Duration : 19 Jan to 27 Feb 2024

Community cleanup is an activity and service where we, as students, clean different areas by taking steps towards a clean city within those 4 sessions. This CAS experience needed dedication and commitment as well. Community cleanup was a bit challenging for me because, to complete this experience we needed to work upon beyond our comfort zone. In our first session, we went to a nearby pond which was half an hour away from our school. On that day we all tried to remove the wild plants from the surface of the pond as it was blocking the sunlight for the water and the marine life inside the pond. As the wild plants were there for many years, it was hard to remove them, so we used some tools such as rope and a waste banner and some teamwork. We started by bringing them towards the start of the pond and tried to push them inside the banner which was joined with rope. After that, all the students, who didn’t go inside the pond, pulled the rope to bring the wild plants outside the pond with the waste banner. This technique was used for the upcoming first two sessions. For the other third session, we went to clean behind the Iskcon temple. These sessions helped me to learn new things such as if ponds have too much shade then it might increase the chances of algae. After having those cleaning sessions, I learned that, to have a clean environment we should throw the trash in the bins as per their recycling process, try to keep the area around you clean as said, one step can also create a huge impact.

LO 2 : “Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process”

This experience was challenging for me because I have never done these types of sessions, it was a little bit difficult for me. Trash picking and segregating them was challenging. It was challenging because this was time, I was experiencing it. I have not done something similar before but I overcame this challenge by going beyond my comfort zone and attending the four sessions. As these sessions were in early inns, I don’t have the habit of waking up early in the morning which was also challenging for me. I overcome these challenges by motivating myself and going beyond my comfort zone. It is important to undertake new challenges because it gives new experience to us and some new learnings and skills.

LO 4 : “Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences”

This activity was difficult for me because I hadn’t experienced this before. I felt a little bit demotivated as I was not able to achieve my goal properly in the first session. So, I made a commitment that I will try to overcome this difficulty by trying again and again. It is important to show perseverance and commitment in experiences because it gives new learning and experiences to us.

LO 6 : “Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance”

The issue here was catered is SDG 12, 13, 14, and 15. As India is the most populated country in the world, without even knowing the impact of it, we throw trash anywhere even though the government has kept dustbins between each distance. To resolve it, we as students took a step towards clean city tired to clean as much as we can in those four sessions. While cleaning, we also created some impact on the people who watched us cleaning. It helped them to understand that, if these teenagers can take steps towards a clean city then why can we not.

In the end, this CAS experience was very helpful for me as it helped to learn new things and also create an impact on everyone. In this experience I used the learner profile attribute, communicator as we worked in a group to collect the garbage as much as we can and also we created an idea to divide ourselves in different groups where some will collect glass,plastic,and other garbage. The highlight of this experience was that mother earth is also a home for us, and we should keep it clean. I was able to achieve my goal and also able to learn many new things while completing this session. After completing this experience, I would apply the learnings in my life by keeping the places around or near me clean and also try to create awareness to throw trash in the trash bin.