I have constantly remembered what Ms Van Rooyen used to tell us; service isn’t always doing things you
want to do, rather it’s doing things that need to be done, for the benefit of others. You need to be able to
see the greater good of your actions.
Raw Impact runs team trips of groups of people who come over
here for around 2 weeks to help with the building and planting.
Before they leave, we have a thorough debrief where everyone
shares their highlight, what impacted them the most, and how
they’ve changed. During the last team I was on, I realised some
things that helped me deal with what had a hard time dealing
with before. I’ll share with you what I shared during the debrief;
My highlight was the last hour that day on the bamboo
plantation. The atmosphere was really great as everyone was
motivated to finish planting the last row of bamboo and beat the
record while still having fun with it. It was probably the first
time I laughed really hard and enjoyed working with the people
since I got here.
What impacted me the most was seeing the builders be able to
put on the roof of the house we had built throughout the 4 days. I think I suddenly realized it doesn’t take
much to have an impact on somebody’s life. Just a little hard work over 4 days from a small group of people
changed the world of an entire family. I realized that one doesn’t have to set out to do something huge in
order to change the entire world. Just little, consistent efforts that change the whole world of one person.
And as you go along you will be changing the world for a whole lot of people.
Going forward I think I will be more conscious of doing something small every day to improve someone’s
life or just simply their day. Some days I might be building a house for a family, somedays I just might be
there to listen to a friend’s worries, some days I might compliment a stranger and that would be the only
kind thing they heard that day, some days I might be inspiring and encouraging another group of people to
make a constant effort to make small changes in their life that will eventually create big change in the world.
As long as I am doing something that I know is helping a person or group of people then I should be
satisfied, no matter if it is what I planned on doing or not.
This experience so far has taught me a lot. It has taught me how exciting it is to live in a totally
new place. How people of different nationalities, religions, races and backgrounds can come
together and work side by side for a great cause and have fun with it. It has taught me that
sometimes there is only so much you can do. Do it anyway, it is better than nothing.