Muhammed Rabeeh Nassar - Nominee - Social Volunteer Awards 2021
My name is Muhammed Rabeeh Nassar. I am a graduate student in BSc Mathematics at Sir Syed College, Taliparamba. I am a foodie, sports enthusiast and dreamer. I find happiness with my friends and other people I meet in my life. I am also a huge travelholic. I have been an NSS volunteer for 2 years. I have volunteered in various activities and works with the NSS unit at my college.
VOLUNTEERING FOR ME
I don't see volunteering as a duty or anything. I just love doing it because it makes me happy that I am making a difference, and it gives me extreme satisfaction that I am able to do something for someone other than me and that I could share their burden. Volunteering gives me a sense of belonging, as being part of something big. I try to engage myself in anything I can get my hands on. Volunteering also is something to keep me occupied and gives me a sense of peace with myself.
VOLUNTEERING STORY
I used to be stay at home kid unexposed to the outside world. I have been part of the National Service Scheme unit at Sir Syed College, Taliparamba. I had been a NSS volunteer for 2 years there. It gave a great sense of satisfaction and belonging when I work with all the others. The work, however hard, just don't make us tired because we were doing it together. There is no reason for 'why' I volunteer. I just love doing it and ever since NSS exposed me to it, I have been inspired to do more and more volunteer work. Besides that, even after I graduated, with this experience in mind, I still volunteer in my town and around, wherever I can. So basically, I have been doing the same for the past 4 years.
VOLUNTEERING JOURNEY
I was selected as an NSS volunteer in my first year of college. The Program Officers design various schemes and works for us to do, within the campus and outside, with the community. We, as a team, participated in various activities throughout the 2 years as volunteer. We had done a variety of works around our town. Let me tell you about the works I have been involved in. I help in cleaning the campus every week. We collect plastic wastes from around campus and within and help in cleaning the weeds and other wastes around. Then I helped in growing and cultivating various vegetable crops in a empty plot we had converted for this purpose. I had volunteered in growing rice crops in fields with the help of some Panchayat members. We had sown and cultivated and harvested around 300 kg of rice. Other works include:
1. Cooking food for the patients at the local government hospital.
2. Cooperating with Taliparamba Municipality to conduct a survey to collect data of citizens for conducting 7th grade equivalency exam to increase the literacy rate in our municipality.
3. Organizing blood drives to educate students about the importance of donating blood and also assist the blood bank authorities to collect blood from willing students.
4. Organizing a 7 day camp in a rural area and helping out the locals with their various needs like cleaning their water sources, building flood-resistant barriers, health surveys and so on.
5. We had a scheme called 'Vidyasarathi' where we volunteered at a school where they had low pass percentage in higher secondary level. We studied the problems of the students and every weekend, went to the school to help the students in studying and revising their topics and teach them.
6. The students had collectively raised funds to build houses for homeless families and also helped in the construction work too. We had successfully accomplished our objective last year.
7. We have helped in cleaning out homes affected by the floods and helped in making the homes habitable once again.
8.The students together visited many old age homes and special schools and spent time wjth the people there and helped them in many ways.
These are few examples of the work I did when I was an NSS volunteer.
I also had recently helped in organizing a Covid vaccination camp in my area and had volunteered there too.
PROJECT
Vidyasarathi(വിദ്യാസാരഥി)
ORGANISATION
National Service Scheme, Sir Syed College
MISSION & VISSION
The main aim of this scheme was to to find out and understand the problems of various low performing students at Cheruthazham Higher Secondary School. The students in our college interacted with the students in the school and we together tried to understand what problems the students were facing and tried to help them overcome these problems. We aimed to to increase the percentage of students passing out from the school and aid the students in overcoming various problems they faced while studying. The main objective was to encourage peer learning and to give students a different experience of studying apart from the usual teaching methods. It also I am din keeping the college students connected with the school students so that they can track the academic progress of these students. Hence, it aimed to increase the number of students passing every year from the school.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The principal of the college, the NSS programme officer and the volunteers of of the NSS unit by cooperating with the the school authorities and panchayat members came up with this scheme. Cheruthazham HSS had a very low students passing out percentage and this scheme aimed to overcome that issue and help more students to graduate from the school every year. The authorities instructed the students on how to interact with students and what problems they were facing. The volunteers were made aware of the importance of peer learning. The volunteers were instructed to go there every week and help the students. A selected group of students went to the school every week and try to understand the problems the students were facing and try to help them overcome these problems.We were assigned a group of weakly-performing students of the school so as to help them overcome the problems they faced in their academics. We went to the school every weekend and after analysing the study materials of the students, we helped them study and revise the topics they were taught in that week. We also taught them some topics and had them in clearing various doubts they had while studying. We managed to create a friendly atmosphere for the students where uh they can openly interact Vikas anthers help them channeling the frustration and troubles they had while studying and other problems they had while attending classes. We, as students ourselves could understand why they were facing such issues. Thus, we were able to attend to many of the students' problems and help them overcome them. We also kept contact with the students through WhatsApp and video calls to track their academic and study progress. We created a platform for them to interact with us and clear any doubts they had at whatever time they wanted. All the this was small and first step, we did manage to to increase the number of students passing out from the school. We hope to make even better progress in the forthcoming years.
LENGTH OF SERVICE
This project is just at its beginning stage.
Start Date: 27 September 2019
End date(of first stage): 15 March 2020
Hours spent: 160 hours
ROLE IN PROJECT
My role in this project was to help students in studying and revising various topics they had learnt in that week. I studied their materials and textbooks and designed questions and study materials for them to get even deeper knowledge of their subjects. I retaught the students in the lessons of that week and then helped them revise the same. I also conducted small quizzes to test their knowledge in the subjects.
I would say I gave my level best in helping these students. I love interacting with children and this has been helpful in getting my fully involved in the task. I used my own personal experience in my school days to understand what the problems the students were facing and thus was able to get to a level of understanding with them.
I would say it helped me extremely as teaching is one of my hobbies and this has facilitated in me getting an experienced out of it. It has been a great experience overall. Also, it gave me that feeling that I was doing something great and something virtuous and that lifted my spirits a lot. I felt really good helping out those students and also spending time with them as it aslo reminded me of my school days.
IMPACT OF PROJECT
The project aims to help more and more students graduate from high school. Thus it helps them to pursue their higher studies faster . It promotes the idea of developing a system where you educate and get educated by your own peers and help each other in studying and aiding each others' academic progress. It promotes a sense of unity, belonging and also raises a healthy mentality of helping others. The improvement in the education level of the community and the number of students graduating could help the community a lot as the literacy level, the number of qualified students are elevated and hence improve the quality of the community in the educational sector. It also helps the local government in making successful changes in the community by contributing to the educational sector. The parents of the students could also benefit from this by having their child, however weak, graduate from school and making even more achievements. The students benefited a lot from the project. Peer learning is something that needs to be encouraged a lot and could be helpful to lots of students. These students have gotten a taste for it and we hope they carry that spirit forward. This method brings on a positive spirit among students. They also learner a lot, helped themselves and each other a lot, thus effectively fulfilling the objective of this mission. The project was only implemented in 2019 and didn't have huge effects in the community. But it did bring on evident changes in the school and students. We hope to get even better results by further implementing this project and help even more students get benefits from this project. By expanding the project further, we hope to make even greater impact on the students and the community .
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
GOAL 4: Quality Education
ACHIEVEMENTS
I am more of a contributor than an achiever. I help in every small way I can and engage in everything that comes before me. I am a graduate in Mathematics.
FUTURE PLANS
Let me say, I am not much of a planner. I am more of a contributor, a more live-in-the-moment kind of person. I intend to help out in any way I can and be part of anything that could make a difference. The Foundation could contribute towards supporting aspiring volunteers so as to bring them forward and encourage them to show more enthusiasm. Personally, they could help me by opening up more oppurtunities and involving me in bigger things which I can be a part of.
Are you an aspiring volunteer, put your ideas into action at
National Volunteers Hackathon 2021
www.socialsolutionsindia.in/national-volunteers-hackathon-2021