Category: Grade 12 Sangfroid

A day with Orphan Kids – Charlie Helpage

“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” ― Mark Twain. We had spent the day with the orphan kids from ‘Charlie Helpage’.  With the aim to make them involve in all the activities and put in all our efforts to make a memorable day for them. We had the preparations being done prior to the event. With our teachers guidance the activities were planned, like a few games, movie, dance, photo-booth, etc. and had prepared the schedule for the day accordingly.  With a group of around 7 to 8 girls we made a card for them, stating a thank you note for spending  time with us.

Art and craft was followed after the lovely dance and amazing games in the rainy morning. During the whole day, the one thing that touched my heart was, while I was telling a bunch of children about the card/craft that they had to make/do as part of the activity, few kids made flower and cards with heartfelt greetings for me. While I salute to their creativity, they kept me amazed with the trust that they had on me and the friend that they had found in me, whom they have just met a few hours ago.

All the volunteers were doing their part,  everyone was skilled in various field and therefore the quality of the activities did not suffer. We all made sure that we work collaboratively and simultaneously communicate with each other all the details, so that there are less problems and it is easy for us to maintain the pitch of the work. After dropping them till the bus and bidding them goodbye, cleaning and putting all the stuff was a tedious job. To work this problem out, we divided the work.
Something that I learned was that we have our parents to go to with our problems, but what about them? Whom will they go to with their problems? How fair is it on their behalf to not enjoy the privileges and luxury that we are exposed to? Across the globe there would be so many little lives like them, who would have to be dependent on other people for their happiness. Overall, interacting with them and understanding their lives was a worth learning as well as an emotional process.

Flash mob – Education for all

To promote the goal 2 ‘Achieve universal primary education’ of the UN millennium development goals, the group ‘A step towards human (ASTH)’ was doing a flash mob in a very renowned mall of the city. To spread awareness on a topic like ‘Education’ (which plays a very significant role and is an important issue all around the globe) they decided to present it in a creative manner, because the audience is always attracted towards art. The flash mob started with a dance followed by a speech, then a drama and at last again a dance.

The preparations were going on from weeks, everyday the rigorous dance practices were held. It was difficult for me to attend all the practices, but because of my commitment I had to manage my time. I had to put in extra efforts, because I am not that good at dancing. I developed my dancing skills in the process. We were all confident and were thorough with our dance on the last day. Along with excitement, I was very nervous. After a long time, I was going to perform in front of a huge audience. During the time of our performance there was a large audience waiting for us. My Mother and my sister were also there to encourage me. Just as the music started, we all were dancing on our tunes, but due to lack of space we were all banging into each other. I was proud of myself because I didn’t forget any step in the middle of the performance, and that I gave my best to make it successful.

The limitations were that were was a problem in the sound system. People were not able to hear our speech and the music too. This was a big led down for the whole group. Though we were able to generate some amount to fund, it didn’t meet upto our expectations.
Out of the six thinking hats, the green hat which is about creativity and the red hat which talks about feelings played an important role in this particular activity. Without creativity it was impossible for us to persuade people, and as our motto was to spread awareness and raise fund, we were dealing with human emotions and therefore considering feelings was necessary. Ethical aspect of the activity was related to the usage of the fund, and the goal of education itself. How justified is it to have differences in something as universal as education?

Literary Fest – Ads to add up

A literary fest was organized in our school. Out of the many activities which were designed, I choose to take part in an activity called ‘Ads to add up’. I aimed to learn the conventions of an advertisement in a non-conventional manner. The whole process of this activity was fascinating. We were divided into groups and then we were asked to design an advertisement of a product and present it in an exclusive way.  

In our group, students ranged from grade 7 to grade 11 were there. Cooperation and Stephen Covey’s 5th habit ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood’ played a role to smooth our group work. Limitations which we were facing were, that there were too many people in one group, therefore considering each one’s perspective and opinion was a difficult task. It was creating a chaos. Also we had ideas but executing them appropriately was a barrier. Students from lower grade had only little clue about the format and the conventions of an advertisement, explaining them everything and then completing the task in the given time period was not possible. Due to time constrain the quality of our presentation suffered. Ethics played a role where we didn’t cheat or plagiarized another group’s idea. The activity was competitive in nature as we were all fighting for our house points.

We could relate this activity to our subjects like language, business management and visual arts. The methods used to create an advertisement and the format of an advertisement is something which we learn in our visual arts class. For example, the layout, visual appeal, font size, colours, etc.

In business management we are taught about the forms, the audience, the market of the product, etc. The purpose, the analysis, the impact, the conventions, the type and all the other things related to an advertisement is directed to us in our language class.

The activity was both informative as well as creative. I will remember the way people presented in a humorous way. This also taught us, by the way people sitting there responded that what are the things which audiences find attractive and interesting in an advertisement. Overall, it was a creative approach to an educative activity, which was appreciated.

We were taken to Janki Van- a new botanical garden which is being developed by Ministry of Forest (Gujarat) under the guidance of Head of Forest Department. This was our first trip, I was filled with excitement. We were going to help the workers in planting saplings of ‘Mehendi’. All these years we have been studying about global warming and deforestation, but today was the time when we were actually going to fulfil our responsibility towards   nature. It was a new experience and I felt a positive vibe that day. The variety of plants in the garden, with different colours, provide a dazzling view of the place. All the goals that were made for this activity were attained.

The following were the goals:

• Learn techniques and acquire knowledge about plantation.
• Learn new skills and experience a day of a worker’s life.
• Start acting responsibly towards nature.

We learnt the technique of planting the saplings. The process was simple, but required proper focus to neatly plant them. Though the whole activity was a smooth process, it was a challenging task. I had to come out of my comfort zone and do the labour intensive work. It required a lot of hard work and was a very tiring exercise. From morning till the evening we were on the field, under the hot burning sun. I  made a commitment for the service and acted to make a positive difference in the world around us.

Doing teamwork was essential for this particular activity. My friends and I coordinated with each other to do the work assigned to us. We distributed the work, so that no one had to bare much pressure. We helped each other in carrying the heavy utensils. Cooperation between the group was maintained by doing effective communication with our groups members, as well as with the workers (as we had to take their guidance for completing our task fitly).

The limitations that I faced were regarding my lack of knowledge in this task, as well as not being physically too fit was a barrier. I was not aware with the technical way of using the equipments and therefore I was finding it difficult to use them in a correct way. Secondly, I am not physically that fit, so carrying the heavy utensils was a very tedious duty. It was an amazing experience and the activity worked as a stress buster for me.

Process: Filling the vessel with the small plants, carrying them to the designated area, planting them and then watering the plants.