SAISA

The SAISA football season is progressing very well. I have been given the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the team and to my CAS experience with the position of Team Captain. Im quite proud of this achievement and it will definately give me and opportunity to develop new skills as it is not a challenge i have had to rise to before. It will also give me a chance to consider the ethical implications of my actions. I will be in a position where people are looking to me for guidance and motivation, therefore the part i play when on the field is going be far more significant. The way i act will affect the way the team functions to a small extent.

We have been playing games against the middle school boys and also against CIS. We are coming together as a team and our collaborative skills are coming on two fold. I feel far more confident than I did last year about our team as there is a definate sense of understanding concerning the roles we have to play. I think that this is something positive im learning from this season that hasnt been encouraged as much in previous years. The idea of deligation, that we each have a specific role and only if we focus wholly on achieving this and working towards our goal will we be able to do well as a team.

DO A JOB SAVE A DOG

Our next goal was to raise money, and an opportunity has presented itself for us to do this. The primary school is holding a talent show which the group has decided they would like to hold a bakesale for. We began to Plan and Innitiate the idea of selling baked goods to the audience of the primary school talent show. We discussed it briefly at the end of our last session however i was not entirely enthusiastic and certain that the group would remember and be fully commited to the idea. However today proved me wrong. Everyone showed their full commitment to the elective by bringing in their good and giving up their break to deliver and sell the goods to the primary student. The innitiative raised 5,000 rupees which we were able to put towards the final sterilisation. Our next initiative is again aims to raise the same amount of money and will be announced at the assembly next week.
The Crux of the idea is that we will offer our services as an elective to do any odd job required for a small amount of money. the campaign is titled "GIVE A JOB SAVE A DOG" we hope that the community will respond positively to this.

SAISA FOOTBALL

The SAISA football season began this month and so far it has been going particularly well. I am trying to take a leadership role among the group along with May and Charlotte as we are the most senior members of the group. Training has been quite light, and we expect it to get much harder after the ocotber break. I think that being the oldest gives it an entirely new dimension and i think it is something that May and I are enjoying. As a team we will be travelling to Chennai in November and this should provide a good opportunity to showcase our skills as a team and our individual leadership abilities.
In terms of relating to the learning outcomes I think that this season of football will increase areas of my own strenght (particularly as i am now a senior member of the team) it will require that i work collaboratively with others and show perseverance and commitment with this activity. This element will be displayed by the fact that i will be attending all the practices despite our heavy workload.

SUNFLOWER VILLAGE

Sunflower Village has been cancelled this year as a result of the students not being able to attend due to study commitments. While this is quite sad as the sessions had quite a lot of social and physical benefits for the children, we have had to show innitiative and reform the group to continue our work in the pool but in another direction.

Shamith our group leader was made aware of a hospital/school in Colombo 5 called Chithra lane. They expressed a need for help and so on the second week of CAS we visited the intstitution to find out what they needed. As they had a pool themselves and quite advanced facilities it became obvious that it was not weekly interaction that they required but instead help with their technology facilities. They need our help to set up a website by which they can gain publicity and hopefully increase their funding which has dropped considerably in the last year.

As not all memebers of the group can work on this we again explanded our reach and those of us who are not website technitians can get back to the pool. A local government school in the area now sends a group of 15 boys to learn to swim once a week. We had our frist meeting with them last week and it was particularly interesting. We are used to dealing with the Sunflower Children and most of us attempted to treat them in the same way, however this was not relavent. Language is even more of an issue this time as we are trying to tech the technicalities of swimming as opposed to simply being social and playing.

DAWG

As it was world animal day on the fourth of october DAWG set up its yearly innitiative to collect food for the local pound. This is done by means of a competition, each grade level competes for a pizza party by bringing in the most amount of food. Last year organising this took quite some time and effort, however this year with the motivation of the sixth grade participants in the activity it ran extremely smoothly. Their energy is really contrinuting a large amount to the programme. We managed to do what took last years group of grade 11s and 12s 3 weeks in one session. After collecting the food last wednesday not suprisingly GRADE 6 won the competition. We collected a huge amount of food, and medicine and hope to organise a trip for the elective to go and see the pound so they can better understand where their money is going.

WORKING WITH THE BLUE PAW TRUST

We have also been doing some work with the Blue Paw Trust. They came to give the elective a talk about correct care and awareness of street dogs. Unfortunately they arrived late and were unable to talk to the students, but Charlotte and I held a meeting with them in which they provided us with a lot of helpful material, in the form of leaflets and posters, about care etc, that we can use to raise awareness within the school. They also invited us to help out at one of their annual events, the BAUWAUW Street Dog Show. The event was held on Sunday 4th of October in conjuction with world Rabies day. The day showcased the talents of street dogs and promoted the idea of adopting from the street as so many need homes. It was held in a local park in colombo and was a successful day. 2 of our students joined Charlotte Miss Heijnen and I at the fair. Our job was to promote the face painting stall and generally get a feel for their organisation so we will be able to help out next year.

NEXT PLAN

Our next goal is to begin the serious fund raising activities. Miss Shamilla has agreed that if we can raise 25,000 Rs. she will double it, a sum which will enable us to hold the sterilisation. There are also plans to join with HFH in the organisation of a fun run as no one is undertaking the responsibility of holding that this year. The 5k run will without a doubt raise the 20,000 rs. needed to continue.