Loewenstern Fellowship Envelope #6

Open on a day when you're pondering the value of your service

How do you measure your successes on a daily basis?  How does your host agency measure successes over a longer period of time?  How do your daily successes impact their overall success?  Do you believe you are making a difference?


As I said in an earlier post... I always had trouble opening this envelope.  There were almost always times every day when I was pondering the value of my service, but there were also times during those days that balanced those out.  Times when I felt productive, so it left me at an impasse to open this.  Perhaps that kind of gives me insight to how I would answer this question.

I measure my successes in small ways. Not ambitious, I know.  But when it comes to working with children with special needs--or also in my case, working with other orphans, but ones who do not have special needs--I've found that sometimes it is just listening to them.  It is caring for them, and it is helping them, sometimes when no one else wants to help.  And there are many chances to do so with the staff at Maria Cristina.

I remember Freddy, my supervisor, telling us volunteers at Maria Cristina that it is small steps that matter. We can't expect some of the kids to be able to read and write by the time we're done there.  Sometimes it's just doing some physical exercise with them to be able to make sure they can still continue walking and moving their hands so they don't have to use a wheelchair.

In terms of long-term successes by my host agency, perhaps it's being able to care for the kids as they grow older until they are kicked out of the orphanages (which, I found out, also happens at Maria Cristina, generally when the kids are around 35, I believe. They often just have to go to the streets then, because they have no other choice.  Apparently the government wants to shorten that by 10 years, just to save money.  I wonder what happens in the United States to kids like that).  Helping them be motivated to study hard in school, and yet also allowing them to enjoy their lives.

I suppose my daily successes do contribute to the long-term successes.  I mean, my co-workers told me a lot about how much I was helping, how there was a special care to me, etc. etc.  But do I believe I've made a difference?  I want to say yes.  But then I think about all the other volunteers, all the other contributions that people are making, all the better ideas that people actually carry out, and then I realize, well, I'm not really anything.

Small steps, I suppose.  Freddy, when I was filling out my last day questionnaire, asked if I could write down some tips for future volunteers doing the same project, because I got to get so close to the kids, whereas some volunteers, despite prodding, end up keeping some distance. I did write down some tips. But I thought, maybe this is a sign that I did something right.