Aabal Nahi Sabal is an organization that aims to provide specially-abled children financial stability. The organization employs specially-abled children of the ages 16 and above, allowing them to handmake products comprising of tote-bags, candles, and other goods. These handmade products are then later sold off, profiting the children monetarily. The benefits of this work are not limited to financial benefits, but also spark holistic development in the children. The organization and all the people associated with it are like family to each other, this was one of the reasons I wanted to get involved in the organization.
The duration of 17 July – 9 Sept 2024 consisted of a team of 10 eleventh-grade students from Fountainhead painting tote-bags that had been crafted by the specially-abled children from the organization. This activity was purposed by making the bags more aesthetically appealing for sale. As students skilled with painting and as teenagers aware of the latest design trends, we put our skills and knowledge to work and painted approximately 40 bags made by the children from the organization.
Learning Outcome 3: Initiate and plan a CAS experience
as a co-leader for this experience, I was the member communicating with all the volunteers from school and the founder of the organization, Anu Sharma. As an organizer, I also worked on looking for potential designs to paint on the products. Overall, I honed my organizational and communication skills by demonstrating characteristics of LO3.
Learning Outcome 4: Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
I demonstrated this LO by engaging with the organization for approximately 50 days. Along with the other volunteers, I visited the organization for 3 weekends, spending a minimum of 2 hours working on painting the bags. This helped me get to know the children at the organization better as we spent a lot of time working together- with the children working on making the bags and Fountainhead’s volunteers working on painting the same. I believe this depicts the commitment all the volunteers showed towards the CAS experience.
Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively.
Being part of a volunteer team, I developed my collaborative skills and explored the benefits of collaborative work to achieve a goal. I worked with a lot of different people for this CAS experience, including all the student volunteers and the children from the organization. By collaborating with student volunteers, we were able to paint numerous tote bags to help the children at the organization. By collaborating with the children from the organization, I helped them achieve a personal goal.
Learning Outcome 6: Engagement with issues of global significance
I engaged with a lot of the sustainable development goals including
- Decent Work & Economic Growth
- Reducing Inequality
- Partnerships to achieve the goal
Learning Outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
By engaging in this CAS experience, I learned to consider the ethics of my choices and to reconsider the sources of the products that I consume. I learned how I could benefit various stakeholders by simply changing where I source products from and by buying handmade goods from individuals similar to the ones I worked with, I could not only benefit myself but also them.
Here are some of the bags that Fountainhead’s volunteer group created.
Overall, this was an enriching experience of creativity and service.