Volunteering close to home

Video case study! Nimalan was looking for a volunteering opportunity that was close to home. He found plenty of options through the local council and chose the Meals on Wheels program.

Nimalan tells his story in his first language of Tamil, with English subtitles.

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Volunteering case study transcript (English)

Hi! My name is Nimalan. Currently I am involved in Dandenong council’s voluntary program. I am doing the Meals on Wheels program. I have been doing this as a voluntary service.

How did you get involved in your volunteering role?

I got involved in this program, for the benefits it gave me in the first place and the benefits that it gives others as well. So I searched the internet for this.

I started searching the Dandenong council website to find an area closer to my place. I found a lot of programs there. Among them, I selected the Meals on Wheels program as it is suitable for my type of work and started doing this.

What do you do in your volunteering role?

My responsibility is to go to their office… as per the program. I collect the food from the main office and we distribute it to all the registered people.

There are a number of different routes for different areas. In our area - Dandenong area - council maintains different routes. They will give a list of addresses and a plan of what to deliver and to whom.

At our convenience we then plan our routes and supply the food with the help of assistants. This is the structure of our program.

Do you need any specific skills or experience?

The first thing is that you need to have a driver’s licence. Then you need to have a car and a transport facility.

If you own a car and a driver’s licence then that is more than enough to be involved in this program.

What is the best thing about being a volunteer?

The reason why I do this program with such profound pleasure is that I get an opportunity to meet many people in the place where I am.

More over, the capacity to help others gives me a mental satisfaction.

Since I talk with a lot of people and my colleagues, I have chance to meet more and more people, from whom we can get more information to help others and myself.