Rikki De Wit is a lifelong volunteer. From a classroom in urban Los Angeles to a homeless shelter in San Francisco, she’s lived over half a dozen cities around the world and volunteered her time in every one of them.
Among her numerous experiences serving others, one of the most profound (and extreme) things she’s ever done is quit her job at an up-scale retail store in Hollywood to teach young girls at an orphanage in India.
De Wit is currently living in Singapore where she volunteers as a mentor to a teen girl with a program in Singapore called Beautiful People, dedicated to helping at-risk young women. She’s moving back stateside in the next year to pursue a master’s in public policy so she can put her do-gooder passion into practice.
Tell us about your experience volunteering with the Akanksha Foundation in India.
From January to May of 2007, I worked with The Akanksha Foundation in Pune, India as a volunteer English teacher. When I arrived in Pune, I was thrown head first into my class. The need for teachers was so desperate that I actually had to become a primary instructor for our own class of 30 young girls, without any experience. I learned as much and I could and figured out the rest on my own with research and guidance from managers at the program. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.
What made you initially volunteer your time?
I wanted to volunteer with Akanksha because of the opportunity to live abroad and experience a new culture. I previously volunteered teaching with a kindergarten class, so I was somewhat familiar with handling young children. At that time in my life, I was considering teaching as a possible career path, so working in Pune seemed like a great thing to do.
What was one moment/incident you experienced during your time as a volunteer that forever changed you?
I’ll never forget the class performance held at the end of the term. All of the girls put on a play for the entire school, displaying everything they’d learned. After seeing how much my class had improved (they went from zero knowledge of the English language to knowing the entire alphabet phonetically and even being able to spell and sound out simple words), I was astounded. I felt so proud of them and of myself.
I saw the actual results of my hard work and dedication; it was very fulfilling and inspiring. I knew that this was the beginning of better lives for these girls. It would open up doors and future opportunities that could change the lives of their entire families.
What advice do you have for aspiring volunteers?
For aspiring volunteers, just get out there and do it. You might not have the time to go twice a week, or even once a week, but making the effort to go at all is what really makes a difference. There are so many wonderful non-profit organizations that are desperately in need of help to realize their goals. The work might be difficult, but is always rewarding. You’ll learn a lot more about yourself than you’d think. You will be making a conscious effort to impact the community you live in, and will be respected by all as an advocate for progress and change, which I think is something to be incredibly proud of.
If you had endless funds and time to dedicate to saving the world, where would you begin?
I would try and find a way to promote volunteering more actively to the public. I feel like there are so many people that would love to volunteer, but they just don’t know where to start. The more outreach that is done will certainly increase the number of volunteers, and optimize the ability to reach goals and make community wide improvements. In terms of the US specifically, I would invest my time and money into equal opportunity education and poverty prevention. There is no reason why in the wealthiest country in the world, such vast disparities exist between the wealthy/middle class and the poor.
I believe that poverty prevention is hugely dependent on education. Being educated enables people to get and keep better jobs, afford decent housing and obtain better health care.
Thanks for being an awesome role model, Rikki. Hopefully your dedication to serve will inspire others to do the same.
Image courtesy of the author.