Penguins vs Plastic
I have spent 3 months living in Cape Town while working in the penguin rescue center and creating content raising awareness on plastic pollution. With my own eyes I saw terrible effects that plastic has on our oceans, I saw penguins being entangled and suffocated by it, we were finding pieces of plastic inside penguins’ stomachs, I saw many of them dying in my arms. This was when I knew I had to do something about it and it was then when for the first time ever I started to use my social media to speak up about important environmental issues. I have been participating in weekly beach clean-ups with Two Ocean Aquarium and became their ambassador, I was helping them to create content for their social media as well as was helping SANCCOB to attract more volunteers, donators and helping hands to the project.
For the last 6 years, I have been taking time out to live abroad and to be part of something that truly matters. It makes me sad realising that I am just a consumer, that the only impact I have on our planet is negative, that I am still part of destroying and harming our nature. Life in the city makes people believe that money is the most important thing, that success should be measured by it and that you can buy happiness. Volunteering truly taught me the opposite, that is why I think that every person should take time off to work for free, to dedicate time and energy towards a bigger cause, to do something meaningful not for the sake of the reward.
Every day, when I am slowly dying from exhaustion in the evening I ask myself: "Why on Earth, do I do this to myself?" But then the answer comes quickly. I volunteer because the optimist inside me seeks a glimmer of hope. I understand that I am helping and that my time is worth it. I believe that I am capable of inciting change and making progress, in some way, large or small, I am capable of doing good. I am volunteering because I do not want to be just a consumer.
Saving penguins or reading books to the elderly, find something that evokes an emotional response within you. Awaken your passions and your heart by volunteering for something that is meaningful to you. Together we can make our world a better place ❤
