This year like many times before, Fountainhead School Facilitated a 6 session workshop for underprivileged children from nearby public and grant schools wherein the children could come to Fountainhead and immerse themselves in over 2 hours of either play, art or computers.
I had worked as a volunteer teaching ultimate frisbee to these aforementioned kids at Fountainhead.
LO1. Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
LO2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
While teaching these kids to play Ultimate, I realized that my ability to easily communicate became a major benefit for me as I could communicate and clarify things with kids of all ages in both Hindi and Gujarati. I also realized that my lack of patience when dealing with the kids was a major drawback on my part and that I had to change, to be an effective leader. Some challenges I encountered were from the students whereas some others were from our volunteers. Various conflicts occurred where different volunteers wanted to pursue different training regimes. My role here was that of an arbitrator, I learnt how to effectively negotiate a win-win situation in this circumstance.
LO5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
Managing over 50 kids at a time is a logistical nightmare, but when a team of volunteers works together, that task looks quite a lot more doable. Right from showing different drills to playing exhibition matches, the team effort was paramount in the importance of our success.
LO6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
I consider the ability to play, a very effective change-maker in terms of youth and therefore I also consider it to be synonymous with the UN’s 4th SDG, quality education. I think that a practical education in the realm of sports and physical activity is as necessary as traditional classroom study. As we worked with these kids, all of us took something away . The volunteers and the participants, both learned things from each other with no holds barred. I for one learned a very important life quality, which is to appreciate the smaller things. The participants were extremely excited about the sessions and put in a lot of effort. IÂ understood that sometimes , being appreciative of what you have, of what you have achieved is far greater than drowning yourself in misery or being sad.
