COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMITTEE: A SUMMARY OF OUR PROGRESS SO FAR

Being a high school student is really hard work. Especially when you reach grade 12, your last and most important year. You have work pouring in from every direction. Your assignments never seem to come to an end, the pile of homework only gets bigger and guess what? You have to complete your university applications as well. Although students at this stage are extremely busy, they are given the unique opportunity to be a part of the student council, trying their best to introduce innovative and interesting ideas to better their school. Fortunately, I was given a similar opportunity this year which I was both delighted and hesitant to accept. I was appointed head of community service, and although I realized this role was going to enable me to help improve the student experience at Manarat, I feared that in turn my studies would suffer. I feared I would be unable to keep up with deadlines and would not be able to meet expectations of the people around me. However, I was advised by friends and family to accept this role, and I would like to tell you all what we at the Community Service Committee have achieved, what we plan to achieve and lessons we have learned from our respective duties.

Motivational Speaker: Mr. Mutah ‘Napolean’ Beale:

We were able to introduce a new volunteer speaker initiative at Manarat, where we planned to invite inspirational people to deliver motivational talks. It was much harder than we thought, but we were able to get in touch with Mr. Beale, a former musician who was a member of a very popular rapping group known as Outlawz. He now lives in Riyadh, runs a restaurant and coffee shops and has his own clothing brand, known as Thirty Three. The most impressive aspect about his story to us was his conversion to Islam, after working in the music industry for many years and being one of the most successful artists of our time. We hoped the students at Manarat would be keen to learn about his struggle, and be motivated to try their best to achieve their goals.

Recycling:

We introduced recycling bins around the school, that gave students the opportunity to discard waste in the most efficient way possible, and help to improve their communities. Although the response from students has not been great, we hope we can try next term to raise even more awareness for our environment.

Food drive:

One of the first projects we launched was our food drive. We published several lists with common necessities required by every human being, and asked students to donate anything they could. At first, student response was extremely low but after several weeks of reminders from teachers and fellow student council members, we were able to receive very large quantities of donations which we passed on to a local charity that distributed them amongst the needy.

Curriculum Counselling:

Another idea we had this year was to provide educational support to students in lower grades. Although we have not been able to organize an event this term, we plan to launch our first event early next term. This idea involves seniors from different grades and subjects providing support to younger students that need help.

Bunyaan Charities:

Bunyaan is a charity that operates locally, providing for needy people around the city. We contacted them about any help they need and we were surprised to hear that they did not need any donations of food or clothes, rather they asked us to come once a week to one of their centres to teach the children there how to read, write and speak English. We feel this is a very noble cause and we hope to introduce this initiative next term, to give students an opportunity to give back to their community, by volunteering each week to visit Bunyaan, and try to improve the lives of children living there.

One of the most important lessons we have learned is effective communication between our committee and the students. We have realised the importance of planning and research. But most importantly, we have learned to explore new things. There are many opportunities we encounter every single day of our lives, but fail to pursue because we fear failure. Take that first plunge, explore ideas you never have before, work hard and never give up. Who knows? You might just achieve the biggest success of your life.

I would also like to thank the members of my team:

• Rakan Al Janobi

• Mohaimin Daud

• Adam El Rifai

• Faiq Ali

• Musa Khaleel

• Furqan Khan

• Dhawi Yousuf Al Majnouni

• Ibrahim Al Nassar

• Osama Hassaan

• Zubair Momen

Without them, none of our initiatives would have ever been possible.