24 October 2015

CAS trip for Grade 11 students on 16th of October’15 to JJ Colony in Bawana in association with Habitat for Humanity India.

A CAS trip was organized for the Grade 11 students on 16th of October’15 to JJ Colony in Bawana in association with Habitat for Humanity India. The students painted a few of the houses in the slums of Bawana and also interacted with the community members. 

Students were able to interact with the locals and fathom how they live in unfavourable and difficult conditions. After observing the surroundings many students reflected on how fortunate they were to get the chance to offer their services to them:


I remember feeling a little nervous and a lot excited when I arrived in BAWANA. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But as we met the habitat staff, things seemed to just fall into place.  The entire trip was exceptionally planned. I was at first a bit nervous about my health as the area wasn’t clean and the smell was excruciating.
Students were divided into five groups, each with a particular task given to them. For all groups, the main focus was to paint. We together as a group were trying our best to contribute our efforts to the local community.
 Everyone was given instruction on how to deal with equipment and beware of the surroundings. Every group had a leader to lead the team with a teacher. I was the leader of group 2 and I had the responsibility to maintain the discipline and coordination in the group.
Group 2, had the task to paint a room in the community hall of J.J colony. My whole team was worried about their health as we were working in a surrounding which wasn’t properly maintained and very unhygienic. We were quite happy as we got mosquitos repellent, mask and gloves.
Habitat staff then gave us sand paper and taught us how to use it. It looked quite easy but it wasn’t. Rubbing that sand paper against the wall to take out the previous paint was a tough job. The room in which we were working became full of dust. One of my friend was having asthma so it was my job to take him to a safe location where the dust couldn’t reach him. After sometime everyone finished the first task that was to take out old paint. Each of us were tired and our hands were paining.
As the second task began, the other groups also joined us. Every student was doing his/her task to the fullest. We completed our task on time.
In my opinion a field trip like these is very essential.  It provided an excellent opportunity to know what is going on in our society. Moreover, I found out that even though we have different cultures and we come from different backgrounds, we can still communicate and work together to achieve our common goal. The efforts that I put in helped me to get more lessons than the contribution that I was putting in was less and that I should help the other communities with my resources and efforts. I believe that helping the ones in need is a global requirement and always begins with a small initiation like this one
Himank Goel
Grade 11

Last Friday, the 16th of October 2015, the students of Grade 11 embarked on a CAS trip to the North-West district of Delhi, to a census town called Bawana. This town has been assisted by an organization called Habitat for Humanity for over 7 years now and in the duration of this time, they have built over 500 houses for the inhabitants. Before we left from our school we had been briefed on what the expected outcome was.
We were to be divided into 5 groups and each group would be given a specific task to complete. Our job revolved around the replenishing of the walls in their community, by applying coatings of paint. 3 of the groups were allocated houses and two groups were assigned to the community hall. The idea of renovating houses for a day and being rewarded with dominos pizzas thrilled most of us. However, after the completion of our tasks we were left with much more,  to be delighted about. We were able to interact with the locals and fathom how they live in unfavorable and difficult conditions. After observing the surroundings we felt fortunate to get the chance to offer our services to assist them. It was a tremendous experience and I am certain that the whole grade wouldn’t pass up another opportunity that would allow us to contribute to the wellbeing of the society. We might have not built an entire household for the people of Bawana but even the slightest involvement gave us immense satisfaction.
 Jahanavi Datta
Form 11