Volunteer Stories
April 2010
Volunteering for LGBT rights in Italy
By: Andrea Ariotti
Volunteering in my city for Arcigay, the biggest gay and lesbian association in Italy, is a gratifying experience.
It all started in 2007 when I was a shy boy and didn't know anything about what the gay universe was and about the gay community in Turin, Italy. I felt prisoner of my loneliness. Trying to defeat that, I asked a friend for suggestions and decided to join the Arcigay Committee in Turin, where I could finally find people who wanted to change the world, as I did.
The main Arcigay aim is to fight homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia, so every discrimination and injustice burdening on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual (LGBT) people. We try to promote our members' well-being and a LGBT as an identity culture in general. Among our activities we include parties, cine-forum, books presentations, training sections for municipal and regional healthcare staff. Lately we have started some new services: a youth section, a psychotherapy group and an help-line.
Scouting is something else
By: Fanny Pandolfo
When I started to be a girl scout I was only 8 and not very much excited about it indeed: in fact, my mother pushed me to go, so, then, I just tried. Since that day I have been a scout until now and I went through many special and memorable experience, that made me grow up until I become the person I am. Now, I keep enjoy it as a Scoutmaster.
The values I learned gave a constant orientation to my life and now I find myself practicing them at every time, I'm not aware of it most of the time.
Active in the scout movement I had intense moments of spirituality and I have met significant people, who keep on being very important in my life. I also had experience that probably I couldn't have had anywhere else: sharing a tent, sleeping in a cave, climbing, trekking for hours in all kind of weather conditions, building a table with my hands or a kitchen - that we actually used for two weeks, maybe a bit wonky but still functional– and even more important, feeling the weight of the unnecessary things on my shoulders.
September 2009
The BIG KUYA (Brother) Project
By: Princess Espiritu-Encabo
The Big Kuya Project (Kuya means brother) of our club started last December 2006. It was a one day activity where we installed a feeding program to the children of Sitio Kabulusan, a small community in Muntinlupa City, Philippines. Back then, we never imagine it generating tremendous impact to the lives of the children and to us.
Sitio Kabulusan is one of the most depressed areas in the Philippines. People in this community would often fall in a state of lethargy, accompanied by occasional gambling, gossiping, and alcoholism (even at the wee hours of the morning). Most women of Sitio Kabulusan are stay-at-home moms, while fathers work as carpenters, construction workers, taxi, jeepney, and pedicab drivers. Their blue-collared jobs could not afford them a decent home. They live in frail, wooden houses besides a creek. Learning about this situation and environment, we wondered how do the children adopt and live a normal life. Moreover, who are their role models? What kind of values do they get? Do they deserve all of this?
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