Self-Reflection:

Volunteering

After volunteering with my Colleagues in the future center, we had decided to set together and discuss what happened on that period of time.

First of all, I think we have benefited from this volunteering project a lot; we have learned how to deal with disabled people in a good way. I went to a deep level with the students, they started to love me and they always wanted me to work with them during their Arabic, IT, and Math classes. I have learned how to be patient, it is a must to be patient there because disable people might think in a deferent way or they might also take so much time to think about something or to learn it, but each of those students have a special gift that a normal person doesn’t have.

Once we know what we most fear, we know what we most care about. I have always feared Disabled people, but after working with them, I learned that they are normal people, just like us. I have also learned that serving the community is not a bad thing at all, people might say that there is no salary for volunteering, I personally do not agree with them because the real salary is what you learn there.

I cannot say that there were no negative thing there, one of the negative things I have seen there is that most of the parents over care on their disabled kids, which is definitely a bad thing because it reflects badly on kids themselves and community.


In summary,This experience has reflected on me positively, it changed my way of thinking. I used to hate and fear disabled people for no reason, but after one month of volunteering, I learned that those people are a gift from god; we have to care about them just like our brothers. I became a better person; I learned so many new things; Respect, Patience, Dependability.

Interview with Mr Atif

1) Why did you chose to be a special need teacher?
I have always wanted a job that I can help the community with.
2) Is it a hard job?
Sometimes its a challenge to to manage the students with different  behaviors, but I'm happy with my job and i like my students.

3) When did your carrier start as a special needs teacher?

I have been teaching in The Futures Center from 15 years, and it feels like the students are my children.

4) What is the best way to help special needs students with?

You can help them in many ways, just by chatting and talking with them, you make them happy and more active with the community. 
Making the special needs students happy helps them spiritually to study and become a part of the community.

5) What is the best feeling you had as a teacher? 

 Seeing my students grow and become better with the time is the best thing i have ever seen in my life, The most beautiful thing that i have ever seen in my life is when the first group graduated and started working. 

Volunteer Day 5

In my last day of volunteering, i went to the futer center at 8 am,talked to the special needs students before the classes start, and had some fun with them.

Once the first class started we began studying about countries and nations, in that class i showed the students a presentation about the UAE. 

they were so smart, they knew even more than what i know. and then they had some math and it classes as usual until 12pm.

once they finished their classes i started interviewing students and asking them about their experience in The Future center. 

They all liked the place and learned a lot of things from it.

At last, I had to leave because it was my last day, but I am sure that i will be back again sometime,

because volunteering was a good experience.

Volunteer Day 4

In the 4th week, special needs students had some IT and Language classes to make them able to read and work with the community as a normal people.

I started that day by teaching one of the guys how to write arabic litters :

And after looking around and watching what students are doing i found out that a blind student was practicing reading with touching the papers and then typing them in a laptop :

Volunteer Day 3

In my Third week, Special needs students had Some Sport, Music, and Art classes.
They had some special physical Exercises to help them move easily.
The music class was to make them happy so they work more.
In Art classes I only looked at them doing what they like to do and i was amazed by the work they did.

Volunteer Day 2

I was so excited to start my second week in the future center, I already made plans to teach the students good things that would help them in their lives.

I started by teaching them math and how to count in a easy ways:

once i started teaching them new things I discovered that those students can do great things, some of them can do things that a normal person cant do, one of the students had a good talent in math.

if you give him any date, he will tell you at what day will it be, i tested it with him and it was amazing                           

                                                    

volunteer day 1 27-April

1-Describe your duties /tasks/responsibilities:

I had to Encourage the kids, help them with their Studies, and organize and monitor  them.

2-Describe the relationship and communication with others , supervisors ,instructors ,students ,other volunteers,. Success or failure ?

Once we arrived and started Volunteering, the staff and the supervisors started helping us with everything, and showing us the classes and introduce us to the students.
Students liked us and started to communicate and study better than before.
I had another Volunteer in the class am volunteering in from Newyork Univercity, we split the work and started focusing more in every special need student to make them learn better.
So, Yes it was a success.

3- Explain your challenges and successes.

From the first day, Students liked us and we had to take care of each one of them equally and help them with everything.
The challenge was to be patient with them because they learn things hardly.

6-How do you feel about your efforts and results as a volunteer ?

I feel great because i was helping to make those students a part of the community and let them be equal with the others.

2903 Community Service – Volunteer Project plan form

1.    Title of plan – Future Center – Community service

2.    Names of group participants:

Abdulkareem Al-Ameeri   – H00258370

Abdulla Abdulrahman      –  H00252392

Mohammed Gamal           –  H00236910

3.    Organization (name) and contact person (supervisor + email): 

Future center – Anjum :anjum1@futurecn.ae : 0506156308

4.    Purpose / what do you wish to accomplish?

    This project has many purposes for the target recipients. First of all we are going to try our best to get their trust and we want to help them and we can do this by listening to them, we want from them to learn the basics skills to move with their lives and the skills depends on the need. For example we will teach the blind people how to depend on the other senses to avoid getting hit by things or to walk etc. Second of all we want to spread the awareness about the special needs to other people to know how to deal with them and that will be by showing them the right way to deal with their needs by giving them lessons and classes. The third purpose and I think it’s the most important one, which is to let the students with special needs participate in the community through JOB training, and by letting them participate with the sport events outside the center this thing will help them the most because they are humans and they need to be social same as everyone they don’t need to be locked away from everyone. This course tries to let us improve our planning skills and in my opinion this is important too for our college life and in our daily life, we will learn how to be on time and everything.

5.    Time/ schedule: students will volunteer for how many hours / week? Days?  

     We will volunteer for 5 weeks, 4 hours per week divided into two days to complete 20 hours in total.

Starting after the 19th of APRIL.

It will be on Tuesday & wednesday from 10:30 to 12:30.

6.    To be successful what need to be done?

    First of all, to be successful in this project we need to learn how to deal with the students in the centre and it will be by getting their trust by listening to them and they will know that we are friendly guys who wants to help

7.    What are the Benefits to the participants?

           As volunteers we will get many benefits such as; we will learn about the volunteering and how it will be done, what should we do and who should we contact? And we will learn more about the disabilities and what are their needs, how they face their disabilities, and we will learn how to deal with them because they’re very sensitive and anything could affect badly on them. About the target recipients they will have someone to listen to them and this is the most important thing, they need to tell how good they’re doing and they want some to listen to their thoughts and ideas. They will have the opportunities to improve their skills depending on their needs, they will get many skills using the computer and to play some sports they will have a PARTNER to do it with them, after all they will have the confidence to be involve with others in the center or outside, in the society and it’s the main purpose. 

8.    Any potential problem you see arising?

    We will face some difficulty during the volunteering project and we will try to pass it. The first problem is getting the students trust because they’re sensitive and anything maybe we see it normal they get hurt by it so we should be careful when we deal with them for the first time, we should get their trust by listening to them and we should be patient. The second problem is the privacy of the center which it doesn’t allowed you to take pictures you should turn your phone down, because we need the pictures for the project, we will contact with instructor and to find what could we do about and to get the permission to take photos. The third problem is the volunteering time and it’s only in the morning so we need time to go there and come back so maybe we are going to be late on our classes or on the center but will ask for 15 minutes to go early to the center and the same thing about the center so we could be on time.

Exercise #5

Community Service LSH– Exercise #5

Nowadays, we rely on young people to create the world in which we live, grow and thrive, the main aim of the Lestho volunteers is to create a school that is made up and financed by a volunteering forum for the disabled people. The school provides them with all the needs and hospitality, including ACCOMMODATION, health care and education.

Exercise #4

LSH 2903 – Community Service Learning – Exercise #4

What volunteer roles do the following people have?

	Name	JOB
1	John McArthur	Admin and information volunteering
2	Samarah Hashmi	Survey analyst volunteer
3	Oliver Stannard	Internal communication team, copy writer volunteer
4	Stanley Parker	MARKET Drayton shop volunteer
5	Camilla Williamson	Volunteer Parliamentary Assistant

Look again at these people and their JOBS. What can you say about volunteering from the information in your chart?

Volunteering is such an inspiring experience and mutual beneficial that develops skills and also teaches your skills to others.

Exercise #3

LSH 2903 – Community Service Learning – Exercise #3

1. How old were the Games volunteers? _______All the ages_________

2. During the Games, the volunteers had a special title. What was this special title?____________Game Makers____________

3. Complete this quote from David… “… for a moment in time volunteering had a____________Profile______________ and an ____________Image_____________ that they fully ______________Deserve___________ but don’t always get.”

4. David mentions that some of the volunteers are semi-retired. What does this mean?

 _____Half retired and half working_____

5. Zoe worked in Events Services. Where was this located?

 ______Olympic Stadium - London______

6.              How does she describe the experience of volunteering for the Olympics and Paralympics? _______Fantastic and great experience_______________

7.              What benefits of volunteering, according to Zoe?

a.     ___Fun____

b.     ___Satisfaction___

c.     ___Meet new people____

d.     ___Improve self confidence____

8.              Why does David feel that volunteering in the community is so important?

____For society and community____

Exercise 3

Maslow’s Human Needs-Exercise #3

Working in groups, discuss and answer the following questions:

1. Does every human being have the right to reach the top of the Maslow pyramid?

Yes, every human have the right to reach top of the Maslow pyramid.

2. Does every human being have the capability of reaching that level?

No, not every human being have the capability to reach the top level if they don’t have the basic needs like: 

* Water 

* Foods

* Cloths..etc,

3. What are the opportunities are needed to get to the higher level?

* Gifts

* Support 

* Environment

4. What are the obstacles could stand in the way of reaching these levels?

* Scared

* Safety/Confidence

* Motivation

* inspiration 

5. What could you do to help others to reach the higher levels?

We could help them by provide the suitable environment, motivate them, self-Actualization.  

Exercise 2

Human Needs Activity 2:

Match the specific needs with the five levels by writing the level number in front of each need.

5_ Water

3_ Problem solving

3_ Affection

3_ Family

2_ Social interaction

5_ Sleep

4_ Employment 

5_ Health

4_ Property

1_ Creativity

2_ Confidence

5_ Food

3_ Passions

2_ Respect

3_ Resources

Exercise 1

Human Needs Activity #1:

Link the levels and specific of Maslow’s by the following cases:

Case	Level	Specific needs at each level
A child in a hospital	2-3	That child needs for family to feel safe in the hospital and treatment
A physically disabled person	2	That person needs safety and family support
A lonely poor old lady in Sri Lanka	3	She need for social family
A shy rich widow who has a loving family and friends but has not achieved much in life	3	Family support may help him to raise up in life
A family trapped underground because of a bomb shell	2	Need a safety and a shield
An orphaned child who was forced to work to make a living	1-3	Need for food and family support
Physically and mentally abused person	2-3	In need of family support + treatment
A father who lost his JOB and has a family to support	3-4	Family support + Social + Friends stand with him