I wanted to do something good for the society and for the people who would need help with basic necessities in their life, but didn’t have any help. I had extra clothes that didn’t fit me any longer, so I decided along with my peer that we would collect clothes from all our neighbors as we couldn’t be the only ones with clothes that didn’t fit us anymore. We approached a well established international organization Rotary and we did the service on their behalf. Rotary is known for their exceptional help and development in service all over the world since a long time. I made a donation to their fund for their future services and on behalf we donated clothes to the needy.

LO3 – Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

I organized myself by talking to Rotary officials for an execution plan. They gave me specific advices, which was very helpful in planning the experience. Approaching my neighbors wasn’t easy, but we had to collect as many clothes as possible, so we did our best. In this case the execution was more difficult than the planning, as when we actually went to donate the clothes, it wasn’t easy to handle the first time we went. However I discovered I have good persuasive skills, as I managed to persuade people to donate clothes and get affiliated with the Rotary organization. It is important for us to have a discrete plan of action and move forward with that as we have a clear vision of where we stand through each step of the journey and have a clear vision of our end goal.

LO4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

It isn’t easy to go door to door to ask for donations as not everyone is friendly or warm. We have to compromise with what we get or even work with the minimal amount of donations. It isn’t easy for me to commit to everything as I am a procrastinator. But in this experience, I had shown great planning and execution from the beginning. And showing commitment and perseverance symbolizes that we are motivated towards the cause, which was indicated by my work.

LO5 – Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

It is generally easy for me to work with my peers, however, I also had to contact an organization which made my work a bit tough, but it helped me grow over-all. It is important that we work well collaboratively as good inputs from all teammates is a very productive thing for the team. Gaining every new perspective is a new learning for us. The skills I developed with working collaboratively are being a better communicator and developing my interpersonal skills. In this case, teamwork was very important as we had to communicate and schedule a ‘donating session’ as per our matching time availability and loop in the Rotary club of Surat west.

LO6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

The issue was of personal well-being. As people were having a shortage of clothes, I felt the need to do my part. The issue was helping the poor with a basic necessity. It is globally important as it is a human’s basic need. Having decent clothing is something everyone looks forward to, however I observed in some rural areas, footpaths and under bridges in Surat, there were many beggars living who didn’t get to have a proper meal. Knowing about the global issue, it contributes to my personal growth as I know I can do something to contribute to eradicating the problem. Even though it’ll be a small effort, it’ll be a good contribution from my end as a global citizen. It makes me a citizen who’s aware of societal problems. It makes me miserable to know that something as simple as clothing is a global issue. It concerns me deeply and it makes me think that there should be more charity work done about this cause too.

LO7 – Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

We went to donate clothes of kids and young adults in a kids juvenile jail, where they said they won’t be taking already used clothes. That was an ethical constraint for us at first, but we thought we could donate more to the beggars we find in Surat. This issue affected our plan indirectly, but we managed to cope easily as we already had a back-up ready. Also, after listening to this argument, I do feel a bit concerned on donating already used clothes. It is a dilemma, although the quality of clothes that we donated was exceptionally good and doesn’t make me double think of my decision of donating the clothes to beggars.

The learner profiles I developed in this experience were caring and open-minded. We saw the lifestyle of the beggars we donated clothes to and the conditions they were living in was really poor. We were open minded and learnt how the things we feel are ‘invaluable’ to us, can be extremely valuable to someone else. And we were also ‘caring’ as we donated the clothes out of compassion.