Our Community service day
Last Friday I started thinking about this CSC experience as a whole. I remembered why I am here and the purpose I set when I submitted my application: Make the difference. Now that I am here and in the last weekend of this experience, I can say my mindset was correct, but that I could never imagine the extension and the depth it would actually mean. Besides professional, pro-bono and making-a-difference extent, CSC is an opportunity to learn more about ourselves.
Today was our Community service day and we went to Udayan Care in Gurgaon, Delhi. This is the time all CSC participants pays back to the community directly so it was very different from these past weeks since for most part of them we have been working with the NGOs representatives and with a minimum focus on the interaction directly with the community, even though it may happen through the NGO.
Udayan Care NGO believes in “a nurturing home for every orphaned child; an opportunity for higher education for every girl, for every adult the dignity of self-reliance and the capability to give back to society” and has been acting directly and indirectly to regenerate the rhythm of life of the disadvantaged. Today we interacted with an arm of this NGO: Udayan Shallini Fellowships, programmed focused on empowering girls in need, having helped more than 6000 girls since 2002.
Our CSC India 38 group was divided in 5 subgroups, having 3 CSC members each. My subgroup was with Carla Granger (IBM US) and Julia Wacker (IBM Argentina) and we addressed two topics with our group of girls: Team building and Importance of Goal Setting. We used some dynamics in form of games to address them:
- Team building: Challenge of biggest tower with straws and tapes. The main goal is to have them work in teams and understand the importance of working together, having the same goal, respect and trust each other and finally see that Together Everyone Achieves More.
- Goal Setting: We first discussed what is a goal, then a SMART Goal video was played, so they could relate to the technique of ensuring their goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based. In order to have them fix the importance of having a goal, we drew a bull eye and with the eyes closed, they were supposed to try to hit the target. This should illustrate how difficult it is to hit the target if you do not have a focus on a specific goal. Then, with eyes opened, they understand that being aware of their goals, ensuring they are SMART, it will be much better to centralize efforts and reach their targets more easily.
All the teams did a great job and I am quite sure all had some fun together. After our dynamics ended, we had some fun dancing. We learned some Hindi and street-dance-hindi dances, and Julia and I also adventured to dance Samba in front of them - It was quite funny.
With this community service day and with all the experience I have been having here in India, I have been challenged to face community issues that sometimes I prefer to close my eyes to. And the ironic part is that the dynamic of goal setting + bull eye was my idea. Seeing those girls making that dynamic made me actually to question myself in different ways as a person and as a citizen. My country is not facing the best moment in political, economical and social aspects and being part of this CSC experience is actually driving me to make something for my country community too. I still don't know how it will be, but with the help of some people I have been talking to, I am quite sure we will be able to do something and finally open my eyes and face this challenge.
