Let me put this straight: we are all change makers.
Change maker is a banal term; however mere banality of a language piece should not affect the importance of the real meaning. Change makers across the world are as important as they were 300 years ago.
My idea of change maker is influenced and derived from one of the 20th century’s most influential politicians and leaders: MK Gandhi. What he could accomplish was to change the perspective of the common men about their own capacity to induce a change. Imagine, if one evening, in a prayer assembly, Mr. Gandhi is preaching and suddenly he points at you and nominates you as the Messiah destined to bring a change in the country. What would be the range of emotions you’d go through? Surprised, shocked, overwhelmed, numb, denying and ultimately pause with a conviction “it can’t be true, I’m no change maker. I’m just a poor farmer. This is too huge an expectation from me.”
Probably, this is what he knew too well about the human psyche. That’s why Mr. Gandhi democratized the change maker movement and divided the responsibility according to each individual’s immediate context. If we were a part of an actual evening prayer assembly, we would have heard something like: “Every single one of us is a change maker. I’m not asking you to sacrifice your life, kill another human or leave your mundane work. If you’re a farmer, a cleaner, a trader, a clerk, a home maker, a horse-cart driver, just keep up with your duty as honestly as you can. Your small acts of mundane work are the real pieces of change making process. Pour your heart in your work. We cannot achieve a great change without changing the little things. If everyone of us keeps our porch and courtyard of houses clean, we will have a clean village and ultimately a clean nation to dwell in.”
On the similar lines, I believe in playing my piece in the complex array of social work and developmental projects. One does not need to be a social worker by degree or job role.
Here is a story of an office maintenance staff fellow Chris:
This man is a genuine, dutiful and hardworking individual. He works for an NGO office. Day in, day out his sole duty is to keep the office maintained. He is the first one to come and the last one to leave. If one is to ask him about his work, he would probably say he is maintaining the office and that’s all about his work.
Here are a few of the things that Chris is doing on daily basis for everyone:
- Arranging newspapers in newsstand
- Refilling hand-wash soap on each floor
- Availing fresh drinking water on each floor
- Bringing fresh milk for all-day tea/coffee preparations
- Keeping a check on groceries as simple as sugar and salt
- Cleaning and maintaining the director’s cabin
- Sorting and filtering posts for the director and seniors
- Collecting and dispatching cheques to bank for payment processing
- Refilling water bottles in conference room
- Serving the director’s lunch on time
- Preparing tea/coffee two times a day
- Serving guests
Can we consider Chris’s work as a contribution to the social work?
Unlikely.
Can we change our view and have a relook at his work?
Certainly!
Chris’s work touches all staff members. Everyday. His quality of work more or less determines how the staff will work for the day: frustrated or cheerfully. How the director will take decisions and how those decisions will lead to a lasting change in the beneficiary’s life. A good morning coffee is likely to cheer the director and she will motivate the team for the day, while on the other hand, a not-so-good coffee might do just the opposite. Also, think about all the posts and cheques that Chris directly deal with. Wouldn’t a beneficiary suffer if an important post or a cheque was missed by Chris? May be the child (suppose a beneficiary) would miss his/her scholarship amount and hence might get admitted to some substandard college. Lives change by Chris’s role in this play. So, you get the story.
Bruce Barton had something similar to say:
Sometimes when I consider what tremendous
consequences come from little things. . .
I am tempted to think. . .
there are no little things.
Yes, there are no little universes, together, all of us make up the whole universe.