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Mission R - Final Report

Final Report

Group Members

Name Class Role

ABC ABC Team Leader

ABC ABC Publicity I/C

ABC ABC Programmes I/C

ABC ABC Secretary-Treasurer

Mentor: Yee Weng Hong (Mr)

Beneficiary

Ramakrishna Mission Boys' HomeCharity No: S89CC0666H

The Ramakrishna Mission Singapore is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India, a worldwide spiritual and welfare organization. Beyond holding religious festivals, it runs a counselling centre, a boys’ home for troubled youth, and a kindergarten.

Its boys’ home, the Ramakrishna Mission Boys' Home, aims to “facilitate the building of a good relationship between the boys, their parents and the Home”.

The boys, who are all Indian, range from those of school-going age to working-class youth. The home serves as a haven to these boys, most of whom are there due to the absence of friendly home environments (some are from broken families).

1. Learning Objectives

A. Organize and participate in a service learning project to appreciate the merits of serviceB. To learn to cater to the needs of various sectors in society, especially the underprivilegedC. To develop skills such as teamwork, leadership and time management; and to learn to

mediate between and liaise with multiple stakeholdersD. (For both OT and volunteers) To be able to empathize with others, even though their life

experiences may be vastly different from our own

2. Service Objectives

● Raise awareness for Ramakrishna Mission, its causes and its beneficiaries


● Provide the student body with a chance to develop their cultural quotient by learning about a different culture

● To teach the boys at the Ramakrishna Mission Boys’ Home the basics of photography, and let them take pride in their work

● To teach the boys the basics of Frisbee, adding to their repertoire of games, with the aim of:o Teaching them the value of sportsmanshipo Encouraging them to lead active, healthy lifestyleso Allowing them to have fun in the process of learning

3. Executive Summary

Racial Harmony Day Booth

In order to raise awareness for the Mission – and as part of our attempts to garner volunteers for our other activities – we decided to set up a booth in the Inner Plaza of HCI on Racial Harmony Day, which fell on 21st July. While we initially planned for it to be held for only two days, we extended the duration of the exhibition to a week.

We believed this would tie in nicely with the larger theme of racial and religious harmony; seeing as the school population is predominantly Chinese, while the boys at the Home come from vastly different racial and religious backgrounds, this would be a prime opportunity to let our schoolmates appreciate the diversity inherent in our society.

On the advice of our SL mentor, we contacted the 2nd Student’s National Education Council to arrange to have a booth set up alongside their exhibition on Racial Harmony Day as they booked the inner plaza for that period, and thankfully, the Council graciously agreed.

In addition to the logistical concerns of booking the boards and ensuring that our exhibition was placed in a visible spot, our role in the preparation of the exhibition involved drafting writeups on the issue of broken families, the role of the Ramakrishna Mission in solving these objectives, the goal of our SL project, as well as how our schoolmates could help us and the mission in their own ways. The Ramakrishna Mission provided assistance by providing valuable information about their home, and ensuring that the materials that discussed their group specifically were representative of their goals and their views.

While there were some hiccups with publicity as our booth initially did not receive as many visitors as we hoped, and that the booth was actually shifted to the area outside auditorium on the morning of the second day, the awareness of the exhibition eventually improved thanks to a morning announcement as well as an EMB message posted on the day of the exhibition.

Through the exhibition and the handouts that were prepared, a number of schoolmates were aware of our project and the mission itself. A few of these schoolmates would later aid our project in various ways, one of which was the loaning of their own digital cameras to us for use in conducting the photography sessions.


Pictured: The Racial Harmony Day Booth on display

Frisbee

While some of the boys at the home already play outdoor games like soccer, we felt there was greater scope for them to lead active and healthy lifestyles, and that the introduction of a new sport would be a rather interesting learning experience for them.

We contacted members of Hwa Chong’s very own Ultimate Frisbee team, who were only too willing to come down on the 4th and 5th of August 2014 to teach the boys the basics of the sport.

Each of the two sessions lasted about 1.5 hours in the afternoon, during what would usually be the boys’ free time. Sessions began with drills and practices, which also served as a platform for the boys to warm up to the volunteers. Following that, the volunteers split the boys into teams, making sure to account for varied skill levels, and organized rounds of competitive play among the boys. Members of the OT were present to facilitate the sessions as well, making sure no boys were left out and helping to keep time. Staff from the home were also present to handle difficult situations – such as boys who preferred to keep to themselves rather than play – and to pre-empt and defuse possible conflicts.

By the end of each session, there was a noticeable increase in the skill level of the boys. Some were already quite competent in the sport, and proved quite a challenge from the volunteers from the Frisbee team; while those who were not as sporty had at least gained a greater familiarity with basic throws and catches. More importantly, most, if not all of the boys showed great enthusiasm while playing; yet the session was light-hearted, with exemplary displays of sportsmanship from the boys and almost no conflicts occurring.


The volunteers hit it off quickly with the boys as well, becoming like older brothers to them. They were constantly attentive to the needs of the boys, giving one-on-one coaching to those who needed it and creating chances for the younger boys during competitive play. Furthermore, as far as possible, they tried to ensure nobody was left out during the games; and when one particularly introverted boy refused to participate in the matches, the volunteers made an effort to engage him one-on-one instead. Beyond simply learning to be attentive to the needs of others, the volunteers learned to interact with those of other races and walks of life, and were sensitive to their unique cultural contexts.

Pictured: Volunteers from HC Ultimate Frisbee and OT members (we were unfortunately prohibited from taking photos of the boys)

Photography

Apart from conducting sports sessions, we hoped to impart aesthetic skills to the boys as well, by introducing them to the art of photography. To make the content of the lessons more accessible, we engaged the photographic society to assist us in teaching the boys the basics of taking good pictures.

The cameras we used were basic instant digital cameras that were easy to use, as the learning curve was sufficiently gentle as we did not know the extent to which the boys were acquainted with photography. As obtaining the cameras was a significantly larger logistical hurdle due to the cost of the cameras, our cameras were obtained by submitting a loan request to the school's Tech Hub with the aid of our project mentor, ABC, from the volunteers from the photographic society, as well as


from a few gracious schoolmates who were kind enough to lend us their cameras after seeing the message posted on the EMB.

On the 6th of August, our volunteers from the photographic society joined us to conduct a one-time session with the boys that lasted for about 3 hours. The sessions consisted of brief lessons regarding various photographic techniques, where the lesson plan was drafted by the society, with hands-on time after each lesson. At the end, we gave them an extended period of time to roam about the Mission to take photos. The organizing team members present aided the photographic society volunteers in conducting the lesson, as well as supervising the boys to ensure that the costly equipment remained undamaged.

Even though the boys expected another Frisbee session and we were afraid that they might find photography as engaging, they ended up being very enthusiastic and energetic throughout the session. They were quite eager to take photos, and show their works to and get opinions from us and the volunteers. We quickly acclimated to interacting with them, and in the end the boys could not bear for the session to be over.

Also, as a gesture of thanks to the Ramakrishna Mission Boys' Home and to our volunteers, we also arranged to create a photo collage that consisted of the pictures taken by the boys.

Pictured: Volunteers from the Photographic Society and OT members


4. How the learning objectives were met

After participating in this project, our team has definitely appreciated the significance of learning to serve the community, and we felt a sense of joy in realising that our work has allowed the boys to pick up new skills.

We certainly had to learn to liaise with multiple stakeholders on certain issues. The Mission had plenty of regulations in place that governed its operations, and it affected our planning in the sense that we often had to seek their advice before proceeding with a particular plan or idea. Much of the difficulties we encountered were in the planning stage, but it took an immense amount of teamwork to get us started - not just within our team, but between the school, the mission, and us as the organisers of this project.

Due to the numerous setbacks we faced during planning, we began our project shortly after the second C2 Block Tests, and it was definitely a test of time management as we had to juggle preliminary exam revision and the execution of this project at the same time.

We believe that this project also challenged the possible perception that such projects are being carried out to render a service to a charitable organisation, when there is definitely a very real human element to it that can only be experienced by joining the organisation's staff in helping its beneficiaries.

Our work also aided our sense of empathy, as the members our team had the fortune of being raised in intact families and receiving a decent education. As aspiring future leaders, it was important to us and our volunteers to realise that there are people who have had entirely different life experiences that influenced their perceptions of others, and of the world around them.


5. OT Reflection

The awareness of the issue of children being raised in broken families was an important learning point for all of us. Our beneficiary aided underprivileged children who may not have come from an ideal family background, which we believed to be a noble cause. Our research on this issue for the exhibition, as well as our experience working with the children, made it very clear to us that there is still plenty to be done to ensure that the needs of these children are addressed, so that we could play a part in nurturing them into upstanding members of society.

Our team has also learnt to improvise when faced with unexpected situations. Sudden emergencies frequently arose, and we realised that our plans were being frequently disrupted by circumstances that were out of our control. Thus, we learnt to make sacrifices of our time in order to ensure that events proceeded smoothly.

Another learning point for us is the fact that we must be cognisant of limitations to the resources that are available to us. We were pressed for time when our project reached approval, and we did not have the resources that officially funded/CCA-initiated SL projects did. Hence, our ambitions were tempered, as we lacked the resources to carry out all of the initiatives that we had in mind. However, we took what we had and focused on the initiatives that were most significant to us - to have sessions on at least one sport and one art, and to spread the cause of the Ramakrishna Mission to our schoolmates. Given the success that we have met in these 3 initiatives, we believe that we have learnt this point well.

The team was also able to learn to unite in order to fulfil a higher cause, as we all believed that the welfare of the boys, our beneficiaries, was of utmost importance. There were some disagreements that arose over the course of the project, especially over concerns about how certain things should be carried out. Despite these disagreements, the team was able to find common ground in some of these opinions, and we were able to achieve progress based on this. This allowed us to enthusiastically proceed with the organisation and execution of this project with a sense of purpose.

Our team is grateful to be given the opportunity to volunteer at the Ramakrishna Mission as it has been eye-opening, hence providing us with a wonderful experience in serving others, inspiring us to take up similar causes in the future.


6. Individual Reflection

ABC

As a student-leader for the SL Project Mission R, I have learnt to handle the responsibilities and often demanding role of a leader. To be there for the team, to cheer members on, and to sacrifice personal time for rest is frequently part and parcel of meeting the responsibilities of leadership.

Emotional resilience

As a leader, emotional endurance is one of the most important qualities. Team members may offer criticism to initiatives which are hard to swallow but constructive nonetheless. It is at these times that a leader needs to discipline his ego to understand the member’s perspective, be gracious about accepting these critiques and incorporate them into the group’s vision. Too often, it is easy for the leader to fall into despondency by meeting each day as it comes instead of actively following up on initiatives on their original deadlines. At those times, he has to buckle down and sober up- memorizing deadline and adjusting expectations.

Assumptions and crisis

Through my work in the SL project, I learnt the importance of acquainting myself to the assumptions and assignments of each team member. One of the simpler ways is to organize meeting, as not having frequent meet-ups can cause the commitment level on an individual basis to fall. By checking my own assumptions with my team members, the leader seeks to align the values of each member to the goal and ensure the event goes without a hitch. Yet, despite everyone’s best efforts, unforeseen problem will arise and crisis management comes into play. For crisis management, the leader needs to reinvigorate the rest of my members for another round of problem tackling. This corresponds to bottom-up aspect of leading.

Value of Teamwork

Given the limited power of an individual, the value of teamwork shines best when a group is working together. I cannot recall the number of times when one member felt like giving up but others were there to cheer him on. Hence, the power of working in team far surpasses that of individuals in tackling larger and more complex. As my weakness is in following up on contacts to further an initiative, the urging of members and their instructions provide perspectives and questions that I did not consider.

Importance of organizations

Being a leader has allowed me to understand the merit of organizations, and how most organizations function with a clear purpose to achieve a clear goal. By understanding the purpose of organizations, I believe that I will be able to fulfil my future roles better, be it in organizing, as a member, volunteering, working or studying.


ABC

What first struck me about interacting with the boys from the home was how easy they were to relate to; where I had expected them to be closed, shy, requiring careful guidance, they were outgoing, adventurous and warm, despite this being their first time meeting us. This project taught me to throw out many old stereotypes and prejudices I had about boys from boys’ homes, as well as to cast off that perpetual wariness that used to accompany me whenever I met people of other cultures. I would always strive to be politically correct, to steer clear of what I thought would be sensitive issues; but done excessively, this limited my ability to truly understand them. Now I know: while sensitivity is important, we should not create artificial divides where there are none. Before we identify as Chinese, Indian, Malay, Eurasian, we should recognize that we are all, at first, human beings.

That said, care should always be observed when interacting with others. I learnt, of course, to avoid talking about the boys’ family backgrounds in conversation with them, and to be constantly aware of their needs. As mentioned, during the Frisbee sessions there was one especially lonesome boy who preferred to walk off to a corner of the field by himself rather than play with the others. All attempts to entice him to participate failed; the best I could do was to simply accompany him and engage him in conversation. When faced with problematic circumstances, adaptability and situational leadership are important; but sometimes the best solution is to turn to others more apt. This I did: after a while I approached a supervisor, who was in all respects better placed to talk to the boy in question.

The opinions of other stakeholders, at the same time, had to be considered as well. This I learnt from having to serve as intermediary between several parties: the volunteers from the Frisbee team, the staff at the home, and my own OT. At times, communicating with all these different groups and relaying information became quite tiring; managing multiple lines of communication remains a skill I must develop further. In addition, having so many people coming to me for information taught me the value of responsibility – I had to know what was going on and be able to make quick decisions, because all these people were depending on me to tell them what to do.

Communication within my own OT was another issue as well, as it has been in almost every other group project I have worked on. It was important to establish a common mode of communication from the outset (in this case, Whatsapp and other messaging platforms) so we could all update each other on new developments. No matter how busy I was, I learnt to at least give a response to things that were said, so that, for example, my fellow OT members would at least know I was unavailable on a particular date.


ABC

When I met the Swami of the Ramakrishna Mission, I found it rather inspirational that the man who stood before me was a man who devoted his time to furthering his faith, and spending his time to address the social problem of broken homes affecting the well-being of young boys.

In a way, I was reminded that the goal of our extensive education was largely to give back to the community as a whole. This was how I viewed my role - that as a student who grew up in fairly normal circumstances, it was my duty to give the boys what I had to offer - my time in organising the project, and my knowledge of sports and the arts, as it was my belief that they ought to be able to share in its joy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there in person for the actual sessions, but I rendered as much assistance as I could to my team nonetheless.

Of course, I also learnt from the adversities faced when I aided in the organisation of the activities.

Where the organisation of events was concerned, one of the major learning points that stood out for me was to be mindful of the need to be flexible. Unlike the other SL project that I was involved in, where I had a higher degree of freedom to plan events, our limited resources required us to seek approval or overcome administrative restrictions in order to get things done. These ranged from prohibitions of taking pictures of the boys at the home, ensuring that the volunteers were exclusively male by the Home's request, as well as having to trouble our mentor to help us loan the cameras from the school as we could not have acquired much otherwise on our own.

These restrictions did seem like a hindrance, of course, but I accepted that there were perfectly good reasons for having proper regulations and processes in place. It was a learning experience for me as I learnt to adjust my plans on the fly, and anticipate possible regulations in planning initiatives in order to avoid unexpected nasty surprises.

I also learnt to evaluate the most appropriate course of action when a problem arises. In the case of the exhibition, which I was in charge of, the booth still required improvements on the first day as its content had to be modified in order to make it more accessible to readers, and the handouts also needed to be printed in colour as we did not have access to a colour printer previously. On the other hand, it was also believed that staying behind at the booth as a presenter would have aided our project's publicity as well. It was a difficult choice for me, as I could not do both at once, but it was one of many instances where I had to prioritise solutions in order to achieve the best possible outcome with limited resources.


ABC

Overall, even though not everything went as planned, I still feel that the project has been a success, and am glad that we have embarked on it. The last time I was involved in a service learning project was in secondary school, and things were much more guided then. This time, we had to be much more independent and proactive, especially in liaising with various parties such as the beneficiary, our mentors, and the various CCAs and volunteers involved. This experience taught all of us to be more responsible, as we all had distinct parts to play, and we knew that any mistake on anyone’s part could jeopardize the project. It also reminded us to be responsive, as we had to respond quickly to our group members when certain information was needed or tasks had to be accomplished, and delays could easily snowball.

Throughout the course of the project, our group did face some setbacks and disagreements, and it was incidents like these which reinforced the importance of taking the initiative. Of course, as students we all have our own commitments such as in our academics and CCA. When other members might have been preoccupied with other issues, we had to take the initiative to ask about the status of certain tasks, even if they were not in the scope of our roles. Time management was a major issue as well, as we had to discuss different aspects of the project and communicate with different parties while revising for our tests at the same time.

The various hiccups along the way also taught us to be flexible and adaptable. When certain things did not turn out the way they were planned, we had to come up with alternatives in a short time period, or know when to let go. Because of delays in confirming the content of the Racial Harmony Day booth, we could not design and print posters as we had originally hoped to. Instead, along with our write-ups printed as word documents, we also created leaflets to make our information more easily digestible. Due to issues confirming the dates of the sessions, we also had to scrap some initiatives such as origami and soccer, but ended up making our Frisbee and photography sessions longer.

Truth be told, I was slightly apprehensive about the interaction with the boys, as we had little idea about what they would be like. According to the person in charge at the Mission, our sessions would be conducted during the boys’ break time. I was afraid that the boys might not be receptive to our programmes or might be bored, and I would certainly feel guilty for taking up their time if that were the case – after all, our goal was for them to have an enjoyable time. Thankfully, things turned out better than expected, and all of us had a great time. Seeing the enthusiasm of the boys also made me think that all the time and planning we had put into the project was worthwhile.


7. Statement of Accounts

Item Name Breakdown Cost Comments

4R Albums X6 from photography initiative

$0.35 per photo37 photos6 albums(+$2.50 per album)

0.35*37*6 +2.50*6=$92.70

$92.70 Album given to volunteers, beneficiary, mentor

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