By: Fatma Oueslati (YES 2016 – 2017, Tunisia, hosted by World Link in Colorado Spring, CO)

I spent Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) on April 16th delivering school supplies for a new school that is getting built in Liberia. Liberia has been suffering from the damage of a civil war that lasted 14 years and destroyed most schools and the few left were in devastating conditions. We take school for granted and we often complain about having to go, but the children of Liberia dream of going to school. 

When I learned about this, I contacted the founder of Pearls of Education Foundation and she sent me the list of the school supplies they needed. Then I started getting to work! I managed to raise 200 dollars plus school supplies donations. With the 200 dollars I bought the rest of the school supplies: 30 notebooks, 12 sets of notebook paper, about 100 pens, pencils and mechanical pencils, almost 50 glues sticks and scissors, 3 maps of the world, pencil sharpeners and erasers, colored pencils, markers, staplers, staples, and rulers.

I think the most important lesson I gained from GYSD is that it’s never too late. Whether it’s about helping others, our careers, or our personal lives. I think it takes people a lot of missed opportunities and a wasted life to finally realize that. I am incredibly thankful that I learned a vital lesson from such a young age thanks to this project. GYSD left me feeling all fuzzy and warm and ready to conquer the world. I believe that it planted the seed in us to make a difference. It truly is a ray of sunshine in a gloomy world.

I think GYSD is a big motivation for any of exchange students that intend to do community service projects in the future. I believe in learning from mistakes and coming back even stronger to achieve greater things, and GYSD did exactly that for me. 

Many things went wrong, I did not raise a big amount of money, my project was not phenomenal or exceptional. I could’ve done a better job advertising or planning, etc, etc. I was really upset at first, then realized how silly I was being that I missed the whole point from GYSD. It’s not about how big and loud your results are, it’s about having the heart to do something that will help others, no matter how small, and you start building from there. 

I once read a quote that said "Great things are done by small things brought together."’ Now realize its true meaning. I am incredibly excited and optimistic about my future as an alumni; I have so many ideas that I would like to implement when I go back to my country. I now have the confidence needed to do that, and I guess I just needed a little push to unleash the potential that each and every one of us has, hidden. 

Thank you GYSD for that.