Learning Outcomes: Collaboration, Global Issues When I heard about the earthquake in Ecuador, I wanted to help in some way, so I began thinking of all the ways I could help. I told my mom about this and she mentioned that a friend of hers was asking for donations at her house and that she would ask if I could go help organize everything and put it into boxes to send it to Ecuador. She said yes. So the next day, I went to her house and we began organizing. First, we needed to take everything out of its box or bag, then count how many were there, write it down on the inventory and then pack everything again on big boxes. Plus, I wrote a short message in each of the cans there were because of two reasons. One, because it would prevent people in Ecuador to resell these and two, because it was very important to keep those victims motivated and let them know that we care about them. I stayed there the whole afternoon and night, a total of 6 hours. I was amazed by all the donations that she had received, there were so many! It was great to be able to help with this.
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Learning Outcomes: Initiative, Global Issues The minute I heard about Ecuador's Earthquake, I started to think of how to take action. I knew that as an Ecuatorian, I had to do something about it. So I thought of doing an out of uniform day to raise funds and help the victims, who were suffering very much. I talked to the HS, MS and Elementary principals to make this happen. When I got permission from all of them, I only had two days to advertise it and let everybody know about it. I started posting it online and talking about it with everybody I knew in school. Finally, I planned how the collecting of money would be, and asked some volunteers to help me collect it. On the out of uniform day, I came to school extremely early and started setting everything up. By the end of the day, we had raised about 8,000 soles and with this amount of money, we are now able to buy about 120 mattresses and donate them to the victims of the earthquake.
Ecuador had not seen an such a powerful earthquake since 1979, so the city was not expecting any of this. It has been known that around 700 victims died and thousands were enjured. Not only this, but hundreds of people lost their homes and were all living in the streets without food, water or electricity. It was chaotic. That is why we decided to donate mattresses to them, because it was something heavy and expensive that many people in that town couldn't afford but needed it. And although our contribution was very small compared to the severeness of the event, Learning Outcomes: Collaboration, Global Issues, Ethical Actions During the summer, I participated in a project to protect the Tinglar Turtles in Puerto Rico. The main reason why this specie is in danger of extinction is because of the big birds that surrounds the beaches in the evenings. When the eggs hatch, these birds eat all of the baby turtles when they are approaching the sea and so they never reach the age of reproduction which decreases their population. This is an extremely important global issue because it is not only happening in Puerto Rico or with only this species, it is happening with millions of species all over the world. To participate in this activity, you needed to pay a fee that would go to the organization that protects them. I also offered my time as a volunteer and helped move the baby turtles from the nest to the sea, for the birds not to eat them. This was an amazing experience that made me realize that with my time and dedication, I was able to save about 50 baby turtles.
Learning Outcomes: Strengths/Growth, Initiative, Commitment, Collaboration Last Saturday, I went to a Wish Factory visit, since I am a member of the club. I decided to volunteer myself to read books to the kids in the hospital because of two reasons: because I have been told before that I have a nice reading voice in spanish and because I wanted to improve this skill to achieve goals later on like debating or giving a speech in front of an audience. Before going there on Saturday, I looked at the books we had at home and chose the most interesting ones. I was able to read four books in total to four different kids and they enjoyed it very much. Not only did I read it to them, but we also went over some things they couldn't understand, I asked them questions and we talked about our favorite parts. I loved sharing this moment with the kids!
Learning Outcomes: Global Issues, Collaboration, Commitment, Planning This was my first visit to Kantaya, which is a non-profit organization, which It's goal is to improve kids' education in Peru. Every time Kantaya Club visits this little school in Ventanilla, we do a different activity. In this occasion, we did a "Country Fair" where each member of the club got one country to research about and then we needed to create a small and dinamic presentation to show it to the kids of Kantaya. The country assigned to me was Peru and since I am not Peruvian, it was really fun to research about it and I ended up learning a lot on my own as well. But the most incredible part was teaching these kids about so many different countries like Argentina, China, United States and many more. They learned so much and had so much fun as well! It was a wonderful experience...
Learning Outcomes: Global Issues, Commitment, Collaboration, Planning This was another Kantaya Club visit to Ventanilla. This time, we taught basic english to the kids, since they don't know any. We divided ourselves in sections for all the kids to rotate and learn different aspects, we had colors, animals, introducing yourself and music. I was placed in the colors section. Basically, we had to teach the little kids the basic colors and how to pronouce its name. It was amazing to see how quickly they learned these words and how they would make a connection to the color instantly. After we introduced the colors with its names, we played a quick game where I said the colors in english and they would run and tap the color in the board, we had so much fun! The colors they struggled the most was purple but after the game, they had no problem recognizing the colors. I loved the idea of being able to teach and help these kids learn a tiny bit of english, which means a lot to them since nobody else does it. I hope to keep visiting them and reinforce this english!
Learning Outcomes: Collaboration, Commitment and Ethical Issues As a member of the Wish Factory Club, we normally grant 2 wishes per year. This first semester, we did many fundraising activities to make Jacqui's wish come true, which was to have her own personal tablet. Yesterday, we were able to give her a blue tablet with blue earphones, since blue is her favorite color. It was an incredible experience, from the fundraisers to seeing her smile when receiving her present. Nonetheless, there was something that really caught my attention in the process and it was the fact that very few kids have the opportunity to experience what Jacqui did. Our school is one of the few in Lima, Peru that works closely with the Make a Wish organization. This means that we, as a club, are only able to grant the wishes of two kids every year. But what about the others? There are thousands of kids in Peru with life-threatening medical conditions, who would also love to have a wish granted in order to have hope and forget about the condition for a while, but very few are able to get this experience. This is something that made me question whether having an organization like this is actually a positive or a negative thing, since it promotes inequality in a way. After some deep thoughts, I have concluded that it is better to make one person smile rather than no one. And with the help of others, we can spread the word, inspire others to take action and make this organization grow in order to help more and more kids every time.
Learning Outcomes: Challenges, Initiative, Ethical Actions The last week of July, I went 8 days to a retreat/mission in Huaraz, a small city in Peru. The purpose of this trip was to complete a religious mission, to spread the word about the catholic church. Since this is a very small city, there weren't many churches and a priest only went once or twice per year to celebrate Mass. That's why we were there, a group of 40 girls walking throughout the day, organizing activities for the little kids from the town and of course giving about two Masses per day every day inviting the whole community. As we moved from town to town, walking many and many kilometers, we were always visiting the houses that were on our way and talking to them about the religion. It was really a life-changing experience, seeing the different social classes of people and realizing what it is to actually live in lack of so many things, including water and food. This was really a wake up call to start helping more people, because if we have the opportunity to improve somebody's life, then we should.
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