Teaching poor kids

Date: 4 September to 8 October 2013

Criteria of CAS – Service

Approximate time - 8 hours

Venue – D Y Patil International School, Nagpur

“The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.” – Aristotle

Our CAS coordinator introduced this activity to us, believing we can help our society. Teaching is a great service in itself, and educating poor children is one of the best thing you can for our society. We planned the activity with her, she divided us into groups and gave us responsibilities of different classes.

4 September 2014

I was very excited for this because this was my first teaching experience of my life. We welcomed the tiny tots by giving flowers to them. As today was the first class, I introduced myself and spoke to the children about their interest (just to get comfortable with them). I asked them what they have learnt till now. They didn’t even knew alphabets correctly. So I started with alphabets and gave them homework, to rewrite what we studied in today’s class. Today I gave 2 hours for this activity.

17 September 2014

I was happy that they did their homework. Today I taught them numbers. I was an amazing experience, watching these small kids learning and understanding everything so fast. I taught easiest application of numbers, counting things. I took few cubes and made them count the number of the cubes. We also showed them educational stories and explain them moral of the story. I am very committed to this job now. Today I gave 2 hours for this activity.

24 September 2014

I planned the activities for today. I wanted them to learn the most important factor of education, application. I started with the mathematcis, with help of cubes I taught them addition and subtraction. I gave few simple sums for homework. Today I gave 2 hours for this activity.

1 October 2014

Today I cleared the difficulties they in their homework. We taught them painting and craft. They painted with happiness and passion. They all made a hand print with paint. Today was a day of fun plus studies. Today I gave 2 hours for this activity.

8 October 2014

Today, I took their test on what I have been teaching, alphabets and numbers. My students were very much scared because of test. But they all scored good grades. After that I taught them simple words, like apple, ball, cat, dog etc. They learnt everything with ease. By this activity I have also learned something that talent can be found anywhere. If these kids get educated, they can become great personalities. Everything is about resources, I am thankful to school for giving us this opportunity to do such great work. Teaching is a new skill I have developed. I hope I will continue teaching these kids and help them become good human beings.  This was a new challenge I undertook. Today I gave 2 hours for activity and completed 8 hours.

Learning Gardening

Date: 1 - 6 October 2013 

Criteria of CAS – Service

Approximate time - 8 hours

Venue – D Y Patil International School, Nagpur

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.” - Luther Burbank

1 October 2014 : Gardening is a very popular hobby and people do it to connect with nature. In our school campus we have a huge garden area. Our CAS coordinator suggested that we should learn gardening, as it makes us a better human being. So we planned the activity and asked our gardener and Vijaylaxmi ma'am to be our mentors. With our two mentors we today spent 2 hours in this activity. Our gardener gave us a round of whole garden area and explained how everything is done. As our first day we learnt technique of pulling out weed from our garden. I believe gardening is a new skill I am developing.

Our School's Gardener

2 October 2014: Today I learned about planting saplings. Our gardener took us to the empty are of our garden. He taught us how it is done.

1] Take a suitable shovel and dig a hole that is 4-5 times the width of the root ball, more than enough so it will fit, and give room for the fresh roots to grow without stress. This lets the roots ease in more easily and begin to grow outwards into the soil. No need to cut off the wire root basket if there is one, the roots will grow through and it will prevent damage to the root ball during planting.

2] Place the sapling into the hole gently. Be sure the hole isn't too deep or too shallow. The ground level of the plant in the pot should match up with the ground level after you fill the hole in. Do not bury the sapling or leave any roots exposed.

3] Refill the soil and water it.

3 October 2014: Today I learned how to take care of Bedded flowers.

First thing we need to do is protect them from pests.

Second thing important thing is protecting them from sunlight. Most of the flowers don’t need sunlight, so excess of sunlight can harm your hard work.

Third thing is pulling out weed. Weed can take all resources from your flowers and can make them dry.

Forth important thing is deadhead, prune and disbud. We need to cut the over grown branches and cut excess flowers.

Today I spent 2 hours in this activity.

6 October 2014: Today I learned how to cut grass from the lawn. Our gardener a lawn mower, taught us how to push it and move it all around the lawn. It was a herculean task and  to move that lawn mower, as it is very heavy and after sometime grass get stuck in it. Today we worked for 2 hours.

Medical Camp

Activity Started - 9:30 am

Activity Ended - 2:30 pm

Approximate Time - 5 hours

Criteria of CAS - Service

“Next us” a group of young men who always volunteer to help the poor, this guys are not rich by money but by heart, organized free Medical Camp for poor people which was sponsored by no one but them and we students of D. Y. Patil International School volunteered and participated to help them for organizing the event and assisting doctors.

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'” - Brian Tracy

The Camp was set-up on Plot no. 07, Sonegaon, Nagpur; I reached there by my cycle. As everybody got there “Next us” members divided us and gave us our duties, my job was to assist Dr. Preeti Meshram she is an Ophthalmologist (a doctor specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases). First I helped her to set-up clinic for her by keeping chairs and table and pasting eye-check charts on walls and keeping all things she need for check-up. We started and there was a long queue of people holding forms, waiting for their check-up. The first patient we got his problem was Farsightedness, he was not able to see objects from a distance so we check till what extend he has spoiled his eye sight for that vision correction problem she gave him eye-drop Tobra D and wrote him the lens number then I guided him to Mr. Irfan who was writing names and lens number of people who need spectacles, which will be distributed on 14/10/13.

This went for a while patients came and went but soon we met with man who is suffering from cataract (a clouding of the lens inside the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. It is the most common cause of blindness and is conventionally treated with surgery.) So we did the check-up and finally Dr. Meshram decided that his problem is very big and he need an operation or otherwise he is going to be blind so I added his name in list of operations he was first in that list, I felt very bad for that poor old man because I knew he didn’t have money for operation but soon my tension was released after I heard that “Next us” group has organized free operation facility for poor and needy.

I also had job of guiding patients to clinic and introducing them to Ma’am. I and Ma’am attended many patients with Farsightedness, Nearsightedness, Cataract, Night blindness, Lazy eye, Red eye and Color blindness. Commonly people had Farsightedness and Nearsightedness. Some patients’ vision was so bad that couldn’t even see the chart on the wall. But after so many patients we were visited by a teenager who had Scotoma also known as blind spot (an area impairment of vision surrounded by a field of relatively well-preserved vision.) so Ma’am recommended her for operation but after that also she will not have full vision just she will have some more clear vision. This was going-on and-on and I was tired and thought of giving up but then I saw the “Next us” guys working without a sweat, I got inspired from them and gathered all my strength and started working. One more thing inspired me was face of those indigent people who were waiting and asking for help which they are asking from 66 years to our government, I thought somebody has to stand up for this people so why not me.

We were also visited by many children of age 3-10 having different eye diseases I was mournful but Ma’am was looking focused and clam might because it is her day-to-day job if it is so she is doing great as an Ophthalmologist. Some visits were of old-aged people who were argumentative, restless and sometimes irritating keep on asking same question but it is not their fault because they are not educated.

This was an awesome and never before experience I have learned many things like helping people, showing responsibility towards the needy, medical treatment should be free, vision is one the most precious things in life. Through this activity I engaged with issues of global importance.

“If you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things.”