AFS Effect+ workshop at Choithram International

On 1 August, Ms Sarita Badhwar from AFS, an international organization that promotes intercultural understanding, conducted a Workshop for MYP-5 and DP-1 learners. The interactive workshop began with a communication and social exercise: each student was encouraged to describe one unique quality for another and subsequently, build a stronger relationship. Next, we discussed the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN and how AFS is actively working to help UN achieve the SDGs. This discussion was followed by a thought-provoking presentation by Dr. Divya Gupta on Jwala, an NGO she is associated with. Jwala empowers women by training them in vocational skills and self-defence. Students interacted with Ms. Divya raising a variety of questions and learning the difference between the situation on the ground and our perception of it. Ms. Sarita carried the workshop further by asking us to introspect: What qualities do we need to develop to become effective change makers? We also studied the stories of two change makers Shabana Basij Rasikh who opened the first boarding school for girls in Afghanistan and Afroz Shah who inspired hundreds of people to participate in the world’s largest beach clean-up in Mumbai over the last 5 years. Towards the end of the workshop, we reflected on income inequality by role playing different individuals in society from a single, unemployed mother to a rich, influential businessman and realized that change has to be local - it must begin with us in our own neighbourhoods as Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”