Why volunteer?

When we were just getting started with the idea of Teach for Health, we thought hard about how we could tailor the entire program to benefit not just the children, but also the volunteers. To give them something that they wouldn't forget in a hurry. We believe that the volunteers gain as much from the program as the children. Their lives are touched just as much as the children's. If you want to know how, just see our volunteer experiences section.
And it's not very difficult to understand why. The joy of reaching out to and helping another person has been consistently highlighted as the most profound of joys by classical thinkers such as Buddha and Gandhi and modern ones such as Professor Morrie (in Tuesdays with Morrie. See here.) and Tony Robbins. (See his TED video here)
Presently, very few youngsters in our society are regularly engaged in community service. Not because they are unconcerned, apathetic or lazy, but because they haven't been provided an oppurtunity to experience the joy of pure, unadulterated service. They haven't ever gone back to a classroom after leaving school. And so we want to give people this chance to experience a joy that cannot be replicated in a movie theatre, a restaurant, a theme park, a holiday or with a loved one. The joy of teaching children you would have never known otherwise, and the novel experience of being a teacher and a role model.
We don't believe in looking at service as doing a favour to someone, or as an obligation of everyone who lives in a society. We simply hope that people will try teaching just like they try a new restaurant or place. And it is our firm belief that once they try it, they will be hooked.(Not least because it is an inexpensive way to have fun. Like they say, 'The best things in life are always for free.')
Nobody could have put it better than Gandhi when he said, 'I know not everyone is suited to the act of service, but if you are, there is no greater joy you could obtain on this earth.'
Also, we at NATO are committed to making this a fulfilling experience for you and will do everything to make sure you carry back more than a few memories.