By Ayesha Fatima (YES 2016-17, Pakistan, hosted by AFS-USA in Marshfield, MA)

It is critical for all of us to stay at home and self-isolate right now. This is a unique time when people from all around the globe have been brought to a halt. We need to remain positive and hopeful with all the surrealness going on around us. It’s okay to not be okay! We need to focus on the good things coming out of this experience. People tend to waste this time but this is the opportunity to do the things which we have thought of doing for a long time.

Likewise, I have been trying to indulge myself in various activities and keeping myself busy. I have always loved photography and since I know the basics, I wanted to further polish my photography and videography skills. I have joined free courses offered by Nikon and have learned some new techniques. With that, I have also joined some free courses on Udemy which turned out to be really interesting. Catching up on movies and different series on Netflix has kept me quite busy as well.

Considering myself a privileged member of my community, I believe it is our foremost responsibility to help the people who are in need of help. Due to the partial lockdown in my city, people are supposed to self isolate and stay at home. This has heavily affected the underprivileged and daily wage workers of our community. Thus, to help such people, I along with some of my friends have started a food drive. We collected donations from friends, family, and people around town and were able to gather a good amount of funds. We bought basic food items along with some necessary protective masks and hand sanitizers and distributed them among the deserving families. So far we are able to help 20 families with supplies that can be used for a month or two. We also went door to door and handed out pamphlets with guidelines on keeping oneself safe from COVID-19. This has been a very satisfying volunteering experience and helping the people in need has genuinely made me feel content while keeping maintaining the safety of my team and myself first. This is the time where we can all gather and support our fellow brothers and sisters.

Do not take this time for granted, learn, grow from your experiences and above all, stay safe.