Volunteering makes everyone part of solutions

In 2018, Kerala faced an unusual southwest monsoon.

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The torrential rain devastated the state displacing close to a million people, taking over 400 lives. It resulted in damaging 6000 miles of roads, more than 200 bridges and caused around 340 landslides. This was the century's biggest calamity the state encountered. The state also witnessed phenomenal aid that flew into the state from India and outside in the very first phase itself through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fuelled by the efforts of its volunteers. Besides this aid flow, a large number of independent and community volunteers worked side by side contributing immense time and efforts with the government in rescue and rehabilitation mission. Whenever the world is hit by a catastrophe or challenge, it's the volunteers who jump in first to support. The planet today is inhibited by over eight billion people. There are countless socio-economic, and environmental problems humanity face today such as drought, poverty, the climate crisis and war. Volunteering has immense potential to solve many of these. As per statistics, a third of world’s workforce in NGOs are volunteers. A 2022 World's Volunteerism Report by the United Nations estimates that around 860 million people volunteer every month worldwide. Nonetheless, ‘giving’ as a practice and culture is not uniform across world. Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) that compiled World Giving Index covering 143 countries, in their 2023 report says that Indonesia is the most generous country in the world (sixth year in a row) followed by Ukraine and Kenya, wherein the least generous are Poland followed by Croatia and Yemen. India ranked 43 from top. The three parameters CAF studies under the volunteering umbrella are giving time, efforts and resources. While helping a