Since I moved from Milan to Bristol in late 2013 I started looking for a charity to volunteer for.
After a research on the internet I made a short list of charities involved with asylum seekers and refugees. BHN was one of those and after weeks from my research I started volunteering with an amazing group of people in this organization.
I do think that whatever our ideal you have to do something if you want to shape your community. You have to take part actively to change (or trying to change) things rather than complain about how bad things go.
In BHN I found this kind of approach which is one the principal reason because I feel very confortable with all the volunteers. In other words I prefer the approach “doing something with someone” rather then “helping someone”.
During my volunteer job in BHN I chat with asylum seekers on a weekly basis. This means talking with people that are experiencing destitution. However, it’s very important to keep in mind that before that you are talking with a human being. During our meeting we always agreed that equality is one of the most important ethos of BHN; “People are people before labels”.
As I mentioned Bristol isn’t my home town, actually even the UK isn’t the Country where I was born. Therefore, to me volunteering for BHN has been also a new challenge as I discovered different approaches in relation to accomplish tasks and duties. Understanding how people do the same thing in different ways could be nothing special but is actually extraordinary engaging. It’s an ongoing process that allow me to learn lots of thing to cope with new situations I never experienced before.
My adventure in BHN has just started but I’m sure it’ll last for many time.