As soon as I returned to Suriname from my exchange year in Florida, I decided to tutor high school students from my village. My high school is really old and because we live so far from the city we lack teachers and some kids that need extra help to understand some subjects have no one who can help them. When I was going to that high school I faced the same problem. In a couple of subjects I needed extra time and help to understand but I had no one who could help me. So I started to go to the city every Saturday just for extra help from my teachers. As soon as I got back from America I realized that there were lots of other students who face the same problem and because they can’t go to the city for extra help from their teacher their grades are very bad. So, I thought I might start tutoring these kids to help them get better grades.

I spoke to the principal of my high school and asked her if I could get a classroom where all the kids could come for help. She helped me organize everything that I needed and I started tutoring the high school kids. In the beginning only 3 students attended but after a month it grew to 12 students and now it is up to 24. I was really happy that I could help the youth from my village and the parents were also really happy that their children's grades  were better.

Making a difference in my village made me want to continue doing community service. When I looked around my village I realized that there are many elderly women who are widows. Some of them are also very sick that they can’t even walk. So I decided to help them by giving them packages of healthy food but the project soon grew into something more.

I asked a few of the students I tutor to go along with me when I was giving the elderly women the package of food and as my fellow mates went with me they saw how my work could bring a precious smile to the women's faces. Many of them would start to cry when they saw that there was a young girl who cared about them. After seeing all that my fellow mates thought that, with a little work they could get so many blessings, a precious smile and love from community members that they don’t even know very well.

Since that day most of my fellow mates from my village ask me when I am planning to do community service and sometimes they even come with suggestions. My work inspired them so much that they now think differently about community service. In fact, the people from my village started thinking differently about the elder women too. After they saw me spending time with these elderly women helping them with chores or sitting and talking with them or bringing them to the hospital, the people from my village realized that these women don’t deserve to live a life like they are living. They are human beings and even they deserve good times, happy moments, and someone to whom they can talk. As a result I have begun to see them helping these women too.    

I realized that I have the ability to change people; to change their way of thinking and to make them understand that they can bring love and peace to our society.