Service . Action . Creativity: Week Without Walls

"Week Without Walls" (WWW) is a programme devised to Promote the core principles of CAS. It not only promotes community service but also action and creativity. Having taken part in the programme over the last two years, I was keenly looking forward to our week in Hambantota (8/2/2010 --12/2/2010). Our grade was divided into two groups to paint two pre-schools. Our group planned the mural before we left on the trip. Working collaboratively becomes critical for projects such as these. Hence we decided that the creative lot in our group would work on the mural while others like me would finish up painting walls (both inner and outer), doors, floors, play equipment and also to a mural on one of the walls of the assigned pre-school. We pooled in money (each student of grade 11 gave Rs.1000), with which we bought gifts such as back packs, pencils, dolls, t-shirts among other things, for the little kids studying in the pre-school and on the morning of 8 February, we were off to to Hambantota which lies close to the southern tip of Sri Lanka.

For the next 3 days we painted the pre-school that we were assigned from morning to evening (9am to 4pm). I was incharge of painting walls, one of which was the largest interior wall and also doors. Not being the most creative person on our team, I was not assigned the mural work but I would like to stress upon the fact that the architect that designs a building need not have the capability to paint the mural inside the building. I learnt that we need to sand before we actually paint and also that the painting starts looking good only after second coat. Painting the walls with roller brushes and achieving a smooth finish is artistic too. Deciding the colour combinations to paint the doors is artistic too. I am especially proud of the doors that I painted and loved my colour combinations. I had never performed this kind of task and I leant new skills like stripping, sanding and painting during the week. I was happy thinking that the children are going to have a cheerful learning environment, once we completed the work. This I see as the Creative aspect of our WWW.

I took great pleasure in painting the walls and doors even though it was physically challenging. Working for hours on end was exhausting but this clearly is the action part of our CAS requirement. Playing golf and running in the gym pale in comparison to the physically stressful job of painting.

However, Community service is at the heart of WWW. It was an amazing feeling to make a real difference to the learning environment of underprivileged children. The hours they spend in school are going to be more pleasurable due to the painting job we did. That somehow made all the exhaustion worthwhile and compelled me to do my best work. Ofcourse, the children are so young that they would not be excited only by our painting. We gave them the gifts we took and each day we played for about an hour with them. We conducted games and the joy on the faces of those little children was the reward we reaped that week. We put up a concert for the kids and puppet show was one that the kids loved and the children in turn put up a show for us which I would say was the cream of the cake. The village community was very appreciative and they treated us with local goodies. Our team worked wonderfully well and each and every one did their best. The co-operative spirit was evident through out the week.

I strogly believe that community service should not be only about donating money to a charity oraganization. This Project supports my belief and it was one of the many reasons for me to consider our WWW, a success. I was able to give my time and energy to make a small difference and I consider that as good progress towards making a tangible difference to the community. This experience raised my social awareness on the inequalities in society and the hardships experineced my certain classes for basic amenities like a pleasant school atmosphere. Hence, service to community will remain a top priority in my future.

One of the outside walls that I worked on