Celebrating Global Volunteer Month: Meet Maria Romero
April 30, 2021
Meet Maria Romero: volunteer turned Finance Coordinator, turned Program Director for the Tonameca Earthquake Recovery Program in Mexico.
Maria began her journey with All Hands and Hearts in 2014 as a volunteer in the Philippines. At first, her experience was challenging: “My English was no good at all…I didn’t know how to say the names of the tools, I was barely understanding what they were talking [about] in meetings…my first week was horrible.
“But then we started working in a community…and we were connecting with the community, with the kids, and seeing the importance of the work that we were doing made me want to stay. I was going to stay only for a month. And then…I decided to extend it until we finished. And it kept happening. I kept extending on more [programs], developing relations with the community that made me really want to stay.”
In our interview with Maria (above), we talk through Maria’s journey as a volunteer, and how every challenge and experience brought her closer to her current role, leading an entire program.
All Hands and Hearts truly is a volunteer-powered organization—not only do our volunteers make our work possible, but the majority of our staff members were introduced to AHAH through volunteer opportunities.
We could not do what we do without our volunteers. That’s why, as Maria says, volunteers are “something that we should celebrate daily…Celebrating is to share our experiences, to share how much we learned, the impact that working together can have.”
HAPPY GLOBAL VOLUNTEER MONTH,
from all of us at All Hands and Hearts.
Interested in joining the work? Check out our volunteer opportunities and apply to join us on programs!
