What Volunteers Carry

Dr. Harsimran Singh Chowdhary went to Nahan Central Jail in Himachal Pradesh thinking he might teach something.

He is a pediatrician of 14 years and a member of the Rotary Club of Chandigarh Royale in India. The visit was part of an emotional well-being initiative. He writes that people in prison are often reduced to the label of their offense, and that the people he met valued being heard. For a while, there was no project to complete and no achievement to report.

He came back having learnt something. He also writes about what volunteers carry that goes unseen: fatigue, disappointment when efforts fail, work that goes unnoticed, the pressure of always being the one who says yes, and hard experiences that stay with them after they go home.

People need to feel seen, he writes. And we do not always see what volunteers carry.

Source: Rotary International's blog, blog.rotary.org, https://blog.rotary.org/2026/11/05/the-invisible-wounds-of-a-volunteer/