My Self Reflection

 Have you ever thought of giving something back to your community? Volunteering is the best way to give your community beneficial things. I did my volunteering task at the future center. My role was to teach the student and help the teacher when she teaches them. In the beginning, I think it is a very hard task because they are disable people and I think that it will be difficult to deal with them. After that, I feel more comfortable because they accept me and they love when I come to them. It was a great experience because I help them and I think that I give something to my community.

I learn several things from this experience. First of all, I learn that we should accept any kind of people. Moreover, I learn how to teach some of the disable student. For example, disable student are not the same as the normal student in the way of learning. When I teach them, I have to repeat the lesson more than one time, so they can get the idea. Second, I learn that if you want them to work better, you have to motivate them.

This experience changes my mind about the volunteering. Before this experience I thought that volunteering doesn't make any change in the community. After, I went to the future center I figure out that if every person who can volunteer helps a poor or disable people, the relation between poor and rich people will be stronger and that will make the life in the world better. I hope to do more volunteering in the future. This experience makes me different because I help disable people.      

The Interview

The interview

    1-    When did you start your work here?

      She said “2007”

   2-    What are the challenges that you face when deal with the student?

      She said “First of all, I should accept any kind of student no matter how difficult their problems are. Second, sometime we ask them to do tasks that are higher than their levels, so they don’t do it well, but by the time they start to learn”

  3-    What is the future center?

       She said “This center take disable student and teach them a lot of beneficial things. In addition, it teaches some of them how to work. For example, some of the learn how to draw and how to create some pictures. Future center try to send a message for the society that disable people are same to the normal people”.

  4-    What are the benefits of the volunteer student?

She said” The big benefit is that they adapt to deal with normal people”

  5-    Do you have levels in this center?

She said “yes, we have and some of them go to the normal school after they took some courses”

Note: I did this interview in Arabic. 

12-5-2014

Today, 12-5-2014 from (8:30, 10:00) was another good day of volunteering for me. As usual we met in the future center at 8:00. I went to my class to complete my work. First of all, I helped the teacher when she was start the class. For instance, I motivate the student and organize them. Second, I teach my student a lesson on the computer. I l teach them how to write their names and how to draw a graphs. One of them did the work very well, but another one had some problem. The teacher told me that this student is very good student but he has a problem in his eyes. After that, I teach them math. For example, I teach them how to add numbers. Both of them did a good work. It was a another good day for me. 

5-5-2014 another day of volunteering

Today, 5-5-2014 from (8:00, 10:00) was another good day of volunteering for me. We reach the future center at 8:00 to complete our volunteering. First of all, I helped the teacher to teach them the basic things. For example, we took the attendance and we review with them some small sentences. After that, I teach two of the student how to use the computer. For instance, I teach them how to start the computer and how to use the Word. Next, I teach them math. I teach one of them how to count the number from (10 -40). I teach another one how to add some numbers. It spent a great time with them and I hope to do better work in the coming days.    

30 - 4- 2014

Today, 30-4-2014 from (12:00, 1:00) was another good day of volunteering for me. We reach the future center at 12:00 and we complete our volunteering. The first thing that I did it this day was teaching one of the student the numbers from ( 1-9). After that, the English class started. In the English class, I helped the teacher in teaching them many things. For example, we teach them how to read some small sentences such as “I want milk”. In the end, we give them money and they have to come to us to buy sweets. I hope to do better work in the coming days.   

28-4-2014 Another Day of Volunteering

Today, 28-4-2014 from (8:30, 10:00) was another good day of volunteering for me. As usual we met in the future center at 8:00. We also met our teacher and we talked about how the volunteering going. After that, each one of us went to his class to complete his work. When I enter my class, they were singing some songs. After that, we teach them how to differentiate between colors. For example, we put different colored stamps on the floor and when I tell them the color, they have to jump on it as fast as they can. Some of them were very fast, but others had some problems. Next, I teach two of the student how to write and read some letters in Arabic. One of them was very good and he finished quickly, but another one had a problem in writing. It was a great day. I learn many new things. All of them are very nice and they respect each other. Disable people can do many beneficial things for the society.

third day of volunteering 21-4-2014

Today, 21-4-2014 from (8:30, 10:00) was the third day of volunteering for me. We reach the future center at 8 am. After that, we took our volunteering vest from the reception to complete our volunteering. When I reach the class, there were few students, so I wait until all of them came. We began the class and the teacher start to take the attendance. Next, I teach Mohammad the numbers from ( 1-3). I didn't found difficulty in teaching him because he knows them very well. We teach all of them how to use the telephone. In the end, I teach another student how to organize and count the number from ( 1-9). I spent more than half an hour teaching her because she get confuse when she count. I felt board when I came to the first time to the future center, but now I feel more excited to do more work there. 

Second day of volunteering 16 -4-2014

        Today, 16-4-2014 from (12:00, 1:00) was the second day of volunteering for me. I went to my class in the future center to complete my work. This class was an English class. In the beginning, the teacher asks them some question and my role was to motivate them. After that, we teach them some new things. First of all, we teach them some easy words such as table, and board. Second, we teach them how to read small sentences. We also teach them some parts of the body such mouth and nose. Most of them did a good work in these two parts. When anyone of them answers right, the teacher writes his name on the board. In the end, they sing a song. After these two days, we became more familiar to each other. I was happy when I sit with them and talked with them. 

first day of volunteering 14 - 4 - 2014

         Today, 14-4-2014 from ( 8:30 , 10:00) was the first day of volunteering for me. I went with my friends to the future center. When we reach there, they give us the volunteering vest and they put us in different classes. After that, I went to my class to do my task. The teacher told me about what we will do in this day. In this class, they teach them the basic things. First of all, we took the attendance. For example, their names were written on cards. We called their names and they have to come to take the card and put it on the board. Second, we teach them some traffic signs. Approximately, most of them know the signs, but some of them had a problem in the spelling. In the last, I teach some of them how to write the numbers from 1 to 20. Most of them do the work very good. In the beginning, I thought that it will be difficult to deal with them, but after I went there, I figure out that they are a very nice people. It was a good day for me and I hope to do well in the coming days.     

The plan

“Future Center volunteering project”

Group members:

Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Shaibani

Abdul Hakeem Al Jaberi

Ahmed Saeed Al Naqbi

Ali Abdulrahman Al Kalbani

Humaid Khamis Al Shamsi

Organization information:

Future Center for special needs

o   Contact person: Ms. AnjumJaffer(Head of Education)

§  Tel: +971 2 5533506

§  Email: anjum1@futurecn.ae

Time / Schedule:

Our group will volunteer for 5 weeks in the center starting from 14^th April, 3 hours per week divided into two days.  The schedule will help us to end up with 15 hours of volunteering, but we may add more hours after week 1.

Target audience:

Mental disability, Autism spectrum disorder, multiple disability, Down syndrome, physical disability and speech disorder students.  Students are from different ages and nationalities.

Activities our project will involve:

Sport classes.

IT skills classes.

Art classes.

Outside trips (if it possible).

Afternoon activities (football or basketball).

Aims of the project:

This project has many purposes and outcomes for both of volunteers and target audience.  Us volunteers, we are going to gain experience and background about education volunteering work.

 We will learn more about disabilities and how to treat people with disabilities and disorders, especially that we will learn by doing and dealing with them.

This project is a part of this course, by doing it on the best way we will pass this course with the best outcomes.

Planning and preparing is one of the most important purposes of this project, we will improve our planning skills.

Try to help the target audience and people in the future center as much as we can during our volunteering time.

Come up with new ideas to improve the center services and help the managers with some future possible plans.

                                                     

Benefits of project on target audience:

The philosophy of the center says “Individuals with disabilities have the right to appropriate education and intervention.  They are to be accorded every opportunity for growth and development”.We are dealing with disability people and they have special needs and we should know what they need from us, we have to make sure from everything before we meet them.  Students there are so sensitive and some actions that we see regular may have a negative reflect on them.  For this purpose, the best way to get ready is to think about their needs and put them in levels:

a)      Level one needs

Understanding: Students will feel more comfortable if they find someone who understands them, and by this way the education process will be easy on both of us.

Time – Patient: We should be patient and give the students time, and we always have to remember that we are dealing with disability students.

Support: The purpose of the project is to help these students, and they need moral support more than any other kind of supports.

b)      Level two needs:

Sympathy: To support disability students and help them to improve their skills to involve in the society we have to show them kindness and love.

Listen-notice: If they feel comfortable they will try to say their thoughts and ideas and we should listen.  Sometimes actions say more than words, so noticing is not less importance than listening.

c)      Level three needs:

Opportunity: Disability students need an opportunity to show people around them how good they are and they are not on the same situation anymore, we have to give them opportunities.

Motivation: they may not success from the first opportunity; they need motivation to try again and again and keep improving and learning.

b) Level four needs:

Confidence: Students will gain confidence and believing in themselves by time and after getting their needs from the past levels.

Acceptance: After getting their previous needs, students will have to get the acceptance from the society and people to live naturally.

           

            Challenges:

We are going to face many challenges and we are going to pass them.  Some of these challenges are:

-       The acceptance of the students.

-       We are not allowed to take photos or videos without permission, and by this way our blog reports are going to be weak.

-       The center strict rules (for instance, no phones are allowed during the volunteering hours .. etc)

These challenges will be passed easily and we are going to achieve our target and we will end up with a great experience and project at the end of the course.

ACTIVITY 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     A-  building  mosques

       B- schools 

       C- the maintenance and construction of houses 

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

             a-  Yemen   

b    b-  Sri Lanka   

c     c- Sudan    

d    d-  Pakistan   

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

180830333 million

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

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	Big problems like earthquakes
	crises	Disasters
	rehabilitation	Recovery
	infrastructure	structures
	devastation	damage
	public utilities	Service

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

         a- storms

        b-  earthquakes  

c       c-  tsunami

7.                   Crescent Volunteers University

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

      a.       Volunteer work methods 

          b.       First aid      

  c.         The International Humanitarian Law

activity 6

UNICEF Activity 1:

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

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

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

It is a new award that recognizes media stories that accurately depict the situation of children and young people in the Arab nations of the Middle East.

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

Unicef and the Gulf charity Dubai Cares organize a program that support education programs in Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East.

3-    Former camel jockeys reclaiming their lost childhood.

They sent thousands of other children who work as camel jockeys to their homes.

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
Teach children	We can achieve it by sending books and others things for them
Protect children from diseases	We can do it by sending the basic things for them such as food and clothes
Tell them about new ideas	For example, we can tell them about new idea such as make a park for children

1.     Takatof

Click on the linkhttp://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?

Takatof offers the nation’s youth meaningful opportunities to volunteer for important social causes. It connects them with relevant volunteer opportunities and encourages public service.

Which year did start? And who started it?
In 2007,HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
What volunteer work have they done?

1-      Jacket distribution campaign.

2-      Formula 1 project.

3-      Celebrate the national day.

How can you help?
We can help them by many ways. For examples, I can help them in the national day. I will organize the things with them. Moreover, I can tell them about new events

activity 5

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

1.                  How old were the Games volunteers? All ages

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

         Games Makers

3.                  Complete this quote from David… “… for a moment in time volunteering had a

Profile and an images that they fully deserved but don’t always get.”

4.                  David mentions that some of the volunteers are semi-retired. What does this mean? Work back for their community

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

At Olympia service ( Olympic stadium )

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

7.                  What benefits of volunteering, according to Zoe?

a.       fun

b.      meet new people

c.       confidence

d.      satisfaction

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

Because it help their 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?

All of them want to help his country and community.