance of such models being implemented especially because they do not even have access to professionals and parenting information. Therefore, projects like Nurturing Care Groups are vital in order to ensure the right information lands in the right place and needed place.