Why I’m volunteering! – Karolina Pawełek
Interview by Jeanne Capdepon
1 Could you tell me more about your volunteering initiative and why you have joined?
Habitat for Humanity Poland partners with people in the community to help them build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers from all over the world and pay an affordable mortgage. Habitat homeowners achieve the strength, stability and independence they need to build a better life for themselves and for their families. As Habitat we bring people together to build homes, advocate for housing and promote dignity and hope.
I’ve joined Habitat because I truly believe that everyone deserves a decent place to live which creates an environment for one to thrive in other areas when this basic need if fulfilled. Also working with volunteers gets you to surround yourself with very open-minded, driven people, can it get any better? 🙂
2 Why do you volunteer and what you you know about TED and TEDx?
Volunteering is one of those activities that at the same time works very well for the both parties involved. It helps you, at least a bit, to get out of your comfort zone, put things into perspective, gain new skills, new friends and sense of community, share and learn – and all that through dedicating your time to helping someone else.
I follow the TED and TEDx community for some time now. What makes me like it is that, it is inclusive for all ideas, thus everyone can find something for themselves and educate. And knowledge is power 😉
3 How do you contribute to the volunteering initiative?
I work as a Volunteer Coordinator and try to do my best to make volunteering easy, fun yet meaningful for people who support us locally and internationally.
What was the funniest, strangest or most interesting experience that you would like to share since you came to Krakow?
If not from Krakow:
Once when staying in Krakow with our international volunteers, we were walking around the Old Town and all of a sudden, we heard some beautiful singing coming from one of the balconies. We made a short stop to listen. Suddenly a man came to the balcony and invited all of us to join. It turned out it was an international choir rehearsing Polish songs for some event. It was very unexpected to hear foreigners singing in Polish (with great ease btw.!). The other surprise was that pretty quickly our group of volunteers started joining in and sing with the artists. I guess this is how the Krakow vibe works on you 😉
4 Anything else you want to share?
😊
5 What do you want to achieve for yourself but also for other people?
I think good things happen when people get together over good purpose – helping those in need is one of them. I would love for volunteering to be more popular in Poland and for people to see the true value in that.
It would also to be great to know how people can get in touch with your NGO. Just some basic contact information 🙂
I strongly recommend to like us on Facebook – facebook.com/habitatpl we post info about volunteering opportunities and events, also we share information about the projects we are currently working on. To get involved right away you can contact me through kpawelek@habitat.pl
