Volunteers’ Week 2022 – Zainab’s Story

Zainab started volunteering during lockdown as a way of engaging with something whilst she was stuck at home and not going to work. She started volunteering through Connecting Scotland by calling people to help them set up their computers and phones. She also began volunteering with Interfaith Glasgow’s Weekend Club who were doing online events once a month. As someone who struggles when not having anything to do, volunteering in these roles was a great way to stay engaged and busy! She holds additional roles as a public relations officer for Women In Action and does administrative work for Nigerian Community Scotland.

“We do a monthly volunteering meeting [at Interfaith Glasgow] to prepare for our next event… the meeting is about bringing up different ideas for the event. We all get to suggest ideas and bounce off each others, which is great for me. I like to come up with things and listen to others ideas. As we started face to face events as well, I’ve been able to use my skills in photography and videography… I’ve loved capturing the exciting moments that you can see through people’s faces.”

It has been through volunteering that Zainab has been able to discover skills that she was entirely unaware of before!

“When I started the admin role, I realised I could do it. I never thought I could… the secretary told me, ‘Zainab, you’re really good at this.’ I never thought I could do this before, it is great.”

Zainab would say to anyone wishing to volunteer; “Reach out to any organisation that you think ‘OK, I love what they do!’… even if they haven’t actually asked for volunteers now – just go for it! Volunteering is great as nobody is going to force you or make it hard for you. It’s extremely fun, you get to do things you think you could have never done and you get to meet people from different parts of the world, learn new things and new cultures. Get out there and go for it!”