Duration : 5th August to 20th August

The community service is an initiative taken by the students to serve the purpose of voluntarily contributing to the community by any means such as teaching arts and craft, any sport, ICT, computer science, operating a laptop etc. Students from local government schools come to our school on weekends and participate in the activities provided by our school. As a frisbee volunteer, we had students from three different schools come to learn frisbee. We were divided into groups or pairs and a few students were assigned to us. For three continuous weekends in the month of August, we taught them basic skills of frisbee such as forehand and backhand for both short distance and long distance, cutting out to in and in to out, and drills of different kinds. We also had them play a few other games apart from frisbee. There was so much to learn and too little time. While there were a lot of students from the local schools, the volunteers were less compared to them, this mismatch in the student-volunteer ratio caused a few setbacks yet we were able to give them the best time while they were under our supervision. The students being able to feel comfortable around us and play and have fun as much as they want was the main goal for the entire session of three consecutive weekends in the month of August. 

LO2: demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process. 

We faced a few challenges that brought a setback in the original plan for the students. The most common challenge between the students and the volunteers was the language barrier. Because most of the students only spoke Gujarati, while most of the volunteers only spoke English and Hindi. There were only a few who could speak all three languages which included me. So as me and a few other people were fluent in these three languages, we took the initiative to translate back and forth to the students and the volunteers so that they don’t feel uncomfortable. While the problem of language barrier was solved there quickly arose a new problem which was to teach the students the technique and grip to throw and catch a disc. There were a lot of students who found it difficult to learn to catch and throw at the same time, so for the same we had people who would personally go and teach them the techniques while the other students were playing games and having fun. And then there was another problem, we were ahead of schedule so we had a lot of time but we didn’t know what to do with that time, so because I was a player with 3+ years of experience, me and three other experienced students found games and drills that I used to play in my team. All four of us have been on the same team for almost 4 years. 

LO4: Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience + LO5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively

As it was the month of August, there was a high chance of rain. There were multiple times when it rained and because we were on the outdoor campus of the school there was no shelter above us. Sometimes when there was heavy rain we would have to go back indoors and wait till the rain got subsidized. But we couldn’t waste time and we had to move quickly so all of us decided to make the students play a game called ‘disc war.’ And like this we would not waste our time. Each student volunteer would get 5 kids, and we had planned out each and everything so that it would make it easier for us to look after the kids and also stick to the plan. Even though there were three leaders who would take calls on assigning each volunteer their tasks. Everyone did their tasks seriously and sincerely there was no problem with that. As we had the skills to communicate better with the kids and to think about situations where things could go wrong we had each other to find the solution together and stay committed to the responsibility. 

LO6: Engagement with issues of global significance

Quality education is one of the sustainable development goals, and while these students get the privilege to be able to get education, it is not only about curriculum but also about the extracurriculars where students get to decide what they want to do and it should be focused on their mental and physical health. So community service in our school is one of the means for the kids to be able to focus more on their health and be able to do what they enjoy and would most definitely have fun.