Winner of our Student-Led Project of the Year Award and the Diana Award, Mohamed Afify, tells us all about being a Project Leader. Mohamed studies Mechanical Engineering with Business Finance and spends his spare time as Project Leader of Impactive: a Student-Led Volunteering Project that creates aids for people with disabilities to make certain tasks possible, whether they be everyday activities, or their own hobbies.
Mohamed was inspired to create Impactive when he saw a woman who was a wheelchair user in Sainsbury’s. She had nowhere to put her bag and ended up having to hang it around her neck. Impactive would help people like this woman. Working together with their clients, the Project creates solutions to the challenges they face.
This year, Impactive worked with a young woman doing a photography course. She was born without any fingers on one of her hands, which made it difficult for her to hold and operate the camera. Mohamed and the Impactive volunteers came up with a harness for her to wear that connected to a camera holder, so that she was able to take stable pictures.
The impact of the Project has been great! Having few clients means Mohamed and his team can really dedicate themselves to their projects. While Mohamed doesn’t work as closely with clients anymore, instead coordinating the volunteers, he still plans to visit the clients when the Project is complete to see the real impact of the hard work of the volunteers.
“One of the main things I feel I’ve got out of this is being able to multitask!” - Mohamed Afify
Taking up a substantial part of his time at UCL, Mohamed has watched the project grow right from the start and is so proud of where it is now. Being Project Leader has helped him to hone is career aspirations towards that of a strategy consultant.
Volunteering with Impactive has enabled Mohamed to put his skills and knowledge to a practical use within the community.
"We’ve got this blessing, and this is just your way to give back” - Mohamed Afify
Find out more about Impactive and our Student-Led Volunteering Programme. You can also find more opportunities to volunteer with people with disabilities on our Volunteering Directory.