Bal Mela organized on the 25th of February 2022 was a one-day event where students from various government schools of different backgrounds and different age groups attended the event wherein they were taught to perform several physical and creative activities. The volunteers were assigned to teach the students activities like basketball, painting, dancing, etc. I was assigned stone painting where we taught them a new form of art, which most of them wouldn’t have known about.

These are the Los catered :

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

When I was assigned to teach stone painting, at first I didn’t think it would be a difficult task as all I had to do was give the students markers to draw and paintbrushes and ask them to make something creative but upon seeing their confused faces I realized that they weren’t known to performing such forms of art and thus to combat this issue my fellow volunteers and I decided to draw easy figures and shapes and let them paint it on their own. But the problem that appeared now was that the stones were too small to draw proper shapes and the children found it difficult to paint into the drawn images. Since a majority of the children were from primary sections we had to make sure that we taught them how to hold the paintbrush and instruct them to paint within the lines.

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The main challenge that occurred was that we had a limited number of supplies and the number of stones weren’t sufficient. Every few minutes one of the volunteers had to go and refill the jug of stones while the others handled the huge crowd. We were offered one pack of paintbrushes and one pack of markers per table and we had to share the materials between two tables. After every set of children, we had to ensure that all the markers were closed, the palettes were refilled with colors and the paintbrushes were washed for the new batch. Continuously performing the same tasks in the scorching sun became tiresome and after taking short 5-minute breaks my team managed to accomplish the task.

LO 5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Collaboration was crucial for my experience because I had to work with other volunteers to ensure that the event went off without a hitch. With few volunteers, it was difficult to supervise more than 100 children, but we were able to do it because of our cooperation. To ensure the kids had a nice time, we collaborated, and by working together, we were able to achieve our aim.

LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Everyone isn’t privileged enough to receive quality education and information on different aspects and forms of learning. Their main focus of education included only material learning in the form of books which neglected the various other forms of learning like sports, painting, dancing, etc. The students that we taught stone painting made me realize that not everyone has the facilities that I have and it made me realize a different perspective on life. By giving to those who have lesser than us, we are enlightened with another viewpoint that teaches us to be grateful for what we possess and share it with others as a form of gratitude.

LO 7 : Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

It was my role to make sure that the youngsters who were invited to our school felt welcome, on an equal footing with us, and were just as immersed in the occasion as we were. I might have just done it for the sake of doing it, but I tried to communicate with all the kids and get involved with them. That demonstrates the moral decisions and actions I took while engaging in the experience.

Performing this experience and seeing their grins were priceless. There was a lot of fun and learning at this event, making it an unforgettable experience.

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