The 12th of November 2020 marked the first service meeting for the ‘Girls for Girls’ service group for the academic year of 2020/21. The meeting was held under the most unusual circumstances considering how 12 girls met from different areas in Colombo via Zoom. Nonetheless, we were able to introduce ourselves to our new members and go over the ground rules and a detailed itinerary for our upcoming service sessions. With our former service leader graduating from OSC and Rika taking her position, the position of co-leader was on the open. As per the agreement of Ms. Rangika and Ms. Dahlan, I and Sheruni from DP1 were selected as the co-leaders. I was extremely happy and proud to be offered this leadership as I love participating and engaging with the girls. Moreover, since this was only my second year at OSC and the service group, I am honored to lead the girls alongside Rika and Sheruni. 

The members of the Girls for Girls service group.

Before the pandemic struck us, as a group we spent Thursday afternoons with the girls from Emerge Center. We either visited them at their home or they visited us at OSC. Our time with them is well spent and we often find ourselves engaging in activities ranging from creating bracelets to playing volleyball or cricket and having cooking sessions – all of which is rewarded by eager smiling faces which make everything all the more, worth it.

Me, Savi and Tan alongside the girls from Emerge, making tacos. Photo credits: Tan

Unfortunately for us, this session, we are unable to visit the home in person for the remainder of the year, owing to Covid-19 protocols, but this wouldn’t be stopping us from doing the best in our ability to carry on the aims for our service group; empowering women all over the world. In terms of organization, we created a google doc where the members can create their own activities in their own time span, making sure that the activities are possible in the times of the pandemic. This is an effective way to get the new members engaged in the service and also to get an understanding of their likings and ideas. There were so many good ideas ranging from improving our social media pages to creating awareness videos and creating a website etc. Our first activity is to make a word poem with the participation of all the members and publish it in the weekly newsletter.

Some of the activities proposed;

• Inspiring quotes and awareness posts on facebook.
• Wear pink on women’s day to show support.
• Creating infographics and sharing them in a newsletter or bulletin.
• Spirit week. (One day for quotes, short choreographs, sport skills etc)
• Give away wristbands, shirts or other items that say girl for girls or supporting it.
• Get some voice cuts from boys in our classes and maybe teachers on their opinion regarding this matter and make a video.
• Make an awareness video with all the girls doing something different. Like one singing, doing sports, dancing, studies, giving presentations…

As a leader, I made sure everyone had some form of input so that they feel included and engaged in the service-learning program. We had some open discussions on what we are looking forward to and what we need to take into consideration in order to be better. I think these sessions also help me improve and grow as a leader.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.
• Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

• Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

With the present circumstances, initiating and planning a service session is a difficult task. With everyone in different places, it is sometimes hard to contact all the members and allocate separate tasks for them. Moreover, time management is important, being able to sacrifice time out of the service hours for certain activities. So I believe these things have given me a good experience on how to exercise a successful CAS experience.

• Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
• Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

This was a group effort and would not have been possible without the assistance and guidance of many others. Thus, throughout the process, I was encouraged to work collaboratively was able to recognize the benefits of collaboration and cooperation.

• Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

We as a group hope to address the global issue of sexual abuse and do awareness programs and campaigns to empower women all around.

• Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

When dealing with an issue like sexual abuse, we always take precautions to be aware of our audience and make sure it is suitable for everyone. Thereby, we always recognize and consider the ethics of our choices and actions as a group.