Life is definitely getting more stressful for young professionals. The obvious deduction from this is that they’ll be too busy to find time and energy to be socially responsible. Thankfully, I’ve found that the opposite is true.
Recently, I challenged a group of about 30 young professionals in Singapore to visit Goducate’s work among poor communities in Laguna, Philippines. Within a few weeks of the challenge, a dozen of them laid aside their busy schedules and flew to Manila to spend a few days of their precious vacation allotment to observe the work there.
When they got back from the hectic trip to their hectic work schedules, they did not forget what they saw. (Before they went on the trip, they had been warned of the danger of being “volun-tourists” whose excitement lasts only as long as the trip!)
Instead, they got together to organize ways and means to continue to support the work that they had seen. After their trip, they were now in a better position to understand the needs of the poor there, the needs of the Goducate workers, and the strengths that they had to fill the “gaps.” In those few days, they had become part of the poor there! They were remarkably socially sensitive and socially responsible.
In next to no time, they had raised funds for many needy projects there (the previous blog on cows and goats is an example of what they did to help poor Goducate trainees raise funds to meet their daily needs while they are being trained to help the poor). Some of them searched the internet for new innovative methods to mass produce affordable musical instruments for poor kids. One of them appealed to her company to support Goducate’s work.
It is so encouraging to see how today’s generation of young people is becoming socially responsible. There is great hope for the future!