Reflection By Ming Lu Ang

Life, Volunteering, and Chocolates

📷When I first came to know of the project, I did not know what to expect – save for the scant details that ODARA is a social enterprise dedicated to support particularly, ethnic minorities, in areas such as business planning, family care, therapy, and providing a listening ear and helping hand to victims of domestic violence. As a result, I resorted to enlisting the help of my trusty friend, Google, to find out more about the organisation. The more that I read about ODARA, the more I became interested in the workings of the organisation. Imagine the amount of work ODARA handles on a daily basis – given the organisation is run only by the two sisters, Aysha and Kiran Iqbal, together with a couple more employees!

Fast forward to the execution of the project, it was not entirely a walk in the park. As I have had no direct experience working intimately with social enterprises, I had to learn about how they were run during the project itself. This challenge was compounded by the fact that there was not much contact time with ODARA’s founders – given that they were extremely busy running the daily operation. Fortunately, through preparing a list of questions beforehand to consult Aysha at one go, most of my doubts were quelled. Further, the time working with ODARA has exposed me to many different people working in the social enterprise sector. As a result, I have gained a broad overview of how social enterprises work and have built up a bank of sector-related knowledge which may come in handy in the future.

However, on hindsight, I would definitely have chosen to shadow the organisation for a week or two if time permits. It would be an eye-opener for me to witness for instance, the domestic abuse cases which ODARA handles first-hand – most of which are out of the public eye. These are cases which may be quite difficult to pin down on paper. In addition, I would have liked to know more about how the proposals my team and I have suggested have worked in practice after a year or so. This could enable us to make further tweaks and fine-tune our proposals to better suit ODARA.

Nevertheless, in the short time frame of working with ODARA for 3 months, I am glad to have created a flowchart documenting the work processes in ODARA for various reasons. One, this makes it easier for ODARA to delegate different processes to different employees. Like a biochemical process, the different intermediate steps provide many areas for control by ODARA and allow it to identify any ‘rate-limiting step’ more effectively. The employees will also better understand where their roles fit into the organisation. Furthermore, should ODARA need to make further tweaks as it expands further, the flowchart makes the task more manageable – even without further assistance from us. Two, clarifying and streamlining the processes in ODARA have helped it to focus on what matters the most – people. Three, I had the opportunity to apply by analogy what I have learnt from my past internship and volunteering experiences. From an internship I had undertaken at a statutory agency, I noted how similar the administrative processes were to ODARA’s. Forms and documents have to flow through the hands of many people – and in some cases, some paperwork may be completely unnecessary. Further, from my stint as a tutor at a family centre, I was acquainted with how family centres handle their referrals. With this background information in mind, I included only what was necessary in the flowchart – and ‘ruthlessly’ eliminated what was not.

Interestingly, this project reminded me of Forrest Gump’s famous quote: ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.’ When I first came to know of this project with ODARA, I did not know what it entailed. Neither did I know what to expect when I did my internship – and that I could practically apply knowledge gained in a completely different field to ameliorate a problem in an entirely novel situation. The time working with ODARA has really reiterated the importance of keeping an open mind to all experiences – good or bad – and to actively seek such opportunities, be it through the university’s careers office or through one’s personal networks. Because unlike the benefit of hindsight accorded in the possibility of knowing what chocolates to get beforehand, no such benefit exists in life generally. So, seize the days!