Cas Project- Bal Mela

Bal Mela has always been an important and precious event for Fountainhead school, as it provides us an opportunity to come together and serve the community. On 22 February 2020, Bal Mela was conducted, where around 25 schools came and participated enthusiastically in various activities. The motive behind conducting this event was to provide an opportunity to underprivileged children to explore various sports and arts related activities. We witnessed all the kids having fun and enjoying the event wholeheartedly, which led to the success of the event.

LO1: Every year the school follows a formulated process to decide the suitable candidates to lead the event. The same was followed this year as well. All the possible candidates were asked to fill up the volunteering form, which then was followed up by an interview with the higher authorities. Fear and nervousness have always been a few of my biggest weaknesses. Despite knowing it, I have always gathered the courage to hold myself up and face all the situations. Another weakness I have is not being quite organised, this has always created a fuss for me before and on the day of the event, causing some or the other problems. However, I feel that it is really important for me to know my weaknesses along with my strengths so that I can work on them to turn them into my strengths. The interview went well, and I got to know that I was selected as the event coordinator, along with my 3 other friends (all of us were from same grade). 

LO2: Hrishita, Hetvi, Yashashvi and I had work together to plan the activities, selecting volunteers, planning the schedule, arranging the resources for each activity, inviting government schools, finance, and the list seemed to continue forever. There were lots of challenges faced such as, firstly, It was very challenging to decide upon activities as they had to be easy and simple for the kids to perform. Secondly, allocating responsibilities of activities and school to volunteers was a very tedious and time consuming task, after which we received a lot of requests from various volunteers to change their activities because they wanted to be with their friends or simply did not want to do that particular task. We had to try our best to ensure that they receive a responsibility which they are happy performing or else they would simply not take any interest in it and then the kids coming to our school would not enjoy it. However, we worked upon all the possibilities and finalized the allocations. Thirdly, a lot of volunteers backed out a few days before the event and some just did not turn up on the day of the event without informing, this created a lot of difficulty for us, as we had to manage 2500+ kids, making sure they enjoy everything. Despite all the challenges we were successfully able to end the event on a happy note. Also I could discover that I do possess great leadership and management skills.

LO3:The entire process of initiation and planning was quite long and tedious. Bal Mela is one of the most important events for our school because we are inviting guests to our school for an event hence, any flaws or problems could create a bad impression of the school and us, too.  Hence, it was very necessary for us, especially me (because usually I am very disorganized), to be very organised, so that there are no last minute running and problems. All four of us, kept meetings every now and then to ensure everyone is at the same page and that the work is going on smoothly. I believe the planning part for this event was more important than initiating and henceforth, it was more difficult because, there were a lot of things and decisions to be catered throughout the process. However, I believe that once in a while we should be experiencing such moments as it helps us develop our skill and moreover as a person too.

LO4: Such big events require a strong level of commitment and perseverance to ensure the success of the event. The month of  February had been very hectic and tiring for all four of us because we had 4 other events, of which all of us were a part of, lined up in that month itself. This made it very difficult for me to manage my time and therefore making it hard for me to be strongly committed to my task in Bal Mela. The commitment required to complete this activity was to be updated, do work on time, attend all the meetings, and ensure all work is done properly. A lot of times we had scheduled early-ins (coming early to school), so that we could complete all the work however, due to limited space in the morning bus route, my early-ins were hardly approved, this somewhere made me less committed and persevered. However, I tried my best to complete my work on time and properly. 

LO5: Along with me, 3 other friends of mine were the event coordinators and that is why this time it was very easy for me to work collaboratively with all of them. Hardly we would have any difference in our opinions, which also might have been caused due to some misunderstandings or personal reasons. Generally, I find it difficult to work with people, with whom I have a strong difference in thoughts and opinions as then it becomes difficult to complete the work, because no one is ready to compromise. Even though I find working together difficult, I feel it is very important, depending upon the thing that we are working on, because there are various ideas generated and increases the distribution of work.

LO6: The issues were lack of gender equality, good health and wellbeing, quality of education and inequality.  All these issues are globally very much important. With good opportunities there are high chances of reduction in gender inequality and equality, too. Whereas, provision of good quality education can lead to accurate knowledge of how to maintain good health and wellbeing, making it easier for humans to live a healthy life.  We ensured gender equality by keeping participation in all activities open for everyone, irrespective of their gender. Making sure that each school visits every station to perform and participate in all activities, was one through which we ensured equality. Moreover, we also provided bananas and mamras to everyone (including volunteers of our school) as a healthy snack after the event. It was necessary for us to ensure that all the kids visiting our school feel welcomed and therefore making it important for us to work on these global issues. 

LO7: Speaking of ethical issues, we ensured to plan our activities by keeping in mind the age of the underprivileged kids. Making sure that they do not feel left out or low by seeing our actions or words. Also, ensuring that the food we provided to them abided by our school food policy. Lastly, we ensured utmost fairness and equality during the entire event, to clinch that our event is successful and not biased. 

In conclusion, I felt really blessed and fortunate to receive such an opportunity where I could organise such a huge event for the underprivileged kids. It always feels great to bring a smile on their faces.