[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JcvKX-kcwY[/embedyt]

For my Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) Project, I decided to help an underprivileged and ignored community in our society. I went to teach them and help them with basic numeracy and literacy skills. In teaching them English, I restricted myself to their school curriculum, conversational proficiency, and other essential aspects of modern English that would most likely benefit them later in life. In Maths, I worked on their quantitative ability with various tasks and helped them develop a more numeric and objective understanding of the reality surrounding them. Two other students, Dhruv and Shiven from the school, joined me.

LO1:

I worked on my communication skills with the children. I am good at speaking, but the project offered a new method for improvement by dealing with younger children. They did not have the linguistic skills to communicate effectively in Hindi or English. The first language most children there learned was Gujarat. I learned to speak clearly and slowly with them.

LO2:

I am not well at teamwork. Nevertheless, with the help of my work with my peers, I gained valuable lessons. Shiven and Dhruv helped me understand the division of tasks according to our strengths. We distributed various subjects, such as English Language and Literature, Mathematics, Hindi, and Computer Science, between us to help the children with these specific subjects.

LO3:

I organized and initiated this experience, arranged the times, and talked to the managers about other requirements. I spoke to Mr. Nakul Rathi, who looked after the children’s education and communicated with the teacher. I involved Dhruv and Shiven to join me for the project. With a lot of effort, I managed timings for the project that were compatible with our school.

LO4:

The experience was longer than a month, and persevering with the sometimes uncooperative behavior was difficult, but that did not stop us. The students were reluctant to embrace impermanence and work with new instructors (us). We first had to build relationships with them and convince them that we were there to help.

LO5:

Working alongside Dhruv and Shiven helped me understand social interactions, nonverbal clues, and dealing with conflicts and incompatibility of thoughts. My peers aided me in learning how we can agree when we might have opposing ideas. I especially observed this while confirming our timings with term one exams near.

LO6:

Quality Education was the SDG we aimed to contribute towards through our experience. The government often neglects such communities when providing education because they are unsure how to deal with them. Many people there are tribals, and the government often finds their customs and beliefs unmanageable.

LO7:

Despite our intentions, the impact was limited. We did not aim to help those who most urgently needed our service. We instead focused on those most accessible to us. The people were underprivileged, but our help might have been more significant where learning institutions were missing. Our slum had a dedicated teacher.

Although there were various challenges, the experience was an enriching outlook on society that allowed us to make meaningful contributions.