Bal mela is an event that took place on 24th February in Fountainhead school where underprivileged students from different government schools came to our school to learn new skills and develop new hobbies. The goal of the event was to give the children impoverished fun-filled experiences. We had a lot of fun and imaginative activities planned for the children from government schools, including face painting, three-legged races, dog and the bone, football, frisbee, leg cricket, basketball, and much more. For us students to make a positive impact on society, we are getting this chance to engage with underprivileged children.

I volunteered for the sports category when I got the Bal mela form and I was selected for leg cricket and tug of war. In leg cricket, we played cricket with the same rules but with some modifications. In the game, the bat was our player’s leg, the bowl was a soft football, and the bowling was done underarm. Moreover, in tug of war, the objective of the game is for each team to pull the rope along with the members of the opposition team to their side. As soon as the second mark on the rope from the center red mark crosses over to the center line, the team to pull the rope to their area wins the game.

Learning Outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

While selecting categories for Bal Mela, I identified my strengths from sports, arts, and other categories of activities and chose in which I would achieve and excel to do my job. Finally, I decided to go with the category of sports where I was selected in leg cricket initially. I had played this game in my 7th grade and I remembered the rules and strategies of it. So me and my other two classmates planned accordingly as per the time allotted and the number of children participating.

On the day of Bal Mela, there was a technical issue where the staff team missed our spot of leg cricket from the list and there was no area allocated for us. We worked our problem out with the CAS organizers and joined the tug of war for a while until we were allocated an area as there were a lot of children participating in tug of war and the two sides remained unbalanced most of the time. So we helped in hosting the game and also took a side of the weak team so that the teams were balanced and the children had fun. And soon the problem of leg cricket was solved, and we started hosting the game.

Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

On the morning of the event, before it had started, I and my mates were prepared with our ideas and strategies for how we were going to host the leg cricket games, considering the time, number of students, space, number of overs, and the boundaries. We discussed and planned together and finalized them to get the best out of everyone.

Learning Outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

I was committed throughout my CAS experience where I continuously without a stop was a part of making children play games, both leg cricket and tug of war. I kept switching after every game was completed. For example, I switched after every leg cricket game and went to tug of war, and after tug of war, I went back to leg cricket. This was because there was a small break after every game as different groups of students from various government schools kept switching between multiple games our school had present. And my time gaps were perfect as when I was in leg cricket, no one was playing tug of war, and when I was in tug of war, no one was playing leg cricket. I made good use of my time so that I could achieve maximum efficiency during my CAS experience. 

Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

I demonstrated communication, collaboration, and self-management skills

I demonstrated self-management skills where me and my group were organized with the game plan and showed time management skills as we were able to transition between two different groups of children easily and finish the game within the time period of 15-20 minutes.

Other than that on a social level, I demonstrated communication and collaborative skills where we as a group worked together on game planning and showed teamwork to distribute roles among ourselves. For example in leg cricket, we distributed roles for every member as introducing the game to the children, being 1st and 2nd umpires, and 1 coach for each team.

Learning Outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Every year Fountainhead school plans Bal Mela for underprivileged children to engage in something new and fun that they are unable to experience in their lives. These children face poverty and go to government schools where they get an education without paying fees, where the facilities in the government schools are limited and they have very limited resources.

We, students, volunteered in Bal Mela to be a part of this global issue and try to help these children by making them happy for a day and playing games with them. It apparently won’t change their lives but it feels like a kind gesture. By playing these games, they can learn and play them on their own anywhere with the resources in the future.