On Feb 15 I had the honor to do a Books & Cookies session elaborating on my social service in Sri Lanka. As the youth representatitive of the China Lanka Friendship Association, I work closely with my people to address food insecurity and hunger issues in Sri Lanka due to the 2022 Economic Crisis.(LO6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.) Over the 7 months of working in the NGO, I was keen to expand our audiences and raise more funds, and was very happy to see many listeners from OSC who are interested in addressing food insecurity. (LO4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.) The first half of my presentation consisted of the general information of our organization and our monthly distributions. The later part of my presentation aimed at presenting my own project in the organization “The Target Aid Project”, and evaluated the impacts of it.

The reason of me spending the majority of my presentation emphasizing “Target Aid” because it is my CAS project. It provides direct and efficient support to a small number of households with the most dire food needs. We get our name lists from the goevrnment, specifying that it has to be hosueholds where there are people with disability, unemployment, seclusion, and significant economic hardship (7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.)Then, I planned to connect each local family with a Chinese family, who are willing to provide 30 dollars per month for allowances, and give us rs.2500 budget to purchase staple supplies like oil, rice, chickpeas, sugar, and flour to be given to the families.

The Books & Cookies session is the first step in my CAS project, which I took to increase public attention of our organization. In the future, I will continue my work with the monthly Poya Day Distributions for the general Sri Lankan public, while improving my “Target Aid” project for the specific families of extremem food insecurity.

The Goals for my CAS Project are:

• To expand our service coverage from the outskirt of Colombo into the city. We will plan our distribution sessions in temples of each block of Colombo.
• Increase the pairs of poor Sri Lankan families and Chinese buddy families from 50 to over 60 in the next two months.
• Plan creative sessions, such as festival celebrations, to raise additional monthly funding.
• Make community-wide presentations to increase awareness and call for action. (1. Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.)