Shaping a Better World: A Year in Review

 

By Florence Wayas
Service Learning Coordinator

The 2020-21 academic year has been an amazing year for Service Learning at Branksome Hall Asia. As challenging as the global pandemic has been, the future looks bright because of the young people who have stepped up to meet this challenge through our whole school service initiatives and student-led projects.

In Term 1, as a whole school, we created Christmas Shoeboxes in association with Jeju Furey, to provide Jeju orphans with a fun-filled box of items that were both needed and wanted. Our focus during Semester 1 was the Service Pillar: Sacrifice. Our students used their own pocket money to make their contributions. This theme was reinforced through the work of the Service Council who held a Sacrifice week, during which students sacrificed their money, time and talents to help others in need, such as the Jeju Animal Shelter. The Jeju Animal shelter was also supported through the proceeds of the lovely calendar made by our Junior School students in their Paws for Thought service CASE. Over the November break our students and faculty took part in a project to knit hats for Save the Children. Further, our Grade 8 students, led by their Grade Level Coordinator, Ms. Pichay, held their first Candygram raising KRW 2,500,000 for UNICEF Korea and Korean Food for the Hungry International.

During Semester 2, we had fun dressing up and raising money for organizations such as Korean Women’s Hotline, Good Neighbors, Korean Kids Orphanage Outreach Mission, and Korean Unwed Mothers’ Families Association. This fundraising took place during Spirit Week. These organizations do such important work to support vulnerable members of the community and empower women. 

We continued this theme with our #MyFreedomDay event, which raised awareness in our school about global issues such as Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery. Believe it or not, the main people affected by these activities are females and children. This topic is very sensitive and created a lot of soul searching in our community. In true Service Learning style, our students had the opportunity to research these issues from different academic perspectives using the DeBono method which promotes critical thinking skills, before planning and choosing a Service Action through reflection and sharing this on our #MyFreedomDay wall. We all chose to sign the #MyFreedompledge because we believe that freedom should be free for everyone.

This term our Service Council led a Stop Asian Hate demonstration to raise awareness of the rise in crimes against Asians around the world and to start a movement to stop all Asian racism, including the hate between different Asian cultures. As a school that develops globally minded citizens, it is so important that our students gain knowledge of the real problems that exist in the world, so that they can do something about these issues. Some of these problems are unpleasant but it is a testament to our students that they are able to approach them with maturity and conviction.

We capped off the year with our annual Service Fair, which was delivered virtually and opened with an amazing keynote by Kiko Matthews. The Judges gave their time and expertise to impart knowledge and advice to all entrants to the Fair and all our student speakers impressed us with their knowledge and passion. It was lovely to see our Service Fair grow to include younger students and other schools such as NLCS and Chadwick International School.

There is so much more I could share, our collaboration with Habitat for Humanity in Grade 10 Design and our engagement with UNESCO Global Geopark in Grade 6 Science. Or, our annual Movember Day to support men’s health issues. Perhaps, it is fitting to end by mentioning our recent recognition through the 2021 International School Award for Community Initiative due to the work of our Paradigm Service CASE, who have worked to help global communities for over 4 years.

The future is truly bright and I am so proud to have played an instrumental role in the founding and development of the Branksome Hall Asia Service Learning Program.