CAS strands : Creativity, service
MISSING is a public awareness campaign which aims to sensitize people to the plight of millions of girls who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. This organization has training modules for students to adapt and spread awareness throughout the country. As a team, we had to complete the module and hence gain knowledge ourselves before spreading awareness to a school with lower knowledge regarding these issues. I used this module as my CAS project as I conducted the entire session myself along with my group mates and successfully made the students of Kudiyana Public School understand how to prevent these types of issues and what to do and what not to do. The first part of the module was to play the MISSING game wherein a girl is kidnapped and is used as a sex slave from a group of people to earn money and then she finds a way out of the location when she finds out about the MISSING silhouette and asks for help. We played the game and understood what the missing girls can do if they are trapped such as in these situations and so that we can teach the students. Further, we created a poster to spread awareness regarding sexual trafficking. For the final step, we created an entire presentation explaining all the causes, consequences, do’s and don’ts, examples and a lot of interesting facts and information to make them thoroughly aware regarding this issue and ensured that nothing happens to them since they’re educated. We did a graffiti activity for the kids and helped them make their own MISSING girl silhouette with the help line number below specially for their school.
I demonstrated :
L1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Throughout this CAS project, I identified that I was strong at working in a group and constantly delegating work to other people. I was good at researching and understanding the concepts and therefore I was primarily the person who was creating the presentation and grasping the knowledge so that I can transfer it to the person who would present.
L2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills
Teaching students especially about sensitive issues such as these was really challenging for me as I had to be very careful with my words and tone so that they’re not hesitant in listening to what I am saying. For example, if I use sensitive words, it might hurt the sentiments of the teachers and students and I might not be allowed to continue further. I had to be absolutely crystal clear with my knowledge and understanding regarding this issue and had to prepare my presentation so that the students enjoy it and at the same time understand the concepts really well and by heart. So all in all, this was a really new experience for me and I developed my presentation skills with a varied age group of audience.
L3- initiate and plan a CAS experience
My group mates and I initiated this CAS experience and progressed through the module, completing all the tasks with our full focus and attention and we had independence in planning the presentation so we created the presentation from scratch and served a part of the society with valuable knowledge from staying away from human trafficking.
L4-commitment to and perseverance
Taking in a lot of information regarding this topic was frustrating at times as it was disturbing to find about all these stories and it was hard to prepare the presentation clear enough for the students to understand and interact and enjoy. We remained persevering and kept our calm and prepared the entire presentation.
L5-. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively
It was crucial to work collaboratively in the group as it was really important that the quality of our presentation is more than what’s required to teach the students. Working collaboratively helped us achieve our aim to spread knowledge and awareness amongst the students. If we wouldn’t work collaboratively, then we might not have got the results we got. It was necessary to divide the work and get the best work done.
L6-engagement with issues of global significance
We took a small step towards extinguishing a major rampant global issue such as human trafficking by spreading awareness with students who might not have knowledge about these issues and we might be able to stop some serious harm happening to the students in the future. It may even start a knowledge chain and may be passed down to more people.
L7-Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
We had to be very careful about the language and diction we are using as they might be sensitive about it and might not be comfortable listening or responding to the content we would be explaining them.
During this CAS project experience, I was open-minded as I had to respect the content I would be teaching the students and would have to take inputs from my teammates while adding content to the presentation. I was also an inquirer and a thinker as I had to ask a lot of questions and research upon them and would even have to brainstorm ideas to convey my ideas to the students in a simplified form. All in all, this CAS project experience was really helpful as I got an opportunity to serve my society and teach some students how to be safe from such kinds of issues. I myself gained a lot of knowledge, not only about human trafficking but also how to function better in a group.
