Community & Service Final Reflection 2016/2017

As i have approached the end of my IB Community & Service journey i'm taking the opportunity to take a look back at all my accomplishments regarding the field of service. These past 2 years have allowed me to develop new abilities and change my perspective about service in general, although it requires you to work just as hard it also pays off in the end knowing what you did possibly just made someones life a little bit less complicating.

 Creativity 

During my time as a leader of Habitat for Humanities myself along with 2 other members have used our creative thinking to organise and participate in fund raising events as well as social events where interacting with people less fortunate to us becomes a frequent practice. It was our responsibility as CAS leaders to plan each meeting according to what was mentioned in prior discussions, to segregate the service group into different sub groups in order to speed up the work load required etc.
Although our group consisted of 12 people maximum we achieved a lot more than students running this service group years before.

It became important to us as leader to ensure that students of our service group were allowed to leave the confines of school walls and free themselves into an outdoor working activity. Getting the students outside and having them build houses, hear the stories of people struggling to keep a roof under their head, become open to a world yet to be experienced. When working in a CAS group like this acceptance is the most important. Students get to see the conditions many unfortunate people have to deal with during their life, and that buy granting them shelter we already make their lives easier than it is. By helping others we find true happiness in ourselves because their happiness comes from our hard work. Communicating with people of higher power when seeking for help never was strength of mine until i became a leader of my CAS. It became a necessity as constant communication between OSC and Moir was required, teacher and managers of organization, all needed to be contacted for our work to run smoothly. Becoming a leader really helps you develop personal skills you thought you never had.                    
                                                                                    Action: 

I've always been an athlete since a young age. I would say that my involvement in SAISA and sports in general is the most vibrant aspect of my time in the IB program. Growing up transitioning from one sport to another the ability to challenge yourself as an individual in the sports field has always been something i enjoy being a part of. As a whole, during my 8 years here i have participated in over 10 SAISA ranging between Football, Volleyball, Track & Field and Basketball. I have received the MVP award for both Volleyball and Football this year. My goals for Action originally was to do my best at SAISA and break all my personal best timings in Track & Field and the be considered the most valuable player in at least 2 SAISA sports tournaments. I can proudly say that i have achieved these goals and cannot be more satisfied with my participation to the athletics community. I was able to form new friendships at SAISA with people from around the world, i learnt how to take risk, push myself to the limit in training and most importantly learn how to deal with stress during the most important competitions.

Service: 

I was able to give back to the community by promoting the importance of recognising how hard a day to day life was for a person without correct shelter in Sri Lanka. The facilities needed fro them to be independent in public. My goal originally was to spread awareness of the needs of the houseless  and how everyday activities an average person finds easy can be seen completely different from the perspective of someone who struggles to maintain financial stability. Not many people within the OSC community really knew the struggles of someone fighting for financial AID. As a CAS group raising money and building houses became the up most priority, people needed to be aware of all these issues occurring in Sri Lanka. We fight, build, assist these people to better their survival in this cruel country where each day you are struck with unexplainable weather conditions, shortage of clean water supply and obviously the structure of ones house. People who can't afford proper houses divert their attention to us and the organization we associate with (Habitat for Humanity), seeking loans for the reconstruction of their homes is always granted, it became our job to go down to these regions in Sri Lanka and assist local workers build actual houses for the financially poor. It became a blessing to be able to grant someone a better chance at a new future, knowing that people are able to alter the way their life goes just because you helped them can be considered a great achievement. I will miss being a leader for these students as well as a role model, i've participated in CAS for 6 years transferring from different service groups in order to find the one that i truly belonged in. Habitat for Humanity brings hope to individuals, although i am no longer a part of the IB Community and Service program my desire to help people and associate myself with Service related activities will never stop as i will do whatever it takes to make a difference for people and or community. Service you have been greatly appreciated and shall be missed.