Experience: Community service

Strand: service

I volunteered for the community service sessions that took place at Fountainhead School every weekend. My friend and I taught art and craft to the underprivileged kids and it was a delightful experience and the sessions were very interactive. We taught them how to make bookmarks, quilling, paper bags, painting, photo frames and more. I learned to empathize with myself as the kids shared their ideas and talked about themselves. 

LO1

I first identified my strengths and weaknesses so that I don’t end up miseducating students. I was not very good at art but was more involved in crafting ideas and origami. I was good at expressing my craft ideas to the kids as I was fond of their native language, Gujarati. We needed to identify our strengths and weaknesses as it would help in better execution of the planning. 

LO2

The biggest challenge that  I faced during this experience was to draw and paint as I had less experience in this field and so I approached my friend to help. At the end of this programme, I noticed that I had developed my art and craft skills. I also felt a little shy when it came to communicating with the students as we were strangers. However, after a few sessions, they were comfortable and led to interesting interactions. I feel confident that my future sessions will be more interactive and creative after overcoming my challenges.

LO3

We were told priorly what we will be teaching in the next class which gave us ample amount of time to organise and prepare our ideas. By doing this I felt confident that the kids will not be bored during the activity and hence the sessions would be more efficient. I discovered that I was good at planning the activities and I am now aware that it will be easier to initiate something similar in the future. 

LO5

I worked with my friend and it got easier to initiate plans and executing them. Working collaboratively has made me realised the importance of teamwork. It would have been very difficult for me to handle the kids all by myself and teach them art. I feel that working in a team also has its drawbacks as sometimes I am unable to express my ideas confidently. 

LO6

Through this experience, I have learnt the various problems that are faced by poor people and how necessities like education are not met properly. I felt empathy towards the kids and was very sorry for the quality education they received as there were unable to afford it. 

Overall, I have learnt to be more expressive and caring towards other people. I have also developed art skills as I practised more. It was a successful opportunity and fun to be with the kids. The kids also got to learn creative art which will help them in future.