As a member of International Volunteer Community Association, and as a volunteer with our projects, we must plant ourselves like seeds. Develop roots. Ground ourselves into the community and spread out into the world. How do we do this, and why?
As we develop our projects, we aspire to make them long-lasting and long-term in order to make continuing positive change within the local communities, but also within the people involved – to truly tap into the compassion we all carry in ourselves and to share that the best that we can. We want to create a learning and sharing atmosphere that will impact the communities and provoke positive change and commitments for years to come.
Much like the concept of grounding ourselves, we ask our volunteers to genuinely care for the environment and for preserving our beautiful Mother Earth. It is with this genuine passion to care for nature will we see our efforts flourish. Teaching the students and locals about living “off the land”, appreciating what is provided to us, encouraging peace, implementing lessons on conservation, community-living, and to embrace each other and one another’s cultural differences will strengthen our endeavors and promote lasting growth. Each small change that we make will only build and give power to the restoration of the forest as well as each of us. Incorporating these types of lessons in our education will allow for prosperity and abundance as we spread our roots and reach more and more people to share in this type of thinking.
Coming from underprivileged homes, the children in the Thai communities that we are reaching out to will be able to study for free and learn many valuable lessons from this approach. It is authentic and real, with a focus on learning, loving, flourishing and spreading this knowledge and understanding for a greater good. This understanding of the core values of not only our interactions with one another, but in how we incorporate that into our work, will generate enduring progress and expansion of what they represent.
“Flying starts from the ground. The more grounded you are, the higher you fly.”
― J.R. Rim
