Description:

these are a set of sessions where we help kids learn by helping them by offering our services which would help them in long term.these are a set of services where I have taught them cooking (from the basics of all the dishes taught which can be easily accessible to them and whose materials are affordable)to underprivileged children from nearby village and municipal schools around Surat. this lasted for two months where it was organized by the school and every session to dishes were to be assigned were we would help them by teaching them the recipes which are easy , convenient , and which are affordable for them to make as it will in one way or another equip them with life long learning skills, daily chores and even make them learn to work collaboratively with one another .it would also give them exposure by learning new dishes as well as using advanced utensils or materials which makes their work easy and swift.

Reflection:

Lo 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.

we were to teach the underprivileged kids cooking which came to our school. at first, I indulged in a conversation with them and had an introduction session where I could get to know how did they know about cooking, what language did a majority of them spoke to make the conversation more fluent and easy to grasp and their interests. At first, I was really enthusiastic to teach them but after some time I realized that it is a challenge to handle them as they would make the room chaotic and would talk a lot and not pay attention to the instructions or the steps of any recipe, but I thought that as a challenge to be accepted. we as a team figured out a solution to it by dividing them into 2 groups as there were many in number and utilize both the kitchens and further divide them into small groups for different tasks so that they stay occupied and when the dish is made they can sit with whoever they want and we would sit with them and interact. Most of them didn’t know English that well and some of them in the crowd did speak Hindi along with others who spoke Gujarati so we had to keep that in mind and instruct them accordingly for different batches but they were very keen to learn and did a great job at it.

LO 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

In total, we had around 5-7 service sessions per group, and we had to make a strategy to what to make kids go along with the recipes we taught them so that they enjoy the sessions and with us so I along with my teammates decided that we could play some games with them, have questionnaire of the recipe which is taught to them in that session, ask them about their lives and how it is and what do they do in their free time. Many of them were keen to know our schedules and school life. so overall it was a good interacting session with them all along and they felt connected to us.

L0 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

So as there where numerous sessions for a duration of 2 months, it included a lot of commitment,dedication and perseverance coming everytime to that session encouraged with a thought if someone is giving his/her time to learn something new from our team then it should become best at it with practice and show our face to them without any complaints and with patience. we were supposed to plan the next sessions ourselves for which the cooking staff helped us a lot and also played a major role in every session as they would even teach us some tricks and tips for the recipes and help us plan for the kids, in the part of decision making for any recipes we would ask the kids about their wishes on what do they want to learn which made our work a bit easy and great for them.

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

working in a team was a great thing for me and if you are a team member then everybody is equally responsible for everything and my team took it well .we divided tasks according to each member’s skill. for example, I  am good with communicating skills and some members in our group didn’t know Gujarati well to communicate so I used to take the initiative to introduce the task and members to the kids and help them along with it. We divided ourselves among the groups for assistance to make the tasks more fluent and swift.

LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance 

the global issue of poverty and lack of basic advanced materials and life skills were catered in this programme. It is very important for these kids to learn skills such as cooking, ICT, and other things so that in the future they can decide their wishes and aspirations and survive in this puzzled world. having knowledge about these issues made me want to volunteer and contribute. I felt really happy that I could help them in one way or another as such initiatives are required for the children worldwide who cannot afford it.

Final takeaway: after attending the service sessions it made me so happy and satisfied that I was able to help these children with the knowledge I have and also learned certain skills from them like unity, collaboration and felt so lucky and obliged to have all the resources and a luxurious lifestyle. The best part of these sessions were the kid’s smiles as it was so charismatic that I would brighten anybody’s day!