August 2025
One year at FAIR SHARE
Values Cemented and Lessons Learned
By Shvitria Fernando
In the Western hemisphere, around the end of June and beginning of July, schoolchildren prepare to head off into the sweet freedom of summer. Corporate schedules and service industries cool off as the temperature climbs up. Young adults have just graduated from school and closed a long chapter, spanning from the age you recite the alphabet to the cusp of adulthood.
Last year in 2024, at this very pivotal moment following high school, I joined FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders as a volunteer undertaking a voluntary social year (FSJ). After around two years of intense academic preparation–readying me for the real world–I was finally at its doorstep and what better way to step into the real world than with the opportunity to work with and in the real world. A voluntary social year (FSJ) was not only easily accessible to me as a school graduate with no major work experience, but also offered an authentic, unfeigned, and pleasant leap into the professional sphere. FAIR SHARE, in a rare manner for employers, approached me first in my search for where to work and fate would have it that we aligned pretty well. In the end, I chose FAIR SHARE because gender equity and intersectional feminism–although adjacent to my nascent interest of political science and international development–are indispensable in the praxis and execution of it.
Now, in retrospect, I realize that this one year has cemented my understanding further and in fact rendered an even deeper resonance with this field. To be frank, I am still exploring my path forward yet what is clear and lucid to me are the values imperative to any path, especially one that serves humanity. FAIR SHARE and the people that sustain its unwavering purpose cemented the values I will take with me for the rest of my life no matter where I go.
Throughout my voluntary social year, I had the liberty of branching out into various programs and internal working groups at FAIR SHARE, learning thoroughly how an NGO operates internally, externally and programmatically in the social impact sector. These learnings were further deepened by the increasingly unfavorable political landscape that FAIR SHARE and numerous other humanitarian aid and social justice organizations were plunged into. I witnessed firsthand how a civil society organization wades through external backlash, how that can affect fundraising, financial resources and the narratives that an organization must now adapt to. In the one year I worked at FAIR SHARE, which coincidentally was also quite tumultuous, I discerned the substantial and often asymmetrical relationship between civil society and the politics that surrounds it.
My time here though is mainly colored by my responsibility of implementing the FAIR SHARE Monitor, allowing me to witness a project cycle from start to finish. To put a multifaceted, mission-driven project in simple terms, the Monitor is a data-based measurement tool that collects and publishes primarily quantitative data on gender representation in civil society organizations. As the description suggests, the implementation involves submerging into the nitty-gritty and simultaneously staying clearsighted about the meta level. The minutiae of the process occupied many of my working hours and the challenge therein was remaining motivated amidst the mechanics of it all. It was hard to see–past the clutter of project tasks–how the Monitor contributed to its profound purpose of gender equity and justice.
But challenges, as life continues to demonstrate, always help us learn lessons about ourselves and the world around us. And so, I too learned the valuable lesson of actively keeping the larger picture in mind while finding joy (and potential) in the smaller details. What’s so enlightening about this lesson is the fact that it can be applied to any aspect of my life–whether it be professionally in any field or personally in the more intimate moments.
This is exactly what my FSJ at FAIR SHARE did for me this year. It stretched beyond the margins of what a work experience usually is and became a welcoming mentor imparting insights and wisdom intended for work but really meant for life.
So, in classic FAIR SHARE fashion, here is some (hopefully solicited) advice for any young person playing with the idea of working before studying. Stay honest about your aspirations, interests, comforts, discomforts, priorities, passions, instincts and communicate them frankly whenever possible. It will immensely steer your work or volunteering experience, with you in the driver’s seat of the journey.