Community Service through Collaboration with Kids4Kids

While CAS is often thought of as another obstacle, another chore to get through whether it be MYP or DP, we often forget the root of it being something you’re passionate about and how you want to engage with the community. It doesn’t always have to be something commendable or just to get the meeting expectations grade, it should be your way of contributing. 

Recently, another Y11 student, Katie P and I did just that. Both of us found that our love of reading could be shared through service, doing that through collaborating with Kids4Kids as our NGO to start the Discovery College Buddy Reading program. Paired with Lok Yung District Support Centre, a local education centre for special needs children with ages ranging from primary to lower secondary, we were tasked with finding a maximum of 20 volunteers. Volunteer sessions were to read picture books to the children and organise activities to do with the theme, ‘Shall We Talk?’ surrounding the stigma of sharing emotions and feelings. We were able to put together 15 volunteers, who were passionate about the cause and were willing to spend their own time to raise awareness and volunteer at the centre. With Term 1 of the program completed, looking at the active engagement and passion of the volunteers, we’re hoping to have more of such students by Term 2. 

One of the volunteer's main duties included weekly meetings during the break to discuss session plans and organise activities for the children, with many of them providing resource donations. Triweekly, volunteers would be assigned to find three books each that would match the theme, and after being organised and approved, they would go into a session plan. Session plans consisted usually with the structure of a group reading session, followed by personalised one-on-one reading, and finally, an activity relating to the book being read, such as paper plate emotion faces. Over 6 weeks, during 1-hour sessions, volunteers would be encouraged to interact with the same child, connections being built between them due to the presence of a friend to the children who needed a more comfortable environment to feel safe to read and develop an interest in reading. Structures slowly fell away as this occurred, allowing them to better understand the children’s interests and how they operated so that they provided an optimal learning environment. 

With a great response in Term 1, a decision was made to continue the program for Term 2 due to the great work done by the volunteers in making the children feel acclimated to their presence, helping them learn more. A Y11 volunteer, Jasmine Yeung stated that through this experience she got an opportunity to communicate and help build a stronger bond with her kid, broadening her perspective on special needs children. Connections were built through means such as not sitting levelled above the children to not initiate a ‘teacher-student’ relationship, rather sitting beside them as a friend so they felt safer, or having full conversations with them and affirming their progress so they were able to better understand other situations. Additionally, interacting with them by not simply sticking to the mundane practice of constantly going through a cycle of overused books and engaging with the content through activities, helped with a better understanding of the low attention span children often have, hence being conducive to their growth.

Whether or not you feel that such a process is for you, this article aims to widen the idea that you don’t have to go with the typical CAS project or pressure yourself. The main goal is to choose one you believe puts you in a flow state, and as a bonus contributes the most to your learning and exposes you to a different situation or issue. To join the Kids4Kids club, keep an eye out for a bulletin post with the expression of interest form!

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