It was a beautiful morning on the 12th of March, 2019, at the Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, as students with a lot of excitement and curiously awaited the arrival of resource person, Ms. Sarita Badhwar, representing the AFS organization and guest speaker, Mr. Nihal Kovvali, to give valuable insights into sustainable development. The workshop was attended by 41 students overall.
The workshop Effect+ had an energetic start to the session, with an in-depth introduction about the AFS India delivered by Ms. Sarita. AFS is an educational, international, non – government, non – profitable and a volunteer-based organization with the mission of social impact programs, empowering young people to build essential life skills to become active global citizens.
In today’s fast and changing global economies that are becoming more digitally connected, AFS strives for people to understand the value and respect for various cultures, which could help in maintaining peace throughout the world. Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, had the privilege of being a part of the AFS family.
The main theme of the workshop was on “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDG’s). We were introduced to some key concepts of sustainability, global citizenship, and global competence along with 17 other goals of the United Nations to be accomplished by 2030. We enjoyed the talk on human activism by Mr. Nihal, about our duties to serve our country and then the world.
A session on the Butterfly Effect was simply awesome, that clearly explained on how small things can cause a big impact bringing about change. To enhance our understanding, we all had a chance to participate in a fascinating activity to learn how the whole world is interlinked and interdependent. It practically proved how a small effect can cause a big impact across the world.
We also had the opportunity to view a couple of videos of TED talks given by Ms. Shabana Basij – Rasikh, founder of SOLA – School of Leadership Afghanistan, with her strong desire to bring about a change in her country, by educating girls who were forbidden from attaining education. It also highlighted on how everyone aspired change but nobody initiates change. We are all aware on the global warming condition that is having a huge impact on our environment but we still refrain from practices that can avert the problem. It was a great opportunity to see the impact of Mr. Afroz Shah, the champion of the Earth Award Winner.
The concluding session mostly focused the uniqueness a change maker possesses, mainly characteristics like wit, good people skills, broad-mindedness, authenticity, modesty, and optimism. After that, everyone gave a brief sketch of the attractions and beauties of their neighborhood and also described the changes they would welcome in their surroundings. We have retained our learning from the workshop with fixed action plans and it was hard to say goodbye to this amazing workshop and to keep our memories alive, we had a photo session.