Self Reflection

After volunteering with my colleagues in the Future Center, we have decided to set together and discuss what happened on that period of time.

First of all, I think that we have benefited from this volunteering project a lot; we have learned how to deal with disabled people in a good way. I went to a deep level with the students, they started to love me and they always wanted me to work with them during their Arabic, Science, and math classes. I have learned how to be patient, it is a must to be patient there because disabled people might think in a different way or they might also take so much time to think about something or to learn something.

When we know what we most fear, we know what we most care about. I have always feared disabled people, but after working with them, I learned that they are normal people, just like us. I have also learned that serving the community is not a bad thing at all, people might say that there is no salary for volunteering, I personally do not agree with them because the real salary is what you learn there.

I cannot say that there was no negative things there, one of the negative things I have seen there is that most of the parents over care on their disabled kids, which is definitely a bad thing because it reflects badly on kids themselves and the community.

This experience reflected on me positively, it changed my way of thinking. I used to hate and fear disabled people for no reason, but one month of volunteering, I learn that these people are a gift from god; we have to care about them just like our brothers. I became a better person; I learned so many new things. Respect, patience, dependability are some of the new values I gained from this course. 

Interview

Al Salamu Alaikum, 

Ali Al Kalbani is speaking from Higher Colleges of Technology doing my Community Service course volunteering interview.

First of all, I would like to know more about you Ms. Nadia?

-       My name is Ms. Nadia Salim Makki, special needs teacher, I have graduated from Al Qahira university. I worked on this field since 1987 and I am working here on the future center for 13 years. I love this field cause I actually did the same job in my country and I love to serve these people because they learn continuously without stopping and they develop even if they do slowly but at least they do.

Tell me about the Future Center?

-       Future center is an organization that serves people with special need, child, teens and adults and we are not specialized on one disability, some of the organizations specialize on Autism as an example, but here we don’t. We serve the disable people until they reach a level to serve their selves by them selves but qualifying them. It is the future center; we care about their future. We have a lot of disable people who are working right now at some banks or other places.

What are the Future Center values?

-       The main value that we have here is that we all serve these students and we don’t have teacher or coordinators or supervisors because we are all the same, we all serve these people. One of the main values also is that we care about our students the most, we all have to give all what we have with all techniques to serve them, we have to serve without stopping. It is not ink paper, this is the reality, the student here is our number one responsibility.

Did our volunteering affect the students and the teachers?

-       I always be extremely happy when I see young local students coming here to volunteer, even the students who come from high schools and Arabic school or even western schools. This affects the students on a way that you will never imagine, they learn how to deal with people that they don’t know well, they break the routine to meet new people and communicate with them. As for me as a teacher, I find it very nice for students like you Ali and your colleagues to volunteer with disable people, you will learn that these people are not different from us, they are disable and we are all disable, some people have visible disability like them, but we have a hidden disability also. When volunteers come and when the youth come to the future center it is a very good thing for you and for your physiological life, you contributed with your colleagues to make a service for you community, and as the time passes you will start thinking about them and trying to get closer to these people and learn more about them. Your presence here is very good for the student’s motivational life.

What do you think about me, personally?

-       I am very happy to work with you, Ali, and we got used to you and will also miss you, students are happy to have you in our class, and I am happy that every class I gave you a student to take care of and you did a very good job dealing with them, you were patient and the students liked you, you now know them all and all of them know you well, you worked with them on the Arabic, Mathematics, Science, English and the PE classes and even while praying, it was a good experience for you and for the students. You’ve seen today when you can how they were happy and all of them walked to you to shake hands with you, and they will definitely miss you when you will go, they will start asking about you every Monday and Wednesday. I am really happy that you are here with us, I wish that all of the volunteers who come here work hard like you.

Do you have any questions about us? As volunteers from the HCT?

-       I wanted to ask something, will volunteering be benefit you?

-       For me as a Chemical Engineer, I will work on Petroleum fields so working with disable people wont benefit me on my career life, but it would definitely benefit me on my daily life.

Thanks Ms. Nadia for you time, have a nice day!

*link* http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Zp2wyIb6v2 

(the interview was in arabic)

Fifth week at the Future Center

12 May, 2014

As usual, we arrived at 8:00 am and we took our cards and went to the classes. We did the morning ring and I told the teacher that I will be interviewing them on Wednesday so they be ready for the interview. The class started and I sat with Ammar, an Egyptian disable child, he was very smart and we did everything fast, we finished early and he played with the iPad while i prepared the plates for them.


14 May, 2014

Once we took our cards and went to the classes, I started the interview with Ms. Nadia, unfortunately I was not allowed to take a video or a picture there. 

Fourth Week at the Future Center

Monday 5 May, 2014

We reached the Future center at 8:00 am and we joined our classes after taking our volunteering cards. I started helping students moving their chairs and disks to make a morning ring. Mr. Mohammed was talking to the children and I was trying to motivate them so we all have a nice day, we reminded each other of our names and ages and where we live, then the class started. I sat with Zeyad, an Egyptian disable child to help him solving his mathematics problems for the whole class. After that I helped them with putting the plates on the tables so they can have their breakfast.

Third week at the future center

Monday 28 April, 2014

For our third week, we went early to the Future Center. We took our cards as usual and we met our Community Service teacher, Mr. Gregory, and then we all went to our classes. We did the morning ring and discussed many things about the Arabic language, mathematics, science and also 5 minutes of developing the pronunciation. After that, I started the mathematics class by going around the class and helping Mr. Mohammed and Ms. Nadia with teaching some new topic and revising some old topics, and I also corrected some papers with the teachers. I kept doing that until it was 10:00 am, I helped the students to get their food ready and after that I left because I had a class on 15 minutes.


Wednesday 30 April, 2014

After asking the Statistical mathematics teacher for a permission to leave the class early, we went immediately to the future center. Once we tool the cards, we rushed to our classes so we can reach on time. There was a new English teacher with Mr. Mohammed and Ms. Nadia, teaching the children how to buy things from the supermarket, she had some chocolate, chips and juice. Each student came by him self and picked what he wants, they learned how to ask politely and how to pay without getting fooled. After that, we all went to pray at the next room. After we finished, the students went to the busses and I waited for Sultan Al Marar's dad to come and pick him up. We finished the day at the future center with extreme happiness because we are helping the community. 

Second week at the future center

Monday 21 April, 2014

When we reached the future center at 8:00 am, we took our cards and joined the classes immediately. We did the morning ring and reminded each other of the day, month, year and we also reminded each other of the days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday.. etc). After that, each student went to his chair and desk and we started solving the mathematics problems. I sat with Sultan Al Marar, an Emirati disable child (14 years old) to start working together. We started with the number from 1 to 15, adding and subtracting and counting. Sultan did a great unusual job, he was the best on that day. At the end, each student brought his plate and spoon and they started having their breakfast, everyone was happy and hyper that day!!

Wednesday 23 April, 2014

As a group, none of us went on that day because some of the volunteers had an appointment with their sponsor, so we wanted to stay on the same schedule.

My first week at the Future Center

Day 1/ Monday, April 14th, 2014

We have reached the future center at 8:00 am and it was our first day, Ms. Anjum showed us the place and distributed us into different classes. My first class was with Ms. Nadia and Mr. Mohammed, they asked me to introduce my self to them and to the students, I have told them who I am and what I am doing here. They welcomed me and it didn't take them a lot of time to break the borders with me, I felt comfortable and the first minutes were amazing!

The first class is the mathematics class, they are still young but I can feel that they are no different than us, they can solve even better than us!
We spent the day practicing simple math problems (addition) except for one student who mastered the multiplication topic.


Day 2/ Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

We have reached the Future Center at 12:00 pm (we asked our Statistics teacher if we can leave before the class ends cause we have volunteering and he agreed). We took our volunteering cards and started our classes, the second class for me was Arabic. The class was interesting because I saw the teachers teaching the students how to pronounce the words correctly, the learn so fast but sometimes they are shy. The class ended at 1 pm and the students left, I have waited for the students until they all left at 1:40 pm.

We are not allowed to take any pictures yet..