One of the tourist attractions in the city of Surat is “Dumas beach”. People often visit the beach on weekends and even on weekdays. The beach is also known for its mysteries which we can ignore. People often pollute the beach by throwing plastic bags and alcohol bottles. This really has an impact on the beach water and the local people who live near the beach. Pollution has always been an issue since the earth was discovered. We often pollute our public places which lead to climate change, natural disasters etc. I wanted to make a change/clean the dumas beach. I initiated a plan for cleaning the dumas beach with my friends.
My goal was to help “SMC” to clean the dumas beach. I wanted to help them as I firmly believe that it is our responsibility to maintain cleanliness in public places and CAS gave me an opportunity to serve the community and moreover our environment.
LO 3-Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience-
Organizing my work,team and planning which areas we need to clean. Organization is very much important to have a successful event. We need to organize ourselves, make a plan and execute it. Planning was difficult because the dumas beach is such a huge land and we didn’t had that many people or time to clean the whole beach. We had to plan and look for places where people often visit. More people means more trash so it was difficult for us to plan the area we want to clean. I feel in the future initiating the plan would be much easier because of the experience, I know which areas are more likely to be dirty and need more attention. This helps to divide the team as per the requirement.
LO 4-Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Beach cleaning is one activity where you definitely need commitment and perseverance as no one is there to supervise you or even monitor your work but we have to be committed from inside and clean the beach by ourselves. To be honest there were moments where I was so tired because of the sun and so much of trash, I wanted to leave and quit but I remembered my goal and it reminded me why I took this as my CAS experience. I showed commitment and cleaned the beach. It was tough, time consuming but I showed my character and did it.
LO 5-Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Working in a team or as a group is one of my strengths. I easily gel with other people and I can work collaboratively. Dumas beach is a huge land and I can’t clean it all by myself so I took help from my friends and we worked as a team. We took each area of land we had to clean. We were 3 members and each member had to clean 3 areas of land so in total 9 areas of land we cleaned on Dumas beach. Teamwork is really important as cleaning the whole beach by one person is not an easy thing. We needed people, we needed support and motivation from our friends. Leadership is very much important as someone has to put their hand up and give instruction and lead the group to ultimate success.
LO 6- Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
With no doubt, pollution is a global issue and it leads to many natural disasters. Polluting the beach has many disadvantages like the water pollution, plastic material harms our environment, it doesn’t decompose. CAS helped me to contribute in a change of global issue. We need to change our actions and put in work to clean our beaches. Cleaning our beach and keeping it clean helps our environment. It made us proud of ourselves as we are responsible citizens of the country we contributed to a global issue.
To sum up, I am really proud of myself for cleaning the beach. I developed a communicator and principled throughout my CAS experience as I was constantly communicating in my group, I was giving instruction and motivating them whenever they were tired. I was also being honest with my goal and I didn’t quit halfway, I completed my task and then only went home. I learned that we shouldn’t use plastic bag or throw away trash anywhere as it leads to pollution. This helped the community and moreover our environment as we cleaned the beach.
Evidence –
