My time spent at Jakarta Street Kids was incredible, I met new people and perspectives and I was able to learn so much about how to approach issues in communities and effectively solve them even when facing a pandemic. It was great to finally be able to test my mettle as a communications officer with the pandemic requiring me to always be alert for e mails new projects and documents that need to be seen by other members of the service. Not to mention my part leading a group on the GC website was thoroughly difficult in that I had to not only motivate people who felt despondent towards working in what seemed like futility.

Thankfully, our efforts in bringing in information, volunteers and a new positive attitude helped everyone persevere through the school fundraising competition. In this competition we were tasked with creating an advocacy video, and whichever GC had the best video (as voted by other students) would be granted a 5000$ reward for fundraising. Having learnt about advocacy through my gruelling experience in trying to bring light to the service, I understood that sometimes sentiment is able to communicate a message with much more impact than with statistics. The concept came to me when trying to convince the other students to help me out – by diverting their attention from the depressing statistical viewpoint that they had, I was able to impart a sense of hope in them. So instead of bombarding the video with statistics, I pushed for the inclusion of personal anecdotes from volunteers and the Jakartan children to imbue a sentimental connection that high school students could relate to. Of course I still encouraged the use of statistics and facts to ground the video in reality; but I feel confident in saying we produced an excellent video, because we actually won the competition and helped keep JSK on its feet.

As a communications officer I wanted to take leadership initiative in order to achieve my goal. So I decided that I’d do that relating to one of my responsibilities: the blog. I asked to be able to lead a small group of members in helping get down more information and help me revamp the blog. I feel like this will help consolidate me as a respected authority in the GC and grant me more respect and responsibilities when aiding the GC. Although it was a bit challenging to convince them to help me, as the whole atmosphere of a GC on its last leg was somewhat depressing. This made me question if some people were just in the GC to fill out some requirement more so than to do anything? This ethical issue had burdened me for a while, but by proposing it to the students that were hesitant I managed to convince them – I wouldn’t be a great communications officer anyways if I wasn’t good with my words.

The blog rework went smoothly, I made sure that I wanted everyone’s input so I made sure to listen and gather as much information from around the GC so I could make it as rounded and developed as possible. When gathering information on peoples opinions on the website and information we have, I found that much of the data was old and accompanied by drab web design that did not encourage students to join.

So I wanted to work on fixing how we represent ourselves as I wondered if the GC’d be much better off with a website that encouraged more students to join? I somewhat answered that question by realising that in the seasons following, more and more students started showing up to join the GC. It was great to see that the GC had improved, even if only in one facet.

Having come from very humble beginnings in India, my parents gave me first-hand information about how many people in the world face deep-rooted issues with poverty that prevent them from acquiring basic education or health care. So when the recent pandemic exacerbated this problem, I decided that at the Global Concern (GC) Jakarta Street Kids, I should endeavour to make a substantial difference that went beyond awareness to action. 

At Jakarta Street Kids, we partner with the Jakarta-based organization XSProject to sell their colourful up-cycled products to fund children’s education in Indonesia’s massive trash picker community. Unfortunately, at that moment the pandemic had halted both XSProject and our means of raising funds, which meant the whole project would soon be shut down.

With this daunting challenge at hand, I intended on advocating for the GC. In preparation for taking a leading position in this task I wanted to first acquire respect and authority, so I tried becoming the GC’s communications officer. In the past I had done many services, and in each experience I always leant towards the role of communications officer. I believed that communication was the heart of any functioning system, and a GC essentially relies on the communications officer as the spine of the operation, relaying information internally and externally and always being on alert. As communications officer I was responsible for handling and facilitating many of our meetings and operations. I felt great knowing that other people relied on me and I was able to meet their expectations.  

I had held a meeting with the project’s representative in Jakarta, and I feel like I accomplished a lot. I was able to effectively get a lot of information down, and help organise us as a service into the most effective method of completing this task.

In my service for lighthouse, we’ve recently been granted the ability to have video calls with the school. Although it has been extremely gratifying to finally see the children – even though it’s not face to face – there has been many new challenges produced. Most namely that we now have to plan entire lessons in the little time we have after and before the calls. These lessons require a lot of thought into how we can make it inclusive for all the students and their disabilities, while also making it fun and educational.

In this challenge, we have been forced to rely on one another a lot more than usual, often we have large group brainstorming sessions where everyone’s perspectives are utilised and worked on. Because of this it has been extremely rewarding to be able to work productively with all my new friends on this great cause.

Recently there was a call held between the head of the XS project (the group JSK works with directly), Ibu Retno and. I as communications officer. As great as it was to finally have a concise chat about how well the project is doing over in Jakarta, it was a dreadful 5 minutes constant bad news. We in GC knew the pandemic had hit them, but not this hard. She had said they lost many kids due to families leaving the due to lack of jobs, that they were running low on supplies to produce goods, that the goods barely sell due to the recession. But most devastating was that they only had around 4 months before operations would be completely infeasible.

This was so sad to hear, especially because we couldn’t really do much to help. A competition was just announced. Where each Gc would submit a video about their GC, and the best GC video would be granted 5000$. This was a huge lifeline. Which was why the majority of our group decided to work on this video. Personally I didn’t have a lot of ideas but this competition truly brought out the best from others. I not only got to see the real passion many of my friends had, but also the individual unique abilities each had. Instead of working as a blob of unfocused objectives, we split the process, this allowed for the streamlining of the whole process and ultimate refining of the video. I was the part of direction, and got to see how talented the chairs really are in these sorts of things.

I did handle a bit of the videography and editing, but what was most interesting was the literal explicit text we could put in. We were planning to use foreseeable termination of XS project as our main highlight. But our supervisor said we can’t explicitly claim the project will go under with out this money. This introduced me to the nuanced ethics of this competition, as the aforementioned tactic would be a semi-lie as its not fully grounded in truth. Meaning that it gives us an unfair advantage relative to the other GCs, this unfairness made me think about the other GCs and how unethical it would be to grant us the self importance over problems that are just as cruel other GCs face.

Recently the pandemic limitations on us as a GC have been slightly alleviated. We’ve been granted the ability to conduct Swimdonesia. A usually annual event in which we host an event around people swimming. People get sponsored based on the amount of laps they do, and all of the money generated goes to our GC. It is always a fun event where people get to cool off near the end of the year while also supporting a good cause.

Yet for as fun as the event is, it is also challenging. It requires us to plan and prepare a huge campus wide event that is clear and effective. We planned to do what we did with the video competition, by having the process split up, and having the chairs oversee the entire thing to make sure everything us up to standard.

Currently as communications officer my role doesn’t come until much later, I am in handle of the production and distribution of a trailer of sorts and the general advocation for JSK, so I am with the chairs in overseeing and general planning. Yet even as I’m not directly involved, I’m baffled once again at the individual expertise each person in the group has. It is currently proving to be a fruitful venture.

Right now in my GC: JSK; my role (communications officer) has quickly become one of the most important roles in the group. I have taken on enough responsibility as the chair recently and even conducted some of the leading roles. But firstly a bit of context, although it might not be necessary to mention, the majority of these changes are due to COVID.

In these times not only can we not do much, but the worst thing is that now is when our partner project in Jakarta needs our help the most. Here is a little list of the onslaught of problems they’ve faced, that need our help through fundraising which is currently almost impossible:

• • How are you coping with the pandemic?
    • It depends, they have two departments, the product and the children aspect. The production department can’t sell and there are no orders. But the social side has the kids going to school.
  • How has the problem of the street kids been influenced?
    • Couple years ago there would be a school trip visit, the lack of that has caused some decline in the function of the project.
  • How are the finances?
    • If we do fundraising by selling their products and advocating for XS would be the best for them.
    • Can only last 3 to 4 months with the funds they have left.
  • Are there any new products, or planned products?
    • There are a lot of products they want to get rid of. No new plans for new products.
  • Are products going through any shipping or production problems?
    • The lack of Indonesian students coming to and fro from Indonesia has caused a difficulty in moving stock to SG.
  • How has the rate of new coming kids changed?
    • After the recycling company closed temporarily in the beginning of the pandemic, the company doesn’t really want to buy the trash, so the trash pickers are moving back to their villages taking the kids with them too.

Sitting here in SG doing next to nothing makes me feel terrible about the problems they have, because it has also made me realise that this must be happening to GCs, services and just about any just cause. That is a horrible notion that, right now, can only really be solved by staying safe.

COVID has made it impossible to do anything outside of the bounds of planning and talking. We can barely take any action besides-ironically enough-sending forms on expected fundraising. It is in this state of depravity that we can only plane, and that is why I have started taking on a great workload. I had planned around 5 meetings and sent countless emails for multiple reasons, yet the thing is because these meeting are the only thing we can do. The expectation for me to get them right, and remind people of them are highly present. One of the most important meetings was with the head of the main project we help with overseas, I myself had to have it with her one on one. Because of all these meetings leading to just talk of the future, I wanted to get something done right now. So I insisted on leading a group of some of the members who had nothing to do on reworking the entirety of the GC blog. Although a tedious and large task, I think in only a little bit more time the team and I will have done an exemplary job.

After the first term of service, I think I was completely right in my judgment to pick this service. Whereas most service usually feels like a chore and often leaves me feeling lethargic after, this service effectively has me passionate for its cause both in and out of the sessions; ideas frequently come to me about activities we could do with the children even outside of the sessions. Furthermore, even though the sessions are in a free block, making them longer than the usual lunch break session, yet even then I still don’t get tired of the service.

More importantly is the idea of LO3, which is the planning and executing of a planned experience. This “planning” stage has essentially been much of the first term, as we have yet to meet the children even. Covid has left us feeling a bit disappointed as we’ve only been able to send videos of us reading books and playing just dance in hopes of it entertaining them. But in spite of that, there is a foretold session were we will finally meet the kids. It is this session that I and the rest of the service have been spending a lot of time planning, we’ve thought out much more elaborate and more inclusive activities. This planning took multiple sessions of brainstorming and communication, not only bringing the group closer due to all of us thinking hard about a shared goal, but also allowed us to share our personal ideas for the future.

I felt like choosing this service was a pretty easy choice, as I’ve always been interested in helping in education. It’s the same reason why I chose PPIS the year before, a service where we help teach young children. Although I have no doubt that this service is going to be vastly different to PPIS, due to the students having certain learning disabilities. It’s in this adversity I chose to set my goal, as previously I have never had any experience in assistance with people of disability. Yet I hope that throughout this service I firstly: become confident, comfortable and well versed in these areas, and secondly: take more of a leadership role as a sign of this progress I’ve made.

Due to the lack of any experience with people of disability, I hope that in conducting my own research, and becoming an effective advocate, I will be able to handle the situation where I actually meet one better. Right now I know that I have some contextual strength in educational practices, yet I need to improve my versatility when it comes to assisting people with various types of disabilities.

These hard times in it of itself are going to pose some challenge with the actual physical aspect of teaching. Yet I know that this is an issue not solely relegated to Singapore, so through one of the only methods we have; advocation can help me seek to make some sort of change on this huge issue.

Going into Jakarta street kids I was really excited, because my service interests have always been in helping the unfortunate living in less developed circumstances. That’s why I took The Island Foundation, Moving mountains and I-India. Although I expect this GC to function and challenge me in a similar way to previous GCs I’ve taken, I have no doubt that the circumstances of my IB courses would make it quite difficult to balance the GC’s responsibilities with my academic ones.

So far in the first few sessions we have been getting to know each other, the requirements of the GC and the goals of the GC. Subsequently we have also already appointed the majority of the specialized roles in the GC to willing members, I particularly have taken the role of communications officer. For those who know me, this choice is quite the obvious one, due to it being my role in many of my previous service and GC engagements.

Although it has been fairly slow paced so far with not much being done, I know that it was risky for me to take a service and GC that would last the whole year. Because the IB requires a huge time commitment, and the SATs that I intend to take won’t be too easy either. Yet I was determined to take them not only because of the CAS requirements, but because in my previous experiences with GCs like this I have always felt so accomplished and fulfilled after.

With all these things in mind I have decided to set myself a goal. That goal is: for me to always complete my responsibilities the day I get them. I wanted to set this goal because in previous experiences I have always pushed my responsibilities to finishing them just before the deadline. Yet I know this type of behaviour won’t work with the unforgiving nature of the IB, so I intend to finish all my responsibilities as effectively as possible, to leave myself time later.