My ISV in UK hasn’t only been an intellectual journey but also spiritual. I say spiritual because as I came across people with different religious beliefs I got to learn a lot about their religion. I am aware that sometimes there are clashes amongst the people with different beliefs, but what I understand so far is that all our religions teach us to be better human and live in a way where we don’t harm others rather watch out for them. I dare say, if this world is a big village then we are part of one same religion. I was at ARK(Act of Random Kindness) as part of my community visit. They help vulnerable old people and their families with food, toiletries, clothing, school uniform for kids who can’t pay for it, college education for women, job consultancy. I was so stunned knowing about all the wonderful things they are doing. Why do you think they are doing all these, I mean one association doing so many things at a time, why? Because “to Love God actually means is to love people”. Wow, just wow!

Community Visit in UK

As part of my community visited I was hosted by Ulfah art in Birmingham, the city of rich culture and history. I thought we would be visiting different projects running in that area but the first day we got there, we were taken to the Museum and the huge library and I realized that to know a community better you must know their history first. I always found history boring until I was in the Birmingham Museum.  There was just now writing and pictures; the use of present technology to attract the youth towards history was mesmerizing. There I found out what the people used to be like and what the people are right now. So they linked the ancient and youth together to represent the history properly.  The library was built recently. It was such a architectural beauty outside but once you are inside I don’t think you would like to come out, it’s not because it’s cold outside it’s because being inside is like being into another world. They have free wifi, statues and of course so many books. It’s like a social place where u read a book instead of having coffee. Well you can have coffee there if you like. The next day when I was at the BAYC (Birmingham association of Youth Club), I met this amazing, inspiring person named Michel O’Donnell. Every words he spoke I learnt something new from it. He taught us little bit about human psychology too. Then we were taken to food bank that supports homeless people and the ARK (Act of Random Kindness) project who works for vulnerable elderly people and their family. These two projects faces similar challenges but the thorn on the way to do good for the community never stops them. The ARK project not only equips people, but also engages them and enables them to do something for themselves as well. They don’t have many funds yet but they have so many enthusiastic people willing to volunteer. The last day of my community visit was the best of all the other days. I was at the Ulfah Arts Radio station called Radio Youth logy. There we recorded the things we wanted to share and we also made up a active citizen jingle. But why was it the best because when I talked to Kelly, our host that my organization runs a radio station in Bangladesh and we work with youth raising voice against odds she showed her interest to start a new project in Bangladesh. Now I completely feel globally connected and locally engaged.