My Social Action project.

When I first started thinking about thinking about what I could do for this project, there were many thoughts and ideas, I knew I would have to wait to see which school I was placed in before I made any decisions. When I arrived to the school on the first day, there were two other students who also needed to complete theirs. We decided to work together and come up with a plan.

We noticed that there was a charity school 'Kingsway Christian School' across the road from the school where we were placed. We realized that this school would be in great need for something, we thought it would be food which was our original fundraising idea. We set up our proposal and presented it to the principal. He told us that we would have to speak to the school to see what their needs are and gave us amazing advice that I will always remember.

Where the journey fully started was when we met with the principal of Kingsway, she explained that their greatest need at this time is Pritt glue sticks, something we never thought of but now realize how important and necessary it is. We created a new proposal which was approved and then the hard work really started. We created newsletters to be sent out to the parents asking to donate Pritt glue, as well as any other second hand stationary. Meanwhile we were also deciding whether or not we should take some of our own learners to do the handoffs. At first the collections were minimal and we started to wonder if it would be successful, that was until the principal had called us in and explained that a parent wanted to donate 3000 Pritt glue sticks! This immediately started getting us excited and eager to work harder on the project, by the end of the fundraiser we collected over R50 000 worth of glue sticks, as well as a lot of stationary, second hand and brand new. It was incredible!

This service learning experience really changed me when we went to drop off our collections. We took 5 learners from each of our classes with to hand out the stationary, read to the learners and really let them engage with others that come from a different socio-economic background. The look on both the principal, staff and learners was truely heartwarming, there were teachers who were tearing up with happiness, thanking God for what he has done and the learners were so excited to recieve the new stationary items! Whilst it all happened I had to keep in my tears, especially after the secetary came to thank me personally and explained that we will never understand how much they really needed these items. To others who are not teachers, might think that a glue stick cannot be that important, although if you think about it, 1 glue stick ranges from R25-R50 and the learners in my own class use about one gluestick every week to two weeks, how is a charity school supposed to afford such a 'luxurious necessity'. The whole experience not only taught me a alot, but also my learners as they realized how privileged they are after speaking to the other learners and seeing what the school looks like. I got many positive emails from parents afterwards stating that it was one of their child's " BEST DAY EVER!" and how they would like to help more people in our community. By teaching learners from a young age what it means to give, will create an environment that will be sustainable to the community as learners will want to help others in order to grow the community.

Professionally, I learnt how to write up proposals, set up meetings, book buses, how to act in a meeting, write newsletters and feedback reports. This whole experience, I can genuinely say was one of the best I have ever had and has made me realize the needs of underprivileged schools in our community. In the future I would like to take part in more projects like these.