My Self-Reflection

I volunteered at ZHO, it was my first time volunteering. As a first-timer I had some difficulties, but it was really worth it in the end. Volunteering is an experience that will definitely will be one of my most remarkable moments, it is an experience that changed my view about volunteering.

Firstly, it taught me how to organize really well. As a volunteer you need to organize yourself and be ready to any need or question that the visitor have. Secondly, it teaches you confidence. While being so well organized and interacting with many different people and nationalities, you gain confidence little by little until you reach a point where you won’t hesitate when you talk to a visitor or when he ask you a question. Finally, a certificate. A volunteering certificate can me sometime required for certain jobs or scholarships, volunteering in an organization will award you a certificate.

 In addition to learning new things, volunteering does touch your heart and help you improve your community in many ways. To start with, it’s a life-changing experience, if you haven’t volunteer you won’t understand the real purpose behind volunteering. The joy you get from helping people and putting a smile on their face can’t be explained in words, it can be experience thru volunteering. For example, there was a painter in the exhibition, he asked us to help him pack his painting, it took us about one and a half hour, when we were done helping him he said let’s take a picture, after we took it he said something that made me real happy that day, he said “I took the picture so I can never forget these great guys, you guys”.

Moreover, you give back to your country. Your country gave you many things, it gave you safety, and it gave you shelter and food. How can you repay your country? Well volunteering is a great way to give back to your country. By helping people you are actually helping and developing your own community.

To sum up, volunteering is a great, heart-warming experience, I am looking forward to volunteer again.

Videos, interviews and photo album.

These are few interview and a demonstration of a device, also the Photo Album >Link< (You got to click on AKSH's Photos)

Final reflection

This is my first time volunteering, and it was one of the most remarkable experiences in my life, meeting new people and interacting with them, helping them felt so great, especially when that handicapped artist thanked us and asked for our photo it was a nice thing to do.  I definitely look forward to volunteer in the future, and I won’t forget the experience of my first time volunteering.

Project Day # 3

The last day of the exhibition, nothing really went at this day except a few presentations at the seminar, the concert was closed and the seminar was full so most of us were either helping different people in the workshops as we did or sitting in the food court chatting. We helped a handicapped artist and it felt great, he also took a picture with us and asked for the picture and said “I want a copy of this picture to remember those lovely guys who helped me today”. At the end of the exhibition we took our volunteering certificates and we took a picture of our group.

Volunteering hours: From 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Project Day # 2

The second day of the exhibition was more organized than the first day. H. H. Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyah attended the exhibition and went around seeing the people and their workshops; again, I and Marwan were responsible for the seminar more people attended this day than yesterday.  Nothing was special this day, at the end of the day I was satisfied about what I have done.

Volunteering hours: From 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Project Day # 1

Before the day the exhibition started, we came there to know the do’s and don’ts also the places of the toilets, food court, etc. The exhibition started when H. H. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan attended and gave an opening-speech. I and Marwan were responsible of the seminar. Our instructions were to write down all who attended the seminar and give them the certificate after they finished. At this day, things were a bit messy but it was a fun experience.

Volunteering hours: From 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Project Plan

Exercise # 7

Charity and Volunteering in the UAE - Information and Activities

The UAE is famous for its hospitality and the desire to give one's time and efforts to help other people.

Activities

Use the following link to access the website of the UAE Red Crescent.

Once you are there, see if you can answer the following questions. This will help you to find out what the organisation does, what some of their projects are and who are the people involved in the organisation.

http://rcuae.ae/

1.                   The UAE Red Crescent has contributed to a number of building projects both inside and outside the UAE. Name three projects the UAERC has worked on

 

                         a.       By expanding the camp all the way to Jordan for the Syrian’s refugees.
 

b.      By implementation of health and the social program of the Palestinian territory.

 

c.        By making new projects that are for the Palestinian Red Crescent society for the next three years.

 

2.                   Name at least 4 countries the UAERC has worked in to provide various project assistance

 

                         a.       Palestinian

b.       Pakistan

c.       Sirlanke

                 d.      Syria

3.                   What was the estimated total cost of projects undertaken in the UAE during 2009?

-      180,830,333 million

4.                   According to the information about the foreign based projects, which group of projects received funding of 8,373,558 Dirhams?

                 -     The external projects

5.                   According to the information about the Foreign Projects, the UAERC is involved in some very important work. According to the English translation, these are listed below. Try to come up with an easy explanation for each of the terms in the grid.

	Translation Term	My/Our own meaning
	reconstruction	Rebuilding
	disasters	Mischances
	crises	Disaster
	rehabilitation	Recovery
	infrastructure	Organization
	devastation	Destruction
	public utilities	Services

 

6.                   Name three situations which are listed as �natural disasters�.

a.        Flood

b.        Storms

c.        Earthquakes

7.                   Crescent Volunteers University

What are the three areas of training/qualification that university students could work towards?

a.        Ways of volunteering

b.        First Aid

c.        Human Laws

Exercise # 6

Open the link http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uae_44659.html

List and discus the latest newsline events in the United Arab Emirates

- Arab Media Award on Child Rights initiated to honor outstanding achievements

 
- UNICEF and Dubai Cares support quality education to break the cycle of poverty

- Dubai gives $100,000 cash injection for Djibouti immunization campaign

UNICEF Activity 2:

How can you help UNICEF? Working in groups, fill in the table below.

Ideas of supporting UNICEF	Ways of achieving it	Date of completion
Donations	Raise donations for poor kids by a campaign.
Donating Cloth	Many people throw their cloths in the garbage, some of it is still reusable which can be donated to poor kids.
Educate the community about the problems that poor children face.	Educative video taking about this topic.
Health Awareness	Make brochures and articles to educate people about health awareness and how this issue is affecting kids in Africa.

1.     Takatof - Exercise #6

Click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMDUTjeymxk&feature=related

Activity 1

Using Google search for information about Takatof and answer the questions below

What is Takatof?

 It is a program for social volunteering is a nationwide volunteering initiative in the United Arab Emirates, and one of the principal initiatives of the Emirates Foundation.   

Which year did start? And who started it?

It was established in 2005, started by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

What volunteer work have they done?
 
-   Taktouf Ramadan Project  

 -  Jacket distribution campaign  

-   Tornado recovery Aid

How can you help?

By participating in their events and volunteer.

Exercise # 5

LSH 2903 – Community Service Learning / Exercise #5

Week 4 - Looking at volunteering in different spheres of society.

During the summer of 2012 the Olympic Games were held in London. David Moorcroft is a former athlete. At one point he held the world record for the 5,000 metres. David can be heard discussing the importance of volunteering the Olympic Games.

Zoe Hall is a lady who was one of the volunteers at the Games. She talks about the event and how important it was at the time as well as how much it has inspired her to continue working as a volunteer.

This link is about half way down the page. Then click on 'Hear more radio features' - page 2 Volunteering  - to hear the selection again..

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/

 

Listen again and see if you can work out the answers to these questions about the interview:

1.                  How old were the Games volunteers? 

 Of all ages

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

Gamemakers

3.                  Complete this quote from David… “… for a moment in time volunteering had a (Profile) and an  (image)  that they fully (deserved) but don’t always get.”

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

Half-time job

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

At the Olympic stadium

6.                  How does she describe the experience of volunteering for the Olympics and Paralympics? Best experience of her life

7.                  What benefits of volunteering, according to Zoe?

a.       _______________________Meeting new people_______________________

b.      ________________________Gain confidence______________________

c.       _________________________Its fun_____________________

d.      __________________________Gain satisfaction____________________

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

Support people

The community rely's on that

Volunteers do a tremendous job to the community 

 This page is also from AGE UK.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/volunteers-week/

What volunteer roles do the following people have?

	Name	Job
1	John McArthur	Admin and information volunteer
2	Samarah Hashmi	Survey Analyst volunteer
3	Oliver Stannard	Copywriter 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?

There are a variety of ways to volunteer and there is no age limit.

Exercise # 4

11.     Present the map to the whole class.

·         Did any parts of your map have a high concentration of rights? How do you explain this? 

Yes it did, it had a high concentration of mosques, parks and shops which suits the human needs.

·         Did any parts have few or no rights associations? How do you explain this?

Yes for example churches, a Muslim needs to go to the mosque 5 times a day, when a Christian for example goes to the church 1 day a week.

·         Are there any articles of the UDHR that seem to be especially exercised in this community? How can this be explained?

Most of them if not all. Take article one for example, every human is born in the UAE has his freedom.

·        Are there any articles of the UDHR that no group included on their map? How can this be explained? 

There are some rights cant be expressed in the map. For example the right of marriage.

How could town/city planners might use information like this when they develop areas for their citizens?

They can distribute things that human needs equally or according to the population depending on the information they are provided with.