Making a Meaningful Impact: Sreyoshi Patra’s Journey as a Volunteer at Asha Hope Amanaki
Sreyoshi Patra’s journey at Asha Hope Amanaki began as a Social Media Manager, using her skills to create meaningful connections and promote impactful causes. Over time, she transitioned to a Volunteer Coordinator, finding personal fulfillment in helping the underprivileged and making a positive difference in her community.
You can reach out to her on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Hi Sreyoshi, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers(your town, your hobbies etc)?
My name is Sreyoshi Patra. I currently live in Portland, Oregon. I am from India. I relocated to the United States in 2018. So, it has been nearly about five years now.
It’s nice, it’s beautiful. I was in Texas for three years; it was kind of hot there and now because I’ve moved to the Northwest it’s beautiful it’s green. I like the weather here.
During my free time I enjoy painting, cooking, and trying out new recipes. My favorite food is biryani. My favorite thing about Portland where I live right now is it’s so beautiful and green, especially during the spring and summer. I love the place here, so I guess it’s beautiful that’s what I like about Portland and what I love about my hometown I have family there.
Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?
Absolutely. This is a beautiful question, I joined Asha Hope Amanaki in
January 2022. It has been about a year and a half now. I started working as a Social Media Manager, where I would coordinate social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I did quite a few projects there and then I transitioned to more of a volunteer coordinator, and I coordinated projects more in the Portland area which has more to do with physical distribution or meeting people in person. Right now, my involvement has not been general like it used to be in the last six months ago.
I love working for Asha Hope Amanaki because I feel very connected with it. That was my role, I started as a Social Media Manager and now I work more like a volunteer coordinator.
How did you find out about the Volunteer Opportunity?
I found this beautiful opportunity in VolunteerMatch . It’s a platform where you can look for volunteer jobs and I think Ashwin posted this above this particular vacancy. They were looking for volunteers for a Social Media Manager or a Social Media Coordinator and then I applied online, and we got in touch over a phone call and then I was there.
How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?
I strongly believe that it was and is an incredible experience. It’s a rewarding experience for me. It provided me the opportunity to make some meaningful and impactful work. I got the opportunity to work with some truly dedicated professionals and dedicated individuals like Ashwin.
I really feel happy that I am able to contribute to a cause that I deeply care about like Asha Hope Amanaki is working for the underprivileged people in our community. I really find it meaningful; I relate to the cause that they are working for. I think, deep down in my heart over the last 1 ½ years I was able to create a positive change in the lives of at least a couple of people. I really feel very happy and impactful, and I feel a sense of gratitude that I am able to contribute a little bit towards this organization and my community, so I’m really happy with that.
Did volunteering on community projects help you in your job or career?
Absolutely. This is a great question. I think the most important part, the most important change that I have seen after working at Asha Hope Amanaki, was that it has helped me grow as an individual, it has helped me grow as a person. I met some truly wonderful people here and I came here because I transitioned from working as a Social Media Coordinator to a Volunteer Coordinator where I would meet people in person.
I still remember the happiness on the faces of the coordinators when I dropped off origami for the International Day of Older People, I think it was in October. The happiness on their faces, I got in contact with a couple of them. The happiness on their faces was just heart-touching, my heart was filled with gratitude. It was filled with contentment and fulfillment. It has a personal connection, I am not talking about future internships or job prospects because I was working as a Social Media Manager first, and I entered the HR background, of course nowadays nothing works in silos, but more than professionally I’m talking about jobs or internships or college admissions it had to do with my personal growth.
I was able to sharpen my skills, meet new people, and visit those old-age community centers. They would send photographs of them sharing origami with older people. It was a beautiful experience right from the beginning – collecting origami from our volunteers at Asha Hope Amanaki. To distributing it to volunteers who work with cloth and drop off the origami to the community centers, to actually getting photographs from them and then I also got to coordinate a visit with a couple of them here in Portland which is very near to my place, so it was a beautiful experience. There was a time I got to take a picture with a couple of them, it was beautiful. It has to do more with my personal growth and with my life.
What motivated you to volunteer?
This is a personal story. I was waiting for my work permit in the US, and I had a baby, he was 3 months old. I felt like I was missing out on something. I really wanted to make good use of my time because I was there at home, my husband was working, and I was taking care of the baby. There was a time that I felt I needed to do something for me. I wanted to do something meaningful so that I could give back to the community, to contribute to a creative cause, while focusing on myself as an individual at the same time. To create something meaningful and impactful was my main motivation, and then at the same time to brush up on some of my skills that I had. This is coming out of a nutshell and reaching towards a few people every week. Then I got in touch, I was lucky that I could volunteer, and I could come onboard for Asha Hope Amanaki. I got the chance to meet with Ashwin to talk to him and I’m happy to be working toward a problem or helping the underprivileged.
The difference that I was making in the community was a big motivational factor for me. The positive impact that I was able to create whether by putting up a post on social media relating to a fundraiser for victims of the flood that took place. Whether it was the International Day of Older People distributing the origami to them. So those are all small, tiny bits that really give me a sense of happiness, and this happiness motivates me to do more. So, these are my efforts, and two main reasons why I chose to volunteer especially with Asha Hope Amanaki.
How did online format change your volunteer experience?
It was nice, I mean I did not feel any difference personally because that was my first volunteer experience. That was the first time I got into volunteering. Meeting people online was a great experience and then talking about online volunteering I was handling the social media platforms. I got to learn many things, I got to learn how to choose hashtags, and what kind of hashtags to use to create more publicity for your cause, what time to post so you can get the maximum number of views for a post. These are some very small things which actually make a lot of difference. I learned how to use Canva, it was a beautiful and very useful tool that everybody should know how to use. So, because the online experience was very fruitful for me and I personally did not feel much of the difference, it was the same condition that I felt meeting with people, it was the same sense of responsibility I felt that time to deliver when I was asked to do a task. It was not much of a difference between online and in-person volunteering.
What would you say was the most memorable moment volunteering for Asha Hope Amanaki?
I still remember this will always be a very special memory to me, I cannot recall the name of the community center, but I went to drop off origami at a senior living center here in Portland, I met the volunteer over there who was coordinating with us on receiving the number of origamis, where to drop off and stuff like that. When I met her, she was so happy. It was an office, all the staff all the employees were working there, they came up to me to say thank you. You know, a small piece of origami, a small piece of paper that people were folding was an art. When I went to drop them off the way they greeted me was so warm and I felt like I had a very big job. I felt so great and touched that this was something that I was not expecting. I just went there with the hope that I would be dropping off the origami. The person who was there in charge, the person who was coordinating, the lady was sharing the origami with their residents, the senior people there. It was there that she handed over a duck, it was a duck folded origami to a senior person who was sitting there. He was so happy and then he asked me – What is this, what is the meaning of this, why are you giving me an origami? I felt so good explaining to him that was why we are giving out origami.
So that is a beautiful memory that I had during my whole experience with Asha Hope Amanaki. I still have the photographs. Whenever I see it, I’m like wow. They were like okay can I take a picture with you? Then you take a photograph of the origami – okay you hold one origami – and I will hold one and then can you please take a picture for me? It was a beautiful experience there. [laughs] I was living in the moment