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The Beauty of Volunteering - Orngu Victor Gbashinbo

Mr and Mrs Orngu Gbashinbo live in Gbashinbo Village, Wukari LGA of Taraba State, Nigeria. Born in 1987, Orngu Victor Gbashinbo graduated college with a BA (Hons) in Education History. His experience with the social enterprise Better Life Vietnam (BLV), is as follows.

I started working as a volunteer in 2016 with the Federal Education Scheme N Power as a class teacher. Because I enjoyed the experience so much, I joined Taraba State University in Jalingo as a volunteer and later worked with Mobile Forms Africa for three months as a volunteer agent. I then joined the UN Online Volunteers network and started working with the United Nations Development Programme on a research project, focusing on grassroots democracy.




I joined BLV’s Social Media Promotion team on March 26th 2019, and since then I have greatly enjoyed being a part of the Vietnamese charity’s challenging work. I was faced with some initial obstacles to begin with as I had to commit time, energy and resources to deliver projects on time. I also had to figure out how to subscribe to my device to keep this online volunteering job afloat. As a volunteer for various organisations such as the Management Science for Health and being a class teacher with the Federal Education Scheme, I was stretched for time but I was committed to help the underprivileged children of Vietnam and this motivated me to offer my time at 4:00am daily.
Working with a children’s education charity has benefited me in many different ways. When I started my BLV voluntary work, it was not easy but we worked together as a team to share the work of the organisation by retweeting social media posts, as well as engaging with people on various social media channels to help the children of Vietnam in regards to their education.





The foundation is not just a workplace. It is a global friend-making platform where members can teach and learn from each other. BLV exposed me to the beauty of tours and while working as a Tours for Books volunteer, I came across an international touring organisation. I took the time to watch and appreciate the videos of Vietnam and its nature. The beauty of the country cannot be fully understood until I have visited it.
I enjoy working with my fellow BLVers as it is a social and fun environment. I have learnt leadership and management skills, notably from our team leaders: Kirsty Morris Selley, Shilpa Dasgupta, and Sidhant Bansal.
The exposure to BLV has helped me and I plan to start a company here in Nigeria (Better Life Nija, Social Media Management and Promotion company ltd).

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