The community service a 4-weekend long programme in August 2023, included students from different government schools of surat to come at fountainhead and indulge themselves in various activities like art and craft,sports,dance,science projects,etc. Upon communicating with them, we got to know how they were not doing these activities in school or did it just once a year and hence could not develop these skills whereas as we were doing these activities in school, we were able to teach them these skills.
I was part of the Arts and Craft team in Community Service where further we had been divided into smaller groups of 4-5. We first watched tutorials and tried making samplers of the art/craft we were going to teach them so that the teaching process goes smoothly. The first day of the community service was very hectic as we were done teaching them a bit early because of which we had to come up with activities on spot so that they are not sitting idle. Moreover, as they were totally new to us and so were we, at first they did not speak much about themselves or their school but our group ensured that at start of the activities, we ask them their names and the grades they were in so that we all know each other. I also ensured that each student is learning something new and not getting bored while learning, hence we followed the step 1 of making the art and then made them do the step 1 and so on till it gets completed. Some activities we taught them were marble bookmarks, leaf art,string painting,animals out of origamic and many more.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experienceÂ
As this was a 4 weekend long programme, the major commitment was to come to school at all the weekends to ensure that because of me the group does not suffer or the children coming. As these were on weekend, it was challenging to come on sundays as in the first 2 weeks it felt easy but then at the end, coming on sundays started to feel tiring. It was important for me to come at all 8 days was to ensure that what is planned for them is delivered effectively to them and not hampered because I did not go.
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaborativelyÂ
As we were divided into smaller groups, we had to work with people from other grades as well. I am more of a person who prefers working alone so that I can complete my work on my pace and much more efficiently whereas here working in a group at first was a bit difficult. Whereas later we all worked as a group to teach them efficiently.It was important to work as a group so that we can all share the skills we have which will help those children. Moreover working as a group also ensured that we could communicate with those children as 2-3 people were not fluent with gujarati and some children only understood gujarati.
LO6:Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Though the children of government school had access to basic education, the issue of quality education was still present where they were not aware of skilled knowledge. Those children had not done these activities earlier in their school which made them not aware of the importance of skills as well. Basic skills like ICT was also not taught to them which is the need in today’s world. Hence, through community service we could teach them these skills that they had not learnt earlier.
LO7:Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actionsÂ
I realized we use so much of resources in daily life and waste so much too. We do not have the value for the resources though we are able to learn all these in school and they are not. Hence I considered the actions of materials wasting and looking for fancy materials and taught them using minimal resources.I also realized that we were using materials without thinking whereas they were making use of materials very wisely and using every bit.Â
Overall it was an enriching experience for me and I developed communication skills the most along with creativity. The highlight was to interact with these children as we had never done it earlier and allow us to demonstrate the skills and knowledge we had to them which led them to developing themselves too.
