Rune Bhattacharya - Volunteer of the Month for October 2019

Rune Bhattacharya is our Immigrant Services Calgary Volunteer of the Month.

Rune has been a constant presence at Immigrant Services Calgary since early 2019, and he has already amassed an impressive 160 volunteer hours in that time. He is fluent in English, Bengali, and Hindi and our clients and staff can often see him behind the front desk helping reception on multiple floors. He has also facilitated classes for the senior’s program, Search & Learn and has been a positive, professional who handles any task with a smile.

We recently sat down with Rune to hear about his journey to Immigrant Services Calgary:

I moved here from Saskatoon in the year 2013 and enrolled in the University of Calgary to pursue a degree in Communications.

I have always believed in taking a rule-based approach to life and my vision of a society based on law and order has led me to dedicate myself to inculcate this perspective in the lives of newcomers to Canada.

To live in a society where I feel safe and where stability and justice prevails has always been a dream of mine. I was born in India and after spending 19 years of my life there, I am happy to assimilate into Canadian society and leave the uncertainty and daily struggle of my previous country behind me.

I started venturing into volunteering activities in 2016 when I participated with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society as a contact person with refugees. I felt very happy to welcome newcomers to Canada who are seeking safety and asylum from conflict zones. I helped a refugee family with settlement services and assisted with integrating them into Canadian society.

In 2019, I began volunteering with the Immigrant Services Calgary and engaged myself in various departments and roles. I volunteered in ILVARC as an office support assistant. I expanded my volunteering participation as a workshop assistant in the Senior's Search and Learn computer classes. It was a joy to bring a smile to senior people who were always happy and grateful to have me as a computer teacher. It was a greatly rewarding experience.

During my volunteering experience with ISC, I regularly acted as an office support assistant on the 12th floor reception and it was an eye-opening experience to be in touch with newcomers from many different origins, who are ready and willing to embrace Canadian values, and hoping to start a new life away from instability in their home countries. It is amazing to behold such a plethora of denizens from a multitude of countries uniting under the Canadian banner and beginning a life in a country which offers safety and civility.

I hope to continue volunteering with Immigrant Services Calgary and spend many more years, bringing smiles and hope to newcomers to Canada as well as enhance the lives of past newcomers who have built a life based on strength and dedication and hope to give back to Canadian society, just like I do.

It has been a pleasure having a volunteer like Rune in the office and we would like to thank him for his hard work and positive attitude here at Immigrant Services Calgary.

“Rune Bhattacharya fits all the attributes necessary to be chosen as the Volunteer of the month for ISC. Rune volunteered at ILVARC for several weeks with commitment, enthusiasm and efficiency and helped us deal with handling large volumes of client calls in a very busy work environment such as ILVARC. He worked closely with the front office staff to ensure that they received well documented lists of client calls in a timely manner. I have no hesitation in endorsing Rune Bhattacharya for the honor of being volunteer of the month for ICSC”. – Anuradha Ramkumar, Program Development/ Counselling Team Leader, ILVARC

“Rune is very punctual and reliable volunteer facilitator. He is the most active volunteer in CISP team. Rune is always willing to help our diverse group of seniors by going above and beyond the expectations. He carries a very unique approach to share/teach various computer skills to seniors. He brings new and detailed lesson plans for seniors every week. The seniors highly enjoy and learn a lot from these lessons especially in the “Search and Learn” class. CISP team is privileged to have a sincere and dedicated volunteer in their team“. – Parminder Gill, Community Liaison Worker for Seniors