Volunteering in Sri Lanka Reminds Us the Strength of Our Humanity
In the morning, the alarm blares; we take a quick cold shower, eat some appam and walk out the door. We put our regular shoes on, heading to meet Sri Lankans living in conditions foreign to us. Today we’ll walk in their shoes.
We are off to our tasks that day — temple repainting, teaching children and taking care of disabled. Angel, our Product Designer, happens to be in disabled care that day. She walks up the stairs carrying a laundry, but a disabled lady stops her.
She motions that she’ll take the load up instead. She — the less able-bodied between them. Angel refuses her help but the lady insists. The lady takes the bucket out of Angel’s hand, accidentally pinching Angel’s hand. When she saw this, the lady takes Angel’s hand and put it close to her chest, trying to comfort her.
We were ready to lend a hand when we boarded our plane for a retreat but we gained much more than we gave on our trip last year. They gave us different shoes to walk in — a pair that don’t look fancy, but in fact priceless in value.
Empathy is a skill and everyone can learn it
Empathy is essential in our work as product designers. Our products are only successful if they benefits our users. We can create useful products when we understand our users. To hone this skill, we chose to volunteer in Sri Lanka as our team retreat.
Why did we do it in Sri Lanka, you ask? Well, because being abroad puts us in a new place, out of our comfort zones. In Sri Lanka, we get to absorb a new culture, challenge our beliefs and build empathy with strangers.
The trip wasn’t perfect, but we learned a few things from the trip, both practical and deep. Get cozy and come away with us in the night. No, just kidding… that’s way too personal. Keep reading.
Getting There
First, a logistics hack. International Volunteers Headquarters organized our trip. The service is reasonably priced and they share their proceeds with local organizations. The local organization we worked with on this trip was The Green Lion Sri Lanka.
The group arranges our logistic needs from airport pick-up, accommodation to meals. Planning the whole trip became a lot easier.
IVHQ offers many volunteering programs at different destinations. We chose Sri Lanka and three kinds of work:
1. Temple renovation — cleaning up the temples, repainting the temple
2. Childcare — teaching children who don’t have access to a conventional education system
3. Special needs care — caring for disabled people who are abandoned by their families
Each of us chose a program or two and got to work. A lot of the work was physical and it felt good to do things with our hands using tools like paint and brush.
Lessons Learned
Now, onto the lessons we learned. We’d be lying to say that every second is glamorous. A lot of the work was tedious and tiring. But the interactions and memories we made? They were golden.
1. Connections > achievements.
Just ask Adel, our Product Designer. She had the chance to help out in both special needs and temple renovation. She found both tasks to be physically taxing. But if she had to choose one, she would choose special needs care.
“Interactions with the kids and the joy that you see in their eyes are uplifting. Some kids light up only at the mention of their names.”
Mention of their names! What could get more simple than that? We are at times annoyed when our mothers nag us, not knowing that some kids would kill for that privilege.
On the last day, as if saying goodbye wasn’t hard enough, this sweet girl followed Adel around, refusing to be far from her.
It reminds us that just because some results are more visible, it’s not necessarily better. Sure, you can point to that wall and say “I did that,” but there’s more to life than achievements.
Like human connections and the joy of making others happy. And that’s a counter-intuitive joy, as we get it by giving away our time, comfort and energy.
2. You can always be kind
We went to Sri Lanka thinking that would give back to those less fortunate than us. What we experienced can’t be farther from it.
The laundry load incident shows us that people less fortunate than us can be kind and serving. It turns out, kindness doesn’t depend on how good our lives are.
It makes us think — if the under-privileged can be serving, who are we to walk around feeling entitled to good things? Why do we feel victimized when small hurdles come our way? If this perspective is the only thing we gain and nothing more, the trip is well worth it.
People are people are people — we are capable of kindness whatever situation we are in. We may have challenges in our lives, but we can always choose to be kind.
How they all tie to our work
We learned these lessons because Sri Lanka lets us see things in new perspectives. It takes us out of our comfort zone, making us more aware of our surroundings.
The irony is, while we call the things lessons, they are simply day-to-day realities of life in Sri Lanka.
It’s a simple concept, really. But it requires intentionality and humility to look through the eyes of another. And this is a posture that we adopt when we design.
“Design is the intermediary between information and understanding.” — Hans Hoffman
Our users live in a different situation than us, with different needs and fears. We can design a product well only if we understand and empathize with how our users think.
Speaking of needs, this trip reminds us that humans have different motivations. At work, money is the most visible motivation. But there are motivations bigger than monetary rewards.
This trip costs us money, time and energy; but we came back more fulfilled. Likewise, we put out our best work every day because it’s a privilege and our teammates count on us to deliver our best.
Investing time in others is satisfying. Interactions with the children and the disabled brought joy to them and us. Helping others is, in fact, more satisfying to the giver than the receiver.
You may question our choice of volunteering as a company retreat. Shouldn’t retreats be relaxing and easy? Sometimes. It’s probably why sightseeing, shopping or team-building are more popular as retreats.
True, the trip was not luxurious and we didn’t chillax much. But all sorts of growth seldom happen within our comfort zone, right?
We came back from the trip a little bit wiser and a lot humbler. We gained more than we gave and more importantly, saw glimpses of the world through a different pair of eyes. This empowers us to serve people from different walks of life. Plus, the trip benefits the local economy.
We won’t trade these for a few days of relaxation. If you ask us, we’d do it again in a heartbeat and we recommend you to do the same.
That’s our story. When was the last time you walk in different shoes? Give us some good claps, follow or just drop your thoughts/questions below!
PS: we’re always looking to connect with great product designers & product managers! if you’re a disciplined, open for adventures, great communicators and looking to join a tight-knit team, drop us a message and we look forward to connect with you.
