Volunteering provides many benefits such as satisfaction from helping others, new skills and career prospects, improved health, and connections with new people and places. It reduces stress and increases happiness through the release of hormones when helping others. Volunteering is an opportunity to work on causes an individual feels strongly about and improve the lives of those in need, such as children in Nicaraguan slums through organizations like Empowerment International.

1. Have You Tried Volunteering?

2. What?

3. What? Never tried Volunteering?

4. Let me Explain why you should…

5. Life is Easy…

6. …for many of us

7. But it is Tough...

8. ...for Most Others

9. ...for Most Others *1/3 rd of the world is under-fed 1/3 rd is starving 1 in 4 adults cannot read or write 1.1 Billion people live on less than $1 a day *ThinkQuest.org

10. If we Help these ‘others’

11. We technically ‘volunteer’ Because you may have personally experienced something similar

12. We technically ‘volunteer’ Our Time Our Knowledge Because you may have personally experienced something similar Our Skills Our Energy

13. And what do We Gain from this?

14. Satisfaction! And Contentment.

15. Because it makes us feel good about ourselves  Because you may have personally experienced something similar

16. But what else does Volunteering give?

17. It gives you new contacts and new Friends!

18. It teaches New Skills Because you may have personally experienced something similar that are Transferable..

19. Example - Fundraising helps hone Leadership skill

20. It provides Better Career prospects

21. Better Career prospects 73% of employers would recruit a candidate with volunteering experience over one without.

22. Better Career prospects 94% of employers believe that volunteering can add to skills

23. Better Career prospects 94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted

24. It gives a Chance to…

25. See New Places

26. And Get New Perspectives

27. Remove that ‘void’ and boredom in life .

28. Actually work on a cause you feel strongly about

29. Actually work on a cause you feel strongly about ...and not just talk about it.

30. GetHappiness!

31. Get Happiness! Oxytocin and Endorphins are released when we help others.

32. Get Happiness! Oxytocin and Endorphins are released when we help others. These are harmones that reduce stress

33. Get Happiness! Oxytocin and Endorphins are released when we help others. These are harmones that reduce stress and make you happy!

34. Dowhat you really love to do Because you may have personally experienced something similar

35. Improve overall health

36. There is a strong relationship between volunteering and health: Those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. (The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research)

38. improvement in insomnia

39. stronger immune system

40. speedier recovery from surgery ( The Healing Power of Doing Good)

41. And finally, What goes around comes around…

42. … and one day you may need someone’s help too!

43. So, want to give volunteering a try?

44. Here is a Chance: Empowerment International works for more than 300 kids in Nicaragua’s poorest slums. It ensures that they enroll in school, attend school and do well there. This against all odds of harsh weather conditions, dwindling school supplies, extreme poverty and distractions of drugs and violence.

45. Visit the cause at: www.empowermentinternational.org Presentation by: Neha Singh All Photos by: Kathy Adams and children of Empowerment International