As we are actively engaging the community to come up with the desired project, this has given me an avenue to understand and embrace the importance of community participation in a project. Apart from the assured sustainability of the project, community contribution provides a deep understanding of the community and what they hold important. Community contribution has enabled in better understanding of the community dynamics which has helped in creating a pool of understanding among the community members.

Community contribution has helped bring our hidden expertise of networking and creating a safe space for sharing our different understandings. The community has now realized the importance of working together for the betterment of the whole community. This has helped in build new relationships between ourselves, share our skills, and exchange knowledge on different topics in our community.

Apart from the 25% percent contribution toward our desired project, the community also contributes more in discussing different opinions on the project thus helping in designing a project that they can easily implement, oversee, and sustain. I have learned a lot from the whole process; I have become a strong believer in community-led ideas and the impact of sharing our ideas and welcoming different inputs from different members. I feel like this volunteering journey has impacted me more and I have learned more than I have taught. This, however, comes with some challenges such as keeping everyone’s opinion in consideration without sidelining others, keeping up with the time frame, and getting enough community members from across the community for representation. The challenges have opened more opportunities for learning, understanding, and planning. Together we can always manage. Looking forward to more