Out of all the 8288 recorded homeless people from Gujarat, Surat is accountable to hold the majority of it’s chunk with have over 4 NGOs and homeless shelters. For this CAS project, I wanted to be a helping hand to such homeless people. Over the years, I have seen a lot of homeless people asking for help, and my heart has always been sympathetic towards them. Now, the youth of this generation is said to be the future of this country, thus humanity as well. There are about  7.2 thousand children age 5 -15 in Surat itself, and a minority chunk of them are in my very own society. So making these kids understand the importance of humanity and making them realize their ability to help the helpless is a great step towards improving the future and the present itself.

For this cas project, me and my group wanted to plan some activity for the kids in my society to do which would also benefit in helping the homeless. We organised a food day event in our society where each kid who volunteers will keep one food stall and sell one or more food items for only 10/- a plate and all the profit money will then be donated to ‘manav uthan seva samethi’ which is an NGO that helps the homeless people in the city by providing them with a shelter and food.

Here, in this CAS project I have demonstrated LO2 (Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills) as working on this cas project was not only very eye opening for me but also helped me understand circumstances and how to work out problems. While doing this CAS project there were a few problems that had arise, such as it was hard to make everyone co-operate and understand everyone at the same time. One problem was that one of the person who was keeping the food stall did not want to follow the vegetarian food code that was mandatory, so the team tried to talk to the person making her understand how some people may not be okay with non-veg food and we were able to make the person agree.

I have also demonstrated LO3 ( Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience) Initiating this CAS experience was not as easy as I thought it would be. First I had to plan the entire CAS out, and to start with I had to approached people from my society who would volunteer to be in my group for this CAS project and people who would want to take part in the fun fair day, because working together with people is better for this project. And then I had to contact an NGO where I could donate the money that we would obtain from the fun food day event. With everything planned, I contacted my society head asking if me and group could make this fun food day happen. With getting all the required permissions and approvals, we were able to successfully hold the fun food day event.

Here I have demonstrated LO5 ( Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively) Working together has always been the best option in most projects. It was very beneficial to have a group help me plan and execute this cas project as it required a lot of preparations and approvals to be done. Total of 6 group members and about 23 participants, making this fun food day event (project) happen was a lot easier. I had divided all the work among the 6 of our group member, including me, where one was to be in charge of setting up the stalls a day before the event, another was in charge of approving the food items the participants would be selling on each stall, third one was in charge of any on day preparations, another was to be in charge of collecting all the profit money for the donation, another one was in charge of inviting all the society members personally to the event and another was in charge of taking all the permissions and approvals of heads (ngo and society head), to make sure everything goes smoothly. This experience was truly eye opening as it made me realize how much effort and work goes into just planning and executing a single event and how fun it is at the same time.

Here I have also demonstrated LO6 (engagement with issues of global significance) Poverty and hunger is one the most significant factors to take care of in order to help the world grow into a better place. The whole motive of this food day event was to be able to donate all the profit money to an NGO that takes care of the homeless and provides them with shelter and food. Being able to help and engage with significant global issue was a blessing. Knowing that the money we will donate will be used for a good cause, that is helping the homeless, is just very astonishing. We collected all the food money that was raised at the event and we donated all of that money to ‘manav uthan seva samethi’ which is an NGO that helps the homeless people in the city by providing them with a shelter and food. We raised this money for a good cause that is also a global issue, as there are people in need everywhere, homeless and hungry people who are helpless and need help, and me and my team where happy to offer our help as we could.

Here I have also demonstrated LO7 ( Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions) My morals and ethics have been grown to understand that helping people who need help is something that is very important. Knowing that you have the ability to help a helpless person and being a helping hand for a better cause is a blessing. My actions of donating the profit money from the fun food day is going to change lives of some who dream to be in a better place physically and mentally, even if the money only helps them for a day, knowing that my actions and my choice of ethics is helping someone sleep under a roof and gives them a meal makes me feel blessed and motivates me to help even more.

For this CAS project, I am aligning 2 SDGs with my project that is ‘Good Health and Well-being’. I chose Good Health and Well-being because the mission statement for this SDG is “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” which aligns to my project as the donation that we have made from the money me and my group made, was donated to an NGO who take care of the homeless and people in need, which ensures their well-being as they are provided with basic necessities to survive such as food and shelter, which also promotes the SDG ‘Good Health and Well-being‘ by supporting the mission of the SDG and ensuring to execute it as well.

For this CAS project, I am showcasing the learner profile caring as I am showing empathy, compassion and respect towards homeless people where I have commitment to the service of donation that me and my team has done and we have tried to create a positive difference in the lives of these homeless people who are around us.

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