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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at VCU chapter.

Productivity culture took over the world after the pandemic hit. Everyone was busy at home trying to make something when the world could do nothing. The first thing I did when the pandemic began was lay in bed for a few weeks. But then, I did research on ways to give back to the community from home. Not only is this pandemic an economic crisis but also a humanitarian crisis.

I couldn’t imagine what the people who were already having a difficult time in life pre-pandemic were doing to get by. Even though I was still struggling to balance finances and my mental health. I strived to make sure that I would work to help anyone I could when I couldn’t be physically active. I want to give people inspiration and ambition to give back, and hopefully, this provides a blueprint to your endeavors. 

Places in Richmond

Websites such as PowerOf can provide volunteer opportunities by looking up your location on their website. The majority of these virtual opportunities include teaching and helping with fundraising, but there are also programs specifically designated in Richmond, such Hands On RVA which provide a layout for students to look at and see different volunteer opportunities in the greater Richmond community.

They include creating hygiene kits for women, teaching and tutoring low-income students and grocery pickups. These are volunteer opportunities in your backyard that can be picked up on a daily basis.  

Places Around the World

Do Something is a large organization that specializes in small volunteer opportunities for its members and providing ideas on ways to give back to the community. They described nine ways to volunteer online such as the crisis text line and virtual United Nations volunteers. Their website has sublinks to different causes you can focus on and help, based on what you may prefer.

The interesting part of Do Something is you would be able to integrate many things you can start and finish at home that would be able to still make an impact. Simply doing research on Google can allow you to find a plethora of opportunities. 

Overall, a little motivation and research can help someone and can get you to be productive in a positive way. Giving back, even in small gestures, still creates an impact. This pandemic has taught me a lot of lessons, but the biggest one being don’t take anything for granted and be thankful for where you are in life.

Giving back is not a self-serving gesture, but rather a way to take a bit of darkness out of the world and insert some light. Taking a little time out of your day to give back to the community, whether that be in just Richmond or the world, will only take a few minutes that carries a reward with no price. 

Safia Abdulahi is a student at VCU studying Political Science with a Civil Rights Concentration and a Black Studies minor. She cares about issues surrounding racial injustices in the United States and hopes to use her writing to vocalize these issues to a greater audience.
Mary McLean (née Moody) is an avid writer and is the former Editor in Chief of Her Campus at VCU. She wrote diligently for Her Campus at VCU for two years and was the Editor in Chief for three years. You can find her work here! She double majored in Political Science and History at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated in 2022. She loves her son, Peter, and her cat Sully. You can find her looking at memes all night and chugging Monster in the morning with her husband!