How Volunteering with LP4Y Changed My Perspective on Empowerment

I joined LP4Y in February 2023. At the time, I was living in Toronto, Canada, finishing a VIA mission, a French program that allows young professionals to work abroad for up to two years. When I received the news of my departure, everything changed quickly. Within a week, I went from -15°C in Canada to +30°C in India, with a short stop in France. The transition was intense. But I was not unfamiliar with India. I had previously spent a semester studying in Kerala and had come back to visit after that experience. It made it easier to adapt.

Why Empowerment through Volunteering Matters to Me?

I was assigned to the Training and Development Center (TDC) in Howrah, near Kolkata, where I spent a year and a half working for the communication team, followed by six months at the TDC in Kathmandu, Nepal. Even if I was not worried about cultural adaptation, I still had concerns about being able to adapt to LP4Y’s frugal living conditions. Could I stick to a fully vegetarian diet? Share a home with a bunch of new people that keep coming and going? Even more importantly: Could I carry the emotional weight of the Youths' stories, or would they overwhelm me?

These uncertainties led to deeper, more uncomfortable questions about my real motivations to volunteer, and about the white savior complex. In short, I did not want to be part of a system where people like me give without wondering if by giving, they truly help. One of the things that convinced me about LP4Y was its pedagogy: it believes in the Youths' capacity to find solutions on their own and gives them the keys to become autonomous. By essence, it aims at making them independent. This approach perfectly embodies the idea of empowerment through volunteering, where the goal is not to save but to enable Stepping back now, I believe these questions were an essential part of my volunteering mission, and it helped me feeling more comfortable about the way I chose to volunteer.

If I was not there to save anyone, then I had to be honest about what I came for. I feel no one joins a mission like this solely out of altruism, and it is okay as long as we acknowledge it. I joined LP4Y to fight for values that are close to my heart: social justice, equality, and especially equal opportunities for women. Like many Catalysts, I often feel the world we live is not working the way it should. LP4Y gave me a way to act on that frustration. Volunteering would not change the system overnight, but when I went to sleep after a day working with Youths and Catalysts, I felt I had done my part to contribute to the change I want to see.

While volunteering, change also happens within ourselves. Some interactions that we have during our mission have a deeper impact than others. Here are two that left a mark on me:

A conversation that changed more than one’s perspectives

During my mission, I met Youths, listened to them, played with them, witnessed their doubts and breakthroughs. Slowly, I started understanding how powerful our own life stories can be. A year later, I still remember a bus ride to a company visit at TAJ SATS in Kolkata. I sat beside Afreen, a bright young woman from a conservative family. She began asking playful, curious questions, which sparked an open and joyful mood among us. Then she asked,

What’s the one thing you’ll never compromise on?” Without hesitation, I replied, “My freedom” and told her why it mattered so deeply to me.

Two months later, my friend and LP4Y partner Archita visited the center and asked Youths what they had learned from their time with Catalysts. Afreen raised her hand and recounted our conversation.

“That day,” she said, “I realized I should never compromise my freedom for anyone, even my own family.” 

She shared her daily difficulties, fighting with her family to have a chance to work, and that she would never forget this life changing conversation. At this moment, I fully took the measure of how words yet so basic to me could completely change someone else’s perspectives.

When I returned to Kolkata near the end of my mission, I met her again. She was still living by this principle. Her family would not let her leave the house to work, so she and her sister started a tutoring business from home. It was working so well they ran out of space and were now negotiating with their father to expand it. The determination in her eyes still fuels me today, and I know it will continue to.

Turning a tragic event into a boost of energy

In August 2024, just before I left Kolkata, the city was shaken by a terrible rape case that drew attention to the lack of safety for women in India. Protests broke out, and tragically, some women were attacked returning from them. It made me sad and angry. It brought back memories of all the times I was disrespected or harmed simply for being a woman.

At that moment, I was scheduled to run a job search session for a group of young women at the TDC. I used to begin each session by asking how they are feeling. That day, they asked me the same question back. I admitted that the news had left me shaken. That simple honesty opened a floodgate. The Youths began sharing, slowly at first, then all at once. We decided to postpone the conversation for later and create a safe space to talk about it.

With the help of their Coach Léa, we organized a women-only session. Shy at first, the Youth began opening up once Léa and I shared our stories. What followed was powerful: every single woman around the table shared something. Many stories were hard to hear, but the collective strength was overwhelming. One story after another, solutions started coming up, with one as a red thread: the need to better educate boys and men. That discussion changed something. It did not leave us broken, it lit a fire instead! That day, each woman reclaimed a piece of her power. And it was beautiful.

Months later, I returned to Howrah and saw some of the women from that conversation. They had completed the program. All of them had found ways to work or study, even when their families disapproved at first. Empowerment does not happen overnight. Motivation keeps going up and down. But once that spark is lit, it keeps growing. Witnessing it remains the most meaningful reward of this mission.

At LP4Y, I have heard hundreds of stories, some joyful, others painful. Far from discouraging me, each challenge only strengthened my resolve. I have learned that harsh conditions do not stop people from blooming, even though they can delay growth, and obscure the possibilities that exist just beyond the fog. Our role as Catalysts, but it can be extended to anyone, is to walk alongside Youths until they find their own path forward. And in doing so, we often find pieces of our own power, too.