Pedro Manuel Castro Rivera: Moving forward and achieving
Pedro Manuel Castro Rivera is from Mexico City. He has a degree in international law and serves as a UN Volunteer Analyst with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Pedro was born with a hearing disability.
In his UN Volunteer assignment, he is responsible for ensuring the completion of the naturalization process for foreigners seeking to obtain Mexican citizenship, particularly those in refugee status and those in vulnerable situations.
He coordinates the information flows during citizenship applications, obtains biometric data, and relays applicants' naturalization certificates. “Volunteering enriches you. It allows you to understand the reality of the people you support. It involves interacting with diverse audiences and developing new capacities," he says.
Pedro feels his hearing disability comes with its own set of challenges. He has a public-facing role, where he finds it difficult to interact with people when they wear face masks as the voice is not clear and loud enough for him. It also deprives him of lip reading that he could otherwise do to understand better. He also finds it difficult to speak over the phone.
His resilience and problem-solving have been helpful for him, he says. For instance, he ensures he is in a quiet environment when taking calls. He also requests people to speak in a clear and loud voice with moderate pauses. He also requests subtitles and transcripts for video calls and uses special software that transcribes speech-to-text.
Pedro’s colleagues are supportive. For instance, when Pedro finds it difficult to understand the call, his colleagues willingly assist him, acting as an interpreter. “The volunteering experience has benefitted me in multiple ways. It was my first formal job after the pandemic. The opportunity reignited my energy to be a proactive person, to want to be more and better prepared to improve my work with knowledge, establishing structured knowledge in something that can be particular, and vice versa," he shares.
His advice to young people with disabilities is to consider working in an international organization focusing on human rights
Pedro takes motivation from the film protagonist – 'Rocky Balboa,' where the lead character tells his son: "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”
And a winner Pedro is – for all that he has achieved and for all that he wants to achieve.
This article was jointly produced by UN Volunteer Communications Specialist for Disability Inclusion, Vibhu Sharma and Online Volunteer Antoinette Gyan. For more information on volunteering opportunities, please click on how to become a volunteer.
