Eric Jivraj

At Global Encounters in Kenya - Nairobi, we were split into groups and each group were assigned a service site, mine was a primary school, we went there for 7 days in a row as a team, trying to understand where some of the needs of this place would be, we observed and gathered around enough information to decide that what they needed was:

- Computer Literacy, given the fact they only had 1 computer for the entire school and not everyone could use it at the same time obviously;

- A… Show more

At Global Encounters in Kenya - Nairobi, we were split into groups and each group were assigned a service site, mine was a primary school, we went there for 7 days in a row as a team, trying to understand where some of the needs of this place would be, we observed and gathered around enough information to decide that what they needed was:

- Computer Literacy, given the fact they only had 1 computer for the entire school and not everyone could use it at the same time obviously;

- A playground, given the fact they had a huge amount of landscape but nothing more than that;

- Motivation, the kids didn't feel like the school was their home and they didn't take it seriously, therefore they would put in to effort no motivation at all;

To work around these issues and to try and solve them in a sustainable and long-term impact way we did the following:

- Made a partnership with the aga khan academy of nairobi which was nearby the school, the partnership consisted in having the students of the primary school go there 2/3 times per week to have computer literacy classes in their classrooms as they have a high number of computers in their classrooms;

- We painted some tires and digged some holes, and then we burried all the tires half down and left the other half up, in the end of it we had created an amazing playground for them to play around;

- We helped paint a wall of the school and had the kids handprint with paint on the wall and bellow it with a marker have them write their dream or goal to achieve in order to develop more motivation of them towards the school. Show less

At Global Encounters in India - Hyderabad, we were split into groups and each group were assigned a service site, mine was a a boys hostel, we went there for 5 days in a row as a team, trying to understand where some of the needs of this place would be, we observed and gathered around enough information to decide that what they needed was:

- Playground, they had a lot of landscape but nothing more than that;

- Motivation, they thought that given their reality, they shouldn't have… Show more

At Global Encounters in India - Hyderabad, we were split into groups and each group were assigned a service site, mine was a a boys hostel, we went there for 5 days in a row as a team, trying to understand where some of the needs of this place would be, we observed and gathered around enough information to decide that what they needed was:

- Playground, they had a lot of landscape but nothing more than that;

- Motivation, they thought that given their reality, they shouldn't have goals or be allowed to aim high, they thought that in some way they were hopeless.

What we did to change or solve these issues was:

- We noticed that since it was a boys hostel, all the boys had one thing in common, they loved sports, and also, they loved football, but they couldn't play much since there wasn't much of a football field and also they weren't really aware of how it should be played following certain rules and ethics, so we built goalies, and we marked the limits of the field and turned their playground in to a football field, and then we taught them how to play and we played with them, explaining them rules and ethics of football;

- We supplied them with books, blankets, pillows;

- Motivation was lacking, most of these kids either didn't have both parents or only had one of them, they didn't get much attention from them aswell, they lacked motivation, so we painted a wall in the hostel and painted a tree on it, with several different branches, and then using the kids handprints in several different colors we had their handprints in each of the branches, and with a marker we wrote what they aimed to be professionally in the future, in order to feel proud of their hostel and more confortable with this place, we also gave a huge and important motivation core session in order to explain them how important it was for them to go to school, to not miss it and to make sure they would give their best to the school so they could achieve more in life. Show less