FEATURE
VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERING DURING THE PANDEMIC Giving back to the community, a professional boost and their own mental wellbeing are all reasons why newcomers enjoy and recommend volunteering during COVID-19 By Baisakhi Roy
T
hat Canadians are a kind and generous lot is a recorded and acknowledged fact. According to Statistics Canada, more than 40 per cent of Canadians 15 and older volunteered for charities, non-profits and other organisations in 2018. But when, in early 2020, the world shut down because of COVID-19, it significantly restricted in-person volunteering opportunities especially at high-risk places such as long-term care homes and community centers, and religious venues – popular choices to engage in volunteering activities. Work and life moved online and so did volunteering. Acts of kindness and community-led initiatives to assist the most vulnerable went into overdrive and for some it took them on a journey that they hadn’t quite planned.
Finding purpose Iranian-born, Mina Mirzaei first volunteered with BrainTech Robotics, a non-profit that enables BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) girls and women to explore and work in STEM, in 2018. Connected through Volunteer MBC, this engagement opened doors for Mirzaei, though in a different area of work above Mina Mirzaei than she was looking for. She found a job with a company that was building a mentorship and she found herself out of a job. That’s when application and was focused on women in she harnessed her expertise and energy into leadership in the tech sector. Then COVID hit volunteering, again, for BrainTech.
16
CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 18 Issue 2 | 2021
“Coincidentally, before COVID, a team of volunteers at BrainTech was working on an online learning platform for kids interested in STEM. So, we simply put in all our energies, between April and June 2020, where I volunteered 40-hour weeks to help them start up online programming to launch this platform. Of course, I was able to devote these hours because my husband was working full time. At the end, it was such a joy and I learned so much,” she says. The skills she learned while on the project – from project management to coordinating a large, remote, Canada-wide team – are helping her in her current job helping companies transform their businesses and operations to a more digital platform in a socially distanced world. Not only did she build her web technology and programming skills, but her experience also taught her the importance of building her brand and identity. “My volunteering experience changed my perspective on what’s really important and what really brings you happiness – making a difference in people’s lives. It teaches you a lot about yourself,” she says. For Sophia Marsheva, it was learning empathy. The Russian-born University of
