Our service has been faced with challenges from the start due to our inability to meet the members of the centre face-to-face. We continue to film pre-recorded videos, and have been branching out to new ideas, such as interviews and fable reciting, with aim of keeping our partners entertained and interested in what we are doing. It’s definitely been a challenge to stay motivated, especially due to the lack of feedback that we were receiving from the centre for a while. However, I definitely think that our team work and collaboration skills have improved, and that our persistence has helped us throughout the experience. As a group, we’ve been able to keep each other motivating and always work our hardest to create videos that would be enjoyable to watch and that are suitable for the audience intended. We continue taking on different roles, as we have to plan, film, and edit the videos as a team.

After Movember was over, we haven’t been as busy considering that it was our biggest and main event of the year. Our GC is now focusing on smaller projects, such as raising awareness on the different issues related to cancer.  I’m currently working on a project with my group that aims at educating the rest of the school on the socio economic factors that may get in the way of cancer treatment. I love working collaboratively with the rest of the GC, as we all learn a lot from each other and are able to come up with many creative ideas as a group. Although there isn’t as much going on at the moment, I’ve stayed persistent and committed to the GC, trying to still come up with interesting ways to keep the GC going til the end of the year.

We’ve already completed Movember and I’m so happy with how it turned out. We obviously did have to overcome a few obstacles due to the covid situation, as there were certain things that we were no longer able to do (such as bake, which was initially one of the main sources of donations). Nonetheless, we managed to raise a very large amount of money for the CPAA, which was enough to fully cure approximately 15 cancer patients in India. I’m so proud of what we’ve managed to accomplish as a group, and it definitely does feel extremely rewarding to see the impact that we’ve managed to have on these less fortunate kids. It was overall a great experience, and I’m really glad that I got to take part in this project. Learning about these children was a great eye opener on this world, and I’m considering joining a Focus Group next season in order to educate myself more on these different topics.

LO3. An experience that you will initiate and plan

LO7. An experience that will involve consideration of ethical implications

LO7. During our second session of service, we completed a total of 4 topics aimed for volunteers who will be working with people who have disabilities. Here, we learnt about the different types of disabilities, the barriers faced by those with disabilities, and the “Do’s and Don’ts” for when interacting with them. I found this e-learning very useful, as I had never been educated on this specific topic, therefore never knew much of it. I will definitely keep everything that I have learnt into consideration when we get to start interacting with them online, which I am very excited about!

LO3. Each video call and prerecorded video will be planned a week in advance by the students in the service. This is done in groups of 2 that will be rotating each week. When planning the sessions with my partner, I will need to keep into consideration what will be suitable or not for the people we are working with. I would also need to make sure that we get everything planned on time, which would be a week prior, in order to avoid any confusion. I will try my best to plan enjoyable sessions for both us and the people we will be meeting, as it would be great of everyone could have a great time.

I had my first cancer awareness meeting this week. As a group, we started to think of the different ways in which our GC could advertise for Movember. We’re trying to do this as effectively as possible as we want it to be stuck on everyone’s mind in the next coming month. Movember is an annual event in which men grow their mustaches in order to raise awareness on various male health issues. It’s very nice working in such groups, as you feel like everyone in the GC is on the same team as we are all here to support the same cause.