Initially, we felt quite challenged by responsibility and task given to us, as we had never planned a trip independently, and had never realised how intricately trips need to be planned. For instance, we had to find a reliable partner in Taiwan for our adventure activities and service, that would be approved by the school in terms of safety. The tasks kept on building up, and we felt slightly overwhelmed.
However, as a group, we soon picked up our pace and began to assign tasks to each other and split up the workload. For example, Hanna helped liaison with Grasshopper Adventures, Yukta booked the hotel, Trisha bought the first aid kit and Judy collected information on Taiwan. This worked well since it meant that more people were contributing. It also helped us get closer as a group since initially, we all didn’t know each other very well.
In terms of contacting the organisation, everything went by pretty smoothly. While other groups around us did not know where to stay, or had trouble getting permission for their activity/service element, we did not have a problem with this. Since it is a tour, we did not have to plan as much as other groups on our own. They were able to come back to us within a day or two, and helped us amend our itineraries.
While the cost of our project does exceed $1000, we believed that this was for the better, since an experience like this does not come knocking on your door everyday. We were able to get permission for this at an early stage, therefore we did not face much difficulty.
In terms of service, the organisation, Grasshopper Adventures, was able to connect us with an NGO (New Dawn Educare Centre). Here, they take care of and entertain people with disabilities. Since we wanted to create a larger impact than we would make just by being there, we decided on creating an infographic and a video that would raise awareness of the issue to the people of our school, as well as invite people to help New Dawn Educare Centre directly. To achieve this goal, we assigned roles to each of us (Hanna and Judy to make the infographic, Trisha and Yukta to make the video), and decided on getting as much information as we can from the people at New Dawn while we are there, as well as collect photos/videos from the organisation (with permission) to make the video.
Group Reflection Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uVE2gaIxzZfUFHbu_1TBtX9bci7R35m-/view
Link to our initial document before getting approved: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bwMDXR41BX6f5IsNpk-KI2e033hxJb0BL3w_MZr647U/edit
Link to our planning document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NM_boWIyvHccc3n4lvhrX3nY6-VAIRTUWujRs0BCN1c/edit
LO 2 CHALLENGE (Undertaken new challenges)
LO3 INITIATIVE (Planning and initiated activities)
LO 5 COLLABORATION (Working together to achieve an outcome)
