An avid traveller, Ashok Pawar loves meeting new people and learning about different issues. It was this love for travelling that made Ashok join the development sector.
 
Hailing from Parbhani in Maharashtra, his interest in the Youth For Development Programme was miniscule, as he was already involved with a media group. His association with another organisation Lokadeep, eventually saw him enrol for the 6 month volunteering programme.
 
Ashok describes his initial feelings about spending the next six months in Orissa, “I had never lived alone. There was fear, nervousness, and apprehension. I was worried about the language and also thought that food might be a problem.”
 
In 2007, under the YFD programme, Ashok was selected to volunteer for Centre for Youth and Social Development in Mayurbhanj, Orissa. “CYSD works broadly in the areas of livelihood, health and governance. I was specifically working on child rights and Health issues. There were different child groups and we would coordinate different projects for these groups”
 
“I learnt about NGOs during the YFD programme: their structure and how it was implemented, where the funding comes from, and how the plans are implemented.”
 
The six months that Ashok spent were more than memorable. “The place I lived in Orissa was a tribal area where there was no electricity, or mobile reception. We used a Rajdoot bike for me and a friend to go to the weekly markets, and to travel between the villages, we used to cook our own food. Basically we were completely on our own for 6 months”, he reminisces. 
 
It was also on the Rajdoot bike that Ashok and his colleague were caught by the local police suspecting them to be anti-social elements. “It was funny, and when we returned to the organisation, everyone joked about what we were smuggling”, he laughs.
 
“Everyday was special, every day presented a new challenge. The project co-coordinator used to ask us to set new targets, and work on specific issues. We facilitated some children in the process of writing short stories and poems for a children’s magazine.”
 
How did his fear and apprehensions go away?
“It is like swimming, you look at the water and you think it’s deep and you can’t swim. But then you enter the water and you realise it is not that bad. When we used to think about the problems we used to get scared. But when we actually got down to doing the task we would find that the task was really simple.”
 
Ashok has fond memories of his stint at Mayurbhanj. “I learnt how to be flexible, I wanted things in life, branded items etc. In those 6 months I forgot all of that. I saw the differences of how people live, and how I live. Those differences used to make me sad. But I knew I had to change my thinking, Soch Badlo”, he smiles. “The experience of working at CYSD will always remain with me wherever I go.”
 
“I want to work with young people as soon as my post graduate degree get over, I want to focus on that right now,” says Ashok on his future plans.

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