Karuna Club is a student-led club that aims to better the relationship between humans and street animals and help them co-exist by taking action towards improving the lives of street animals. As the vice-president of this club, this project allows me to make a positive impact but also experience invaluable learnings.
Learning Outcome 1: Identifying strengths and developing areas for growth
Leading Karuna Club has been a mirror for my strengths and weaknesses. I discovered my passion for advocating for animal welfare at a young age, when I started feeding dogs around my residence at just the age of 10. However, this club reflected how earlier, I didn’t really take my interests and passions to another level, but after starting the club with the president, Hitaishi, I was able to further extend on a small idea.
Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrating challenges and developing new skills
Working with street animals is reflective of numerous challenges. From organizing feeding drives to coordinating with experts on this subject, each activity has helped me develop new skills including critical thinking, communication, logistics.
Firstly, I developed critical thinking skills while starting the club, where to gain expert knowledge, Hitaishi & I visited the founders of Prayas Animal Shelter to understand their experience and apply their learnings to our project. Initially, we aimed to vaccinate dogs as a way to rid the street dogs of surat of rabies. However, after conversing with the founders, we learned that it was important to develop bonds with animals before vaccinating them as it could pose a threat to our safety. This helped us develop our critical thinking skills, and learn to properly plan the path to achieving a goal.
Secondly, I developed communication skills while starting the club. As we interacted with a lot of the core team members of the club, communication and planning was required with all of them. The Prayas team also conducted a session with members of Karuna Club, to develop their non-verbal communication skills with animals.
Thirdly, I deepened my understanding of logistics behind an event. As Karuna Club conducted a bake sale to raise funds for conducting food drives, I helped plan, coordinate and manage the bake sale. We faced a lot of challenges including the management of resources during the sale alongside other problems. Overcoming these challenges through critical thinking, we were able to host a successful bake sale.4
Learning Outcome 3: Initiating and planning a CAS experience
Karuna Club itself is depictive of the third learning outcome, as by identification of a problem in the community, we took the initiative to build a platform for change. From brainstorming actions that we could take and developing plans and budgets, the whole club requires careful planning and execution. As an on-going club, we have planned and executed 1 fundraiser conducted at school, 2 educational sessions with the local animal shelter- Prayas, and 3 feeding drives conducted outside of school.
Learning Outcome 4: Showing perseverance and commitment
Karuna Club is a consistent effort, as it is an on-going project and it aims to build a better relationship between humans and animals, it requires taking constant actions to work towards this goal. As said before, since the 5 months of starting Karuna Club, we’ve conducted a fundraiser at school that helped us gain a profit of approximately 14k rupees that we’ll use to fund further feeding drives, 2 educational sessions with Prayas and 3 feeding drives. This shows how consistent effort is being put in by the team to reach to our aim.
Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrating skills and benefits of working collaboratively
Karuna Club thrives on collaboration, as all members of the club work in alliance with fellow students and local animal shelter to coordinate feeding drives, awareness sessions and fundraising events. We have learnt to divide tasks amongst each other, by forming core teams for the club that include teams that work on finance, social media and communication.
Learning Outcome 6: Engagement with issues of global significance
The issues that Karuna Club deals with are of global significance, and the club aims to work on ta few sustainable development goals including the following:
- SDG 03: Good Health & Well-being
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- SDG 15: Life on Land
- SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Learning Outcome 7: Recognizing and considering the ethics of choices and actions
Karuna Club’s work is explicitly rooted in ethics as all decisions made by the members of the club are driven by choices that aim to better the world. The aim of this club drives its members to constantly reflect on their choices and actions and question whether or not they align with the goal of the club.
In conclusion, co-leading Karuna Club has been an enriching and developing experience, where I have gotten the opportunity to interact with a lot of wholesome individuals who wish to contribute to the world and alongside this, I have gained a lot of learnings and takeaways from this experience.