We are delighted to share a blog written by student Rebecca, from Kent College Dubai, who is part of team Hand in Hand delivering a Global Goals project for the 2020-21 GSL Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
Eye opening, life changing, and a turning point!
Project Summary
When brainstorming for potential problems we could address in our community we were looking for the people who needed the most support. We noticed it was often the people that did not speak about their worries out loud. Many parents work in Dubai to provide a better life for their children back in their home countries. As beautiful of an act this is, these kids which are often in school tend to have a lack of support when it comes to academic help. Many students ask their parents for homework help, but this is not a viable option for them due to the time difference and the impracticality of explaining concepts over the phone.
We have interviewed many workers and they have all stated the same issue, that they wish they had someone readily available to help their kids, at a very cheap price. So we are here filling the gap for them! We have created a website www.handinhandkcd.org which is full of interactive videos as well as ready outlets where students can ask any question to teachers. As we know, many students have limited internet access, hence why they cannot use YouTube very often for help; our website breaks this barrier, with much less internet needed to watch our videos and all the added benefits this place is the ultimate safe and productive place for all students. We have a blog, a forum, a discord chat, and an Instagram ready for everyone’s benefit.
The Journey
We could not list all the skills earned in such a small space. Attributes such as teamwork, organisation, time management, motivation, consistency, creativity were always needed. Other skills such as soft skills to create our website and the importance of partnerships will be carried on forwards during our careers. We each learnt so many skills that we didn’t know existed – personally I had to learn the skill of delegation and guiding my team members towards individual targets. One of our biggest challenges was notably COVID-19; we could almost never meet in person, we couldn’t interact with our partners with anything more than emails, and we couldn’t get much live feedback. However, we were able to discover creative ideas to connect with each other such as discord, our website’s forum, and many more platforms.
The Next Chapter
We would 100% recommend everyone to take part in similar projects. Not only are the skills and experiences infinitely beneficial, but giving back to our communities by connecting parties that probably were once competitors is what our world needs at the moment. Our project will live on as its main goal is to be a sustainable learning platform for all students – we will be maintaining it with the help of our teachers. We have encouraged many students to create videos and volunteer to help us in our project, and we would encourage every person that has the opportunity to help others to create similar projects, especially to answer the needs of people that do not usually voice out their worries.
