How Letters Taught Me to Volunteer
This week’s guest post is by Jonathas Melo’o, who shares his experience writing letters to children in Uganda and the lessons he learned about empathy, connection, and the transformative power of volunteering.
"Writing letters to children in Uganda has profoundly transformed how I understand volunteering, solidarity, and even my own role in the world. When I began this experience, I imagined the greatest impact would be on the recipient: the child who would receive a message of affection, encouragement, and hope from someone so far away. However, throughout the process, I realized that I too was being transformed with each letter written, each story shared, and each reflection provoked by the simplicity and strength of those lives.
In the beginning, I tried to carefully choose each word, worried about writing "correctly," as if there were a specific formula to offer comfort and encouragement. Over time, however, I realized that the true value of the letter lay not in the perfection of the text, but in the authenticity of the gesture. The children responded with drawings, small accounts of daily life, dreams, fears, and achievements. This showed me that volunteering doesn't need to be grand to be meaningful—it just needs to be human.
By connecting with those realities so different from my own, I learned about resilience. I realized that, even in the face of profound challenges, many of those young people carried a vibrant hope, a joy that..." It didn't depend on what they possessed, but on who they were. This realization made me reevaluate my own priorities and invited me to see my life with more gratitude and purpose.
Writing these letters also broadened my understanding of social responsibility. I understood that volunteering is not a one-sided movement where the giver is in a superior position. On the contrary: it is a profound exchange, in which everyone grows. By sharing stories and receiving stories in return, I realized that the act of volunteering is not about "saving" anyone, but about building bridges — bridges of empathy, respect, and mutual learning.
The greatest personal growth came precisely from this realization. Today, I see volunteering as a continuous journey of self-discovery. Writing for the children of Uganda taught me to look at the world with more sensitivity, to recognize the power of human encounters, and to understand that true transformation happens in the details: in a word of support, in a sincere gesture, in a bond that transcends borders.
This experience changed not only how I see volunteering, but also who I am — and that is why, when I... "By applying to write for this blog, I carry with me the certainty that words have power. And that, when used to connect people, they become seeds of change."