Maryame has taken the lessons learned from her exchange year to make a difference in her community.
By Asad Ali (YES 2013-2014, Pakistan, hosted by ACES in Redding, CA)
In the great words of Mother Teresa: “It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
With the start of summer, the sun is out and so are the energetic spirits of the YES alumni in Pakistan. People seemingly have more energy in summer than in any other season. I wanted to take advantage of this energy, so I organized the Sports and Awareness Project with up to 100 students from Bali Memorial Technical School, a low-resource school serving underprivileged students. On Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019, I set out to the outskirts of Lahore to complete a whole day of activities with students from Bali school.
Before conducting the project itself, I completed a preparation phase in which I purchased and printed materials and planned out the logistics of the event. It took me a month to strategize and plan the activity properly. At first, it seemed like this activity was impossible to complete because I could not find a proper place to host the event. I traveled 70 kilometers to ask and convince the management of the Bali school to carry out the Sports and Awareness Project and explain how this activity will benefit the students. Sports and exercise are crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and many students who excel in sports also do well academically.
The Sports and Awareness Project was designed to highlight the importance of sports and exercise in the life of Bali Memorial students as well as develop teamwork and problem-solving skills. The day also focused on having fun and I planned several different activities to cheer up the kids who often spend a majority of their time inside studying.
During the event, the children were divided into several groups and were given a printed paper that included a list of sports they could play. While they decided which sport to play, I set up the equipment for each sport. Students had the choice to play Cricket, Football, and Badminton. The students were then separated by gender and were able to play each sport for 20-30 minutes. I kept a close eye on the kids and guided them throughout each sport by telling them the rules and regulations of the games. After the event ended, I distributed small tokens of appreciation to each participant. The new sports equipment was left at the school so that the students could continue to use it in the future.
The project was very successful. I aimed to originally have 70 kids attend the event, but ended up facilitating the activity for 100 students. As I was leaving the school, I felt an overflow of love from the kids and they made me promise to have another visit as soon as possible.