Audiopedia would be nothing without its volunteers. We would like to introduce you to some of them with our "Volunteer Stories". This one is about Thao from Vietnam.
"Talking about my story? I don't have much to say, it's just a drop of water in the ocean in comparison with the great things you all have done. However, if my story can inspire or benefit anyone, it will be my pleasure to share.
My name is Thao Ho from a small corner of the globe called Saigon, Vietnam where I live and work currently. I always look up to the legendary examples like Helen Keller or Mother Teresa to devote their lives for volunteering. For me, I only do several tiny things in daily chores to make my surrounding communities more colorful, more meaningful and have more fun. I wonder if these things are called volunteerism or not. To me, these are good things I need to do.
When being a little child, I often helped my siblings and parents without any concern, perhaps unintentionally I was the strongest one in the family.
When I grow up, I usually protected my weaker friends and relatives and helped the elderly, perhaps due to my habit and because I felt proud of doing that. Living close to my disabled sibling has created my role as a guard.
When I was at university, I have joined charity trips more frequently to support the poor or the sick. Gradually, I realized that I am lucky to have more advantages in health, education and living conditions. The trips for health checks and medicine dispensing for the poor people in the remote areas made me feel happier with their smiles and sparkling eyes.
Since I started working, I have more chances to touch the fragile people such as the disabled persons, the children, the women in need, the people discriminated from the society, in order to understand that they need more care from us. I promise myself not to ignore any opportunity to help them.
The internet era has accelerated the scale and speed of many things, including the good things. Now and then, I helped to translate, reviewing or writing presentations, manuals, articles, reprints, brochures for some pharmaceutical companies or the international non-profit organizations with teaching purposes.
However, Audiopedia is a different story for me. I found it via Facebook page of a friend, curious with the project name "Audiopedia - Change her Life. Change the World" so I joined the translation team for English to Vietnamese. The more involved, the greater inspiration I got from this work every night until one day I got an email from Marcel Heyne, the project founder, about the volunteer certificate for at least 500 translated words. Then, in another day I joined the proofreading team to sharpen the content to be ready in use. With Marcel's clear and prompt communication, I really enjoy this kind of volunteering with other more than 10,000 people around the world. Unbelievable, isn't it? Together, the project will reach 10,000 volunteers for 100 languages in more than 100 countries. Good luck for this project! I strongly believe in its obvious benefits to the rural women.
The values from these volunteering work sometimes is priceless. This is one of the good things I love most and I am honored to do it. How's about you? Why not to try and know the value of volunteering yourself?"
Click here to learn more about our Volunteer Translator Program.