Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action.These actions shape and mold the present into a future of which we can all be proud.” – Helen Dyer
We are excited to share the story of our Young Participant who was inspired by the activities, impact of Voice of SAP and became a Volunteer and now is a part of the Mission Team as Tech Consultant to contribute towards empowerment of Specially Abled People.
Faiz hails from Delhi and is an engineering enthusiast. He is a ‘techie guy’ who is always curious about developments, innovations in technology, high tech tools. He always brainstorm on how to leverage technology to help, empower Specially Abled People. He has also received many awards and recognition for his outstanding technical skills, research work and innovations.
Faiz was just 18 years when he joined VOSAP. It is because of youth like him that VOSAP is always having new approaches, ideas to work towards inclusion and empowerment of SAPs.
On being asked How he learnt about Voice of SAP mission, he shared with excitement “I got connected with Pranav sir in the very initial days of VOSAP through Dr. Unnat Pandit ji who at that time was the COO of Atal Innovation Mission, I was a student and we majorly talked about assistive technology, as it was a very niche domain back in 2016-17 and definitely a common area of interest. One of these days Pranav sir shared that VOSAP launched an Essay Competition and I was excited to participate in it. I remember I wrote an essay on “Accessible Cities” and ended up winning second prize from VOSAP and received it from Union Cabinet Minister Shri Thawarchand Gehlot ji that inspired me further to join the mission.”
On being asked what Inspired him to Join the Mission, he shared, “I travelled to Ahmedabad to receive award for Essay Competition in 2018, I saw volunteers working passionately for the mission. Ministers, governor of Gujarat, District Magistrate and top government officials were there as well talking about the cause and recognising VOSAP’s efforts, the whole event was so inspiring and talking to volunteers like Ranjit Gohil ji, Hardip ji, Jeet, etc inspired me even more to join VOSAP as a volunteer. Eventually, each volunteer should contribute to the mission playing on their individual strengths and my strength was majorly in increasing digital efforts, hence I stayed with VOSAP and now i am proud to be a part of the Mission team!”
Faiz has been with VOSAP since 2018 and his journey so far has been amazing. We asked him how his experience of this journey has been, to which he responded, “My experience with VOSAP over 5 years has been wonderful, it helped me grow as an individual, witnessing journey of VOSAP and contributing as a part of mission team is a badge of honor at the same time, working with VOSAP’s Global team of volunteers taught me how to rightly execute ideas from ground up. During my journey we impacted thousands of lives, we launched World’s First Virtual Art Gallery on Disability, World’s First Assistive Technology Exhibition, Online enablement processes and much more, all of them brought challenges to the whole team, and how teamwork can make a difference – i learned that from my VOSAP journey. I hope to contribute 100 times more, and learn 100 times more.”
It makes us proud at VOSAP to see young minds, who will be the future of tomorrow, are taking their interest in making this world better and have a sense of responsibility towards society.
Our Volunteer asked him one more question. How he felt about sharing his story with us, He shared “I feel absolutely great, and I am nostalgic, digging into all those great memories I have had through my VOSAP journey feel amazing…All the teamwork I learned from, all the accomplishments I am proud of.”
It brings us happiness and satisfaction to have this conversation with our volunteers, team members and indeed a nostalgic ride for all of us that tells us so much about Voice of SAP’s incredible Journey. We are thankful to the amazing volunteers, aligning with VOSAP Goals and are doing outstanding work every single day and making this world better place for all.
