How Volunteering Became Part of My Recovery

Recovery often happens beyond the therapy room. For one client at Imani Treatment Centre, some of the most meaningful steps forward took place in a primary school classroom.

After several months in treatment, I was ready to begin volunteering in the community. It was an opportunity to put into practice some of what I had been learning in recovery, although I wasn’t yet sure how much those afternoons would change me.

Walking Through the School Gates

Several months into treatment, I began volunteering at a local primary school as part of my recovery. At the time, I saw it simply as another step forward. I didn’t realise those afternoons would teach me as much about healing as they did about helping others.

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I walked through the gates of the primary school carrying more than my volunteer badge. I carried worries, self-doubt, and the constant noise of my eating disorder. Some days, that voice was loud. It told me to focus on food, my body, and all the ways I wasn’t enough. But the moment I sat down beside a child with a book in their hands, something began to change.

The Lessons We Both Needed

“Can you help me with this word?” a little girl asked one afternoon, pointing to a sentence she had been struggling to read.

Together, we sounded it out. When she finally read the whole sentence by herself, her face lit up.

“I did it!” she shouted.

I couldn’t help smiling.

For the next hour, I helped children read stories, practise spelling words, and finish their maths homework. Some were shy. Some were restless. Some were convinced they weren’t smart enough. I recognised that feeling immediately. What surprised me was how often I found myself encouraging them with words I needed to hear myself.

“Don’t give up.”

“You don’t have to get it perfect.”

“You’re learning.”

“Look how much progress you’ve made.”

Finding Purpose Beyond the Eating Disorder

As the weeks passed, I began to notice something. During those afternoons at the school, I wasn’t trapped inside my eating disorder. My attention was on the children. I was present. I was useful. I was connected to something bigger than my fears. The children didn’t care what I looked like. They didn’t judge me. They were simply excited when I arrived and proud when they succeeded. Slowly, volunteering became more than something I did. It became part of my recovery.

Every time I helped a child finish a book, I was reminded that growth happens one page at a time.

Every time I helped with homework, I remembered that mistakes are part of learning.

Every time I watched a child gain confidence, I began to believe that I could gain confidence too.

Recovery didn’t happen all at once. But every afternoon spent helping those children gave me something my eating disorder never could: purpose, connection, and hope.

By the time I walked back through the school gates at the end of each day, I felt lighter. Not because anything about my body had changed, but because my focus had changed.

I was beginning to build a life that mattered.

And with every child I helped, I was helping myself recover too.

From Imani

Purpose is rarely something we find overnight. More often, it grows quietly through everyday moments of connection, contribution and courage.

As this story reminds us, recovery is about far more than restoring physical health. It is about rediscovering a life that feels meaningful. Sometimes that happens by showing up for someone else and, in the process, rediscovering yourself.

At Imani Treatment Centre, we believe recovery is about building a life that feels connected, purposeful and worth living.