An avid foodie and a badminton player, Jahid got to know about YFD after a training session with Pravah. At the time he was working with young people at an organization in Rajasthan called Sewa Mandir. He applied for the YFD programme and was soon selected. He was placed with an organization called Adaarshila in Madhya Pradesh.
 
“When I was told that in Adhaarshila I would be working with tribal children, I was a little nervous. It was also the time that I was leaving home. My family was angry with me. But I made them understand the nature of the work and they agreed to let me go,”  says Jahin as he liststhe stumbling blocks prior to his departure for YFD.
 
“Once I met the adivasi children, I found my fears to be baseless. My mentor too spoke with me about the tasks, my role which made me understand the area better,”says Jahid. 
 
Once at Adhaarshila, Jahid and Ranjit (another YFD volunteer) set up a small youth group in a nearby village. “This was easy for me as I had I done this before in my village. The main livelihood here was agriculture and a lot of people in this village were under debt. So the youth group would serve as a linkage between the school and the community. Film screenings were organised to spread awareness,” says Jahid.
 
Jahid always considered teaching a boring profession. But at Adaarshila, he saw that teaching was done through the method of conversations with children. He found this extremely interesting and even went on to teach Hindi and English to children between the ages of 10 and 12. During his stint with Sewa Mandir, Jahid worked extensively with the youth. He finds that working with children is more challenging. “With children, you have to be friendly and patient. They ask a lot of questions and you have to be well prepared before a class with them.”
 
Besides teaching, Jahid also learnt about organic farming. “I used to work in the field for two hours every morning along with the kids. This activity was part of ‘Shramdaan.”
Jahid also learnt some extra skills which were probably not part of various jobs entrusted to him by Adhaarshila. “I learnt how to cook. Every Sunday, my mentor, Ranjit and I used to have meals together. So one Sunday I decided to cook for them. It was a very unique experience as I had never cooked before. But it was a success! Everybody enjoyed the food.”
 
“At the beginning of the programme, I felt very strange at least for the first 15 days. It was all very new to me. But it became better.” “This experience had made me a calmer person. Don’t get restless as I used to before. I have become an extremely patient person and don’t get perturbed easily now,” explains Jahid his new experiences and recounting the change that has occurred in him.
 
Prior to his YFD sting, he had also started a youth group called ‘Alpha’. “Now due to my internship, I hope I can use that experience to take this group forward.Whatever choices I make in the future are going to be affected by this internship. I now want to work on poverty based issues. I also want to learn the finer details of running an NGO. Maybe in the future I would want to start an NGO myself.” 
 
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