Action/Service: My last Habitat build

On the 25th of February, I went on my last habitat build :( We went to Indivitiya Jaela and met with three families who were grateful to receive our help on the construction and maintenance of their houses. I have been on quite a few builds over the past two years and for the most part of those builds we helped lay the cement for the floor. For the first time though, on this build, we were asked to do the opposite - break up a cement floor. This proved quite difficult, but with the help and instruction of some of the locals, I was able to better understand the technique needed to break up the floor in an efficient manner, hence allowing me to develop new skills. All in all, we worked well together as a team and got a lot of work done. The families whom we had helped appeared to be very appreciative of the work we had put in, making all our aches and pains worth it in the end.

Service/Creativity: Charity Chic Fashion Show 2012!

On the 11th of February, the community service group Hope For Kids held a Fashion Show to raise funds for the Children's ward of the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. I participated in it by modelling a variety of Sri Lankan designers clothing for an audience of teachers, students, parents and friends. Through doing this I definitely undertook a new challenge, that of modelling. Performing onstage is not in the least bit new to me but the challenges and specificaties that arise out of modelling sure were. I was engaged with an issue of global importance, that of cancer and the fight against it. In order to put on the best fashion show we could, therefore raising more funds, we had to show perseverance and commitment in this activity as we met on a regular basis in the weeks leading up to the fashion show. In addition, I worked collaboratively with others as this was key to the success of the final show. In the end, a significant amount of money was raised for this fantastic cause through this fashion show by Hope for Kids. The final amounts were (approximately): 400,000 rps from tickets and about 350,000 from sponsors with a final total amount of 750,000 rps.

I am really glad I participated in this event because not only did I get to contribute to improvements in the children's ward of the hospital, but I also got to have fun doing it!

Service: Cookies and Candy Canes on Sale for a Good Cause!

As a sort of part 2 to our successful collection of shoes and monetary contributions during the Primary Movie Event and then donation of them to students at Moratumulla Methodist High School and Moratuwa Kadalana R.C School, we decided to raise funds for a new good cause that came to our attention. Over the past couple of months our Habitat for Humanity team has helped build and complete a house for a blind family. We felt particularly attached to this family and thus chose to help some more by contributing to their home furnishings and appliances for which they were in desperate need. To do so, while keeping in mind the approaching christmas holidays, we decided to bake and sell cookies as well as candy canes to the students and teachers at OSC. We planned and initiated this activity during our habitat for humanity meetings and showed perseverance and commitment in this activity as the leaders met regularly to discuss our progress and I sent an email to the school and parents detailing what we wished to achieve with this fundraiser. We chose to sell our cookies and candy canes from the 12th to the 15th of december (right before winter break) during break time, lunch and after-school so as to raise maximum profits. Camille and I spoke during assembly the previous week as an additional effort and reminder for everyone to contribute to our cause. We all worked collaboratively with one another over the course of this process of collecting funds and in the end it really paid off, literally (we raised 74,000 rps. , 74o$)!

Service: Donation of shoes

On the 22nd of November, Camie, Damien, Ahmed, Mr. Riehm and I drove over to the Habitat for Humanity offices and officially turned over the shoes we had collected from the Primary Movie Event. By following through with our goal of organising a movie night in order to collect shoes and in the end donating these, we have shown perseverance and commitment in our activities, in addition to working collaboratively with others. They were very appreciative and although we were unable ourselves to pass on these shoes to the students at Moratumulla Methodist High School and Moratuwa Kadalana R.C School, because of school schedule restrictions, it was clear that this simple gesture of collecting shoes would make a big difference in the lives of these students. Thus, we left the offices content with our work and eager to continue our work towards improving the quality of life of those in need.

Action: Yoga

Twice a week on Monday and Thursday nights, I attend a yoga class with my mom. By doing yoga I am undertaking a new challenge as this type of exercise was previously unfamiliar to me. These yoga classes last one and a half hours and each class has a different goal. Often we focus on a single body part that needs stretching and relaxation, such as the back, the legs, the arms, etc... We also do rain and sun salutations which build strength and increase flexibility.

Creativity: UN Day Performance

On the 14th of October, OSC held its annual UN Day celebration, which underlines the importance of multi-culturalism, a prominent factor at OSC. At the end of the day we held an assembly and a few of us performed "We are the World". This song was chosen because as students and children, it was appropriate, in addition to being able to be sung in several different languages, a bonus as international students. We each sang a verse in a different language-Nadeera (Sinhala), Camie (Spanish), Chrisni (Mandarin), Mo (Thai) and I (French) and then sang the verse together in English with the help of the audience. As a group we met up several times for rehearsals and through this I worked collaboratively with others and showed perseverance and commitment in my activity.

Service: Primary Movie Event

On the 23rd of September, the OSC CAS group, Habitat for Humanity held a primary movie event. Camie, Damien and I, as leaders of this group, organised this for weeks before-hand. The idea for this event started when a Habitat for Humanity correspondent of ours emailed to notify us that it would be very much appreciated if we could find some way of donating shoes to the under-privileged children in the Moratuwa area of Sri Lanka. We thought about what a great cause this was and decided that the best way of collecting a large number of shoes would be a primary movie event. Part of our preparation for this event included: buying popcorn and juice to give out to the primary students, sending an email out to the primary parents and teachers giving them all the details of the event (i.e. if no shoes are donated than a ticket can be bought for 300rps.), giving an announcement during the primary assembly, setting up big mats on the floor of the auditorium and checking that the movie worked with the projector.

Although we found the start of the event quite chaotic since a lot more primary students attended our event than we had expected, we managed well with the help of a couple primary teachers. In the end the event was actually quite a success; we collected 55 pairs of shoes, raised 18500 rps.(185$) and were told that the primary students who had attended had really enjoyed themselves. By organising this event for a good cause, I have been engaged with issues of global importance.