Creativity: Hope for Kids Fashion show

14/02/2012

          Last Saturday, the 12th of February 2012, the Hope for Kids Service group held a charity fashion show at the Overseas School of Colombo. The Objective of the fashion show is to raise the donation and raise awareness of issues of global importance amongst the Overseas commnity about children who lives in the rural part of the country. The money will go to the development of the hospital the service has opened several months ago.

          I was asked to become one of the models for the fashion show. The show required several chroreographed movements which we needed to learn, taught by Jackie Mei. This meant i had to show perseverance and commitment in the activities. I had to plan, initiate and worked collaboratively with the other models. Throghout the practices, I have managed to develope new skill of 'catwalking'. We learned many techniques of posing, walking and timing. It was quite interesting and amusing. I had a hard time walking in high heels however, after several hours of practice, i became better at it.

          I was modelling for several designers: Avinash, DMO, Darshy, Aruvate, Arugambay and others. I was honored to start off the show and ended with the beautiful red dress. It was truely an experience despite some comments and considerations on the ethical implications that some acts or outfits were inappropriate. However, i realized that they have a point, but we all have human rights, the freedom or speech. It was also for community and service. We are here to raise awareness to the audience not recieving thier judgements.. But, it is always useful to learn for the mistakes.

          Here are some photos from the fashion show!

Avinash's theme: Human's Freedom

Arugambay: Swimsuits with Antonia

Finale dress

Service at RICD

11/02/2012

      This holiday, i had a chance to volunteer at the Rachanacarin Institute Child Development in the Drama Therapy program. The drama therapy has an objective to use drama technique as a way of learning in communication, critical thinking and applying it in to real life situations. Every year, the hospital holds the training sessions for the final performance at the end of the course. Individuals who participates in the program are mostly handicapped, mentally and physically. The trainers are volunteered from Minnesota, USA.

     I became one of the staff at the program. We started off the program with 6 hours none-stop planning and initiating the activities with the board of the hospital, the minister and other important people who are involved in the program. It is very important for the program to have a lot of support in order to achieve its goal, therefore we must work collaboratively with others and consider the ethical implications of our actions.

     The first day at work was exciting. I started learning the student's name, both verbally and physically (hand sign language). It was quite amazing how gentle and talented these people are. Throughout the beginning period, I had showed my perseverance and commitment in the activities by getting to know each of every students about the background of their lives. By doing this, I had learned a lot of things especially when observing something with another point of view. These people see the world differently because they have less freedom. I have come to realize that this is also a problem with the society and how we forget what is left behind us. It is important to get engage with issues of global importance like this one. I also developed new skill in terms of hospitality, especially with people with special needs.

     We began teaching easy movements, dramatic movements to the students. I was truly grateful that I attended the drama class 2 years ago. I truly enjoy what i was involved with then. The teachers from Minnesota were so inspiring and the students were so eager to learn and become an actor.
It was sad when i had to leave. Students and staff threw a farewell party for me. The last thing i did for them in return was, I translated a song, 'what a wonderful world' into Thai and sang it to everybody in the room. It was truly an experience.

 

The drama team from Minnesota

 

With Ms. Poy and two other students (Aomsin& Sprite)

 

One of the students for the Deaf School

DAWG Sterilization

Date: 2/02/2012

      The Dog Awareness Welfare Group held the Dogs and Cats sterilization and vaccination on the 28th of January 2012. To be honest, it was truely worth it. All the hard work and commitment i had put to make it all happen. There were a lot of turn ups. We opened the sterilization from 8 am to 2 pm. In total we managed to sterilize 40 animals and vaccinate 72 of them! The vets, the teachers and students body had been running around none stop to provide the best service to the community. There was a bit of problems at some point such as we forgot to hand out some information. However, it worked out fine. I was truely glad that i had attended a lot of previous sterilization which gave me the knowledge of what we should do and how we should organize it.
     Through out the day, it was very busy and there were people coming in to help and donate some vaccinations. Such as Ms. Ashani for the Embark company. She helped us in term of spreading the word and donating 20 vaccinations to our campaign. We really appreciate it.
We have come to realize that there are many people out there who maintain the same objective and we must work together to make it all better. I had documented all the actions that was taking place. There are some photos on the bottom.
     What i had learned from planning, initiating activities and worked collaboratively with others to organize the sterilization was indescribable. I learned and developed new skills to be a leader, to be a giver, to be a thinker and a responsible individual. Not only that I showed perseverance and commitment in the local community but i also helped all the DAWG new member to see what it is like to be in a sterilization, with the hope that they will pass on this to be engaged with issues of global importance.

 

DAWG team the vets from Kandy

 

Ms.Shameela Thank you for supporting us all along

 

Dogs and Cats at the recovery zone