Sudden Change!

So Avinash and I were prepared to lead DAWG; already having ideas to promote the community service group.  Here were some of our plans (plan activities):

Action Plan:

• Fashion show (for teachers) a December 2013
• Food drive
• Rebuilding dog shelter a raise money from events
• Dog t-shirts a at fashion show
• Dog calendars a sell at fashion show

BEFORE CAS SELECTION DAY

• Get pictures of the shelter and pictures of puppies a get people to help us recruit people

Unfortunately, we just found out today that our community service group was canceled due to some financial issues because apparently it is an expensive service group to continue.  However we have been informed of a new service group that is being introduced without any service leaders.  This service group is called ‘The Forgotten Children’ which was founded by Mehr, who is one of my classmates.  The Forgotten Children (TFC) is “A youth-run non-profit organization for the eradication of Child Prostitution.  The main and sole purpose of “The Forgotten Children” is to raise awareness and funds for the eradication of Child Sex Tourism in Sri Lanka.”  I have been appointed as the Treasurer of the group which will be in “charge of general financial oversight, sales, financial planning, budgeting, financial reporting, book-keeping and record-keeping.” (commitment in activity).  However other than this main leadership role in the group, I will be working with the peers in this service group to educate those who have been or have a possibility of being affiliated with people (work with Child Sex Tourism) and make sure that their children will not end up with the same fate that many others have.  A popular place for child sex tourism is Negombo, which is not a well known fact.  However it is said that people travel across the world to go to places like Negombo and it is an issue that should be dealt with more.  I can say for myself that I didn’t realize that Child Sex Tourism was such a major issue in this country till Mehr had introduced me to the project.  It is a completely new area of service for me because the service I have done so far hasn’t ever been related to a community of people caught up in a very serious and dangerous situation.  Since it is being newly introduced to OSC, I will be contributing in building a foundation of the service at OSC along with Avinash and Mehr, to make the service group strong and eventually (though not in the near near future) build a program for those affected by this issue (engage with issues of global importance).  Since a lot of this project is going to be organizing events to raise money and awareness as well as traveling around and talking to people about the issue, I will have to build up my skills in being able to talk to strangers and maybe in front of people, which is a big fear that I have (developing new skills/undertaking new challenges).  I’m really excited about joining this group and it has been recognized in the country by the Co-MUN group in Sri Lanka.  Issues like Child Sex Tourism is a serious issue globally that hasn’t been addressed enough and I hope that I can really help in making a difference for those who have been exposed to this world and been a part of that world (perseverance in activity).

“The Forgotten Children” logo