In the realm of humanitarian service, few stories are as captivating as that of Dr. Sathya Doraiswamy. Eighteen years ago, he embarked on a transformative path as a UN Volunteer, igniting a passion that would shape his remarkable career in the United Nations. Sathya recently joined UNFPA as the Chief of the Operational Support and Quality Assurance Branch at the Policy and Strategy Division of UNFPA, New York after serving as UNFPA’s Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran for two years. As he looks back on the memories of the volunteering journey, and his professional trajectory that has never been short of success, he encapsulates the essence of those who selflessly offer their time and hearts to uplift others. In his words: "Volunteers may have nothing on their hands, but they have hearts beating to the rhythm of others' joy and laughter."
It is a crisp Monday morning in September 2023. The bus from East Brunswick, New Jersey, starts its journey towards the Port Authority terminal in New York. I am about to begin my first day as the new Chief of the Operational Support and Quality Assurance Branch at the Policy and Strategy Division of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Just as the bus transports me from point A to B, I am whisked away by a train of thought.
On the verge of this personal and professional change, I reflect on my winding journey thus far in the United Nations. 18 years ago, I stepped foot in Tribhuvan airport, Nepal, as a UN Volunteer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). I was designated Health, Nutrition, HIV, and WASH coordinator. On that glorious day in August 2005, I recall feeling expansive gratitude for the opportunity to employ my skills at an international platform for serving people in need.
By training, I am a medical doctor specializing in community medicine. But when I arrived in Nepal, my medical background quickly became a fun fact about my personal history rather than a substantial description of my occupational status. Instead, I had a new title to get used to: UN Volunteer. Along with my medical kit, clothes, and spices from home, I had brought along enthusiasm for fulfilling the demands of my new role. Granted, I had a little understanding of what this meant in non-symbolic terms.
The ambiguities around the air were shortly cleared by Thiagarajah Kugathasan (Bobby), the Deputy Representative of UNHCR at the time. I feel immensely thankful for getting such a lively welcome to the UN from Bobby, who remains a mentor and a friend to date. Bobby, a former UN Volunteer himself, oriented me to the UN system and ensured my settling into my new role was smooth. Bobby was walking epitome of discipline—an essential quality for young volunteers to cultivate.
Nine different operations later, millions of lives witnessed and served, I have worn many other hats on the field—some closer to that of Bobby’s rather than vintage Sathya circa 2005. My UN journey would never have materialized without the priceless experiences I had gained as a UN Volunteer. I sincerely thank the programme for banking on my enthusiasm and paving my entry into the UN system.
It is said that volunteerism dates to medieval times when there was a need to attend to the poor and sick. The vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and ill health has been well-defined for time immemorial. Today, they remain at the root of all development challenges confronting the world. In my community medicine classrooms, I learned extensively how these vicious cycles interact and intersect in modern contexts. I was trained to search for preventative and curative means to ease such systematic shortcomings.
However, medicine in books teaches you only so much. One may learn to treat diseases inside the classroom, but treating breathing humans with real problems becomes a different story. Here, social, economic, and political considerations become boisterously evident, exemplified during my work with the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. Despite its limited resources, the health programme in Nepal needed to be robust enough to support refugees in need.
Luckily, the Bhutanese Health Administration had fine doctors, nurses, and health assistants who were great allies in planning and executing health campaigns and providing primary healthcare services to refugees and host communities. While learning the ropes as a volunteer, human stories—featuring such exemplary healthcare workers—have left the greatest impact on my guiding intuitions.
Meanwhile, in contrast to these micro-plotlines, the macroscopic narrative surrounding refugees demonstrated how geopolitics can turn people's lives on their axes. As volunteers, regardless of the resentment we collectively felt towards conflict, persecution, and its consequences, we were tasked with keeping the light of hope burning among those affected. We could not let them cede their hope to the power games swarming them. At the same time, it was important not to exotify or caricature those whom we serve. They are not extraordinary individuals but rather ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Acts of service must dually restore dignity and respect how they would like to be served.
Part of inculcating hope involved empowering the affected to enact change in their own lives. The refugees from Bhutan I had the privilege of working with in Nepal valued health workers willing to hear them out and involve them in co-creating healthcare projects. Given the amount of agency that geopolitics had deprived them of in controlling their fates, the Bhutanese refugees cherished whatever agency we could return to them.
Putting these principles into practice, we launched refugee volunteer-run youth-friendly centres in Nepal camps, providing young people access to sports, education, and entertainment. Taken together, the centres equipped young people with preventive physical and mental health information and services in an engaging manner. Indeed, every centre’s opening felt like a festival. The eager refugee youth volunteers’ performances showcased a) the agency that animated people we often quit deeming ‘beneficiaries’ and b) the bi-directionality of volunteering, with the community willing to help us help them. The spirit of volunteerism could not have been more revealing than that.
Ultimately, volunteering to me is not just a duty but a blessing to derive happiness from the joy of giving. Many are aware of the oxytocin boost associated with serving others but need more direction to acquire it. Hence, in every single duty station that I have worked after my stint in Nepal, I have promoted the UNV programme and do not shy away from showing my life’s journey as an example of how volunteerism not only gives meaning to life but can also pave the way for an individual's holistic growth.
As my bus enters the parking bay, I see a volunteer distributing sandwiches to the homeless. I remember the words of a young person in one of the openings of the youth centre. He exclaimed to his fellow young people ‘Those who have money, give us the money; those who have items to donate, please do so, and those who have neither, give us your physical labor and or your goodwill.’ Volunteers may have nothing on their hands, but they have hearts beating to the rhythm of others’ joy and laughter. Humanity needs to encourage variants of this intrinsically collective form of existing. In a world of intensifying and multifactorial threats to peace and sustainable development, we ought to leverage the fruits of volunteering.
Hence, I encourage you to do what you can because you can.
