Joana lead a group of international volunteers on the last shift of our project at Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre at the end of summer 2017. Volunteers' work supported the day to day running of the centre and had the chance to learn a lot about meditation and Buddhism. Thank you Joana for your great article and we are glad you had such a great experience and learnt so much from it!
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Joana leading volunteers on a outdoor excursion! |
Being a
coordinator on one of Concordia's summer project was one of the most rewarding
experience of my life. At first I was really worried about not being able to
make this experience the best possible for the volunteers, indeed having all
those responsibilities in terms of social activities and group bonding was a
first for me, however the volunteers made it quite easy. The main problem I
encountered was probably trying to be firm and cool at the same time, acting
like a “mum” and a friend at the same time.
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Joana and the group of international volunteers |
The greatest
lesson I learned from this experience was putting other people's interests
(mainly volunteers) before my own, as a coordinator I thought it was my role to
make everyone feel comfortable and as satisfied as possible from the various
activities. However, as a human being I wasn't always agreeing with what the
volunteers were keen on doing; it was really uplifting to put myself second for
the best of a group, as it is something I was not too used to do (but I really
enjoyed it and it taught me so many things about myself). Within the group as
well, many differing views were expressed in terms of social activities, being
the coordinator taught me a lot about doing compromises and taking
responsibilities to please everyone whatever was decided. For instance, when we
went on a day trip to the Lake District, the physical abilities of all the
volunteers were quite different in terms of hiking, but by talking to each of
them separately and then as a group we managed together to make a plan for the
day that pleased everyone.
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One of the volunteers doing some cleaning at the Manjushri Centre |
I believe the experience of coordinating a project in the UK
made me more confident about a lot of different things; I now know how to make
all the voices in a group heard, I've learned how to communicate well with two
different parties (in this case the host and the volunteers) to prevent any
issues from happening and avoid further conflict when an issue is already here.
For the
future, I will definitively be using those leadership skills, communication
skills and of course the kindness and understanding the Manjushri Kadampa
Meditation Centre taught me. I would really recommend to anyone, from any
background and any personality to try being a coordinator as I think we all
have so much to learn from volunteers and hosting organisations.
Joana Salles, Group Coordinator at the project Manjushri 3, summer 2017
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