reflection service

reflection service

Together with the Dutch group at our school we had a project called Baan Phak Ping were we collect money for. Baan Phak Ping is a small organization in Thailand that provides shelter and education for girls who are sexually abused. The organization belongs to an aunt of one of the people in the Dutch group and so we were sure that the money we collected would get there. In our Dutch group we called it the Thailand project. To introduce the Thailand project to the school, a member of the Dutch group and I made a small presentation. We held the presentation during lunch time so everyone was there. Every time there was a school event or an opportunity to raise money for our project, we took it. We would include our project in standard school events such as Drinks for a Cause or the summer party. We would bake goods for bake sales also to raise money for the project. I really enjoyed helping out and raising money for the project. The girls there deserve an education and a home. The stories of them really got to me and that motivated me more to raise money for the project. I also realised that sexual abuse is still a big problem in some areas of the world. Children and young girls are used sexually to earn money for the family. We as a group collected over 650 euros over the past two years. 

I also helped out by a vet. Before starting the IB I did an internship at the local vet in the town. I enjoyed this so much that I decided that I wanted to help out more after the internship. This became an ongoing activity. I would help out about once a week for a couple of hours by the vet. I would help cleaning, feeding the animals and help out by holding the animals as the vet took blood samples or give injections. I enjoyed this so much because I want to study medicine myself. Every now and then I would also join the vet as he went to help out at an animal shelter. At the animal shelter there we mainly dogs and cats. Most of them did not have a pleasant history, such as being abused or abandoned. I really liked helping out there but I found the animals very sad because some of them would be wounded or very scared. This made me realise that animal abuse is still a big problem and I just could not imagine why someone would do something so horrible to an animal. I was glad that I could take a little bit of the pain away.  

I did the CAS project together with two other classmates. We did our project at a retirement home. We went there for several times and spend time together with the elderly. We would organise, together with the staff of the retirement home, small activities for the elderly. We baked cookies with them, read with them, played games with them and we talked with them. Overall the elderly were really nice and their stories were amazing. I learned something new about the German culture, what typical German food is and how the elderly used to live. I also saw that some of the elderly were really lonely and that they really enjoyed the activities we did with them. I also enjoyed the experience at the retirement home and learned some new skills such as, working better together and improved my public speaking as we did a presentation on our CAS project on a school event. Also I have improved my German because all the activities were in German and we had to work together with the staff in German.  

I enjoyed my overall experience for service. It made me more open-minded and caring. 

I achieved the learning outcomes: undertaking new challenges, planned and initiated activities, working collaboratively with others, Showing perseverance and commitment, engaged with issues of global importance, Consideration of ethical implications and developing new skills.  

Helping out at the retirement home was something completely new for me but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would be. Planning the activities together with my group and the staff of the retirement home were tricky sometimes but we always found a way to work it out. I have realized that animal abuse and sexual abuse are still a big problem and that loneliness with elderly is more common than we think. I definitely improved and developed new skills such as working collaboratively and public speaking.