Rain Knight – National Student Volunteer Week 2024

Happy National Student Volunteer Week! This year, celebrated from August 5-11 with the theme “Generation Impact,” we’re honoring the powerful and positive changes students bring to our communities through volunteering. To amplify the incredible impact of young volunteers, we’re excited to share Rain Knight’s volunteer story. We’ve been supporting Rain and following her volunteer journey all year, and we’re thrilled to share her point of view and experiences with you, which you can read below.

“About my time in India

Happy National Volunteer Week! Celebrated in 2024 from August 5-11, this years theme is Generation Impact.  Celebrating the powerful and positive changes students bring to our communities through volunteering. To honour and amplify the incredible impact of young volunteers, we would like to share Rain Knights volunteer story. We have been supporting Rain and following along her volunteer journey all year and would like to share her point of view of her own experiences which you can read below.

Hello! My name is Rain, I am 17 years old and during my summer holidays I decided to travel to India to volunteer with a charity called The Institute for Indian Mother and Child. I had the privilege of seeing how this organisation has developed a range of health, education and community development projects in West Bengal.

In India, hundreds of millions of people do not have access to quality healthcare, especially those living in rural areas. At the clinics where I volunteered, The Institute for Indian Mother and Child provides essential medical services to thousands of families living in poverty every week. Some of these families travel for hours, sometimes days to come for a vaccinations and treatment for things like severe skin infections and scabies. The clinics also provide much needed medications that people can’t afford.  

Volunteering in the health clinics was an opportunity to make a huge impact on people’s health and well-being. It made me very grateful for the healthcare we enjoy in Australia.

Education is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty, and it was inspiring to see that The Institute for Indian Mother and Child have built over 30 schools and now thousands of children are being sponsored by families in 160 countries so they can go to school. These children are now less likely to live in poverty and be at risk of child trafficking and child labour.

I was also able to be part of the microcredit project which empowers 24,000 women by giving them small loans to start small businesses. Due to illiteracy and no financial independence, women lack the training and ability to start earning money. However, this microcredit project gives women training and support, helps them to save and learn how to be leaders in their community.

One of the initiatives that is part of the microcredit scheme is The Cow Project. The Cow Project provides women with a cow so she can sell the milk and feed her family. The only commitment is for the women to give the first calf back to the organisation, so they can pass the calf on to another woman. This is what makes the project so amazing, it gives the woman respect, income and nutrition.

I was so inspired by this project that I made a short film about it by interviewing the women who are part of the project and visiting their home to see why the cow is the answer.

Thank you so much for supporting young people like me to volunteer, locally and overseas, it has made an impact on my life, and I hope you enjoy watching the film.

Rain Knight”