LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
I joined "un Techo para mi País" back in Middle School back in 2014, but I learned so much from this experience that I had to include this as one of my top CAS activities that I have done. The whole point of Techo is that we have to collaborate with others and create a group to be able to have enough people to build the house. Not only do you have your team mates from school working together, but the people who we were making the house helped us to build as well. This shows the engagement and interest of wanting to get the house done quickly. Since we only had two days of building, needed all the help we could get. Building together made us friends and a family, we helped each other carrying materials up and down the hill, and to re-pay us, the families thanked us with a lunch they had prepared for everyone.
LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Techo's goal is to be able to help others with need; poverty is a big issue in Peru, where not everyone is as lucky as those who live under a roof and have they own room, separated from their family. Working with Techo and attending all meeting prior to the build let me view this issue as a serious problem, and it inspired me to collect as much money as possible. Before the build, we had to collect money to reach a certain amount to be able to pay for the supplies. Because we so engaged to help out with this issue, we asked family members that lived outside of Peru to be able to pay for it. We went around school and asked for any donation we could receive. Going to the build, I realized that rural areas such as the place we went was just blocks away from my house. It shocked me to see, being the first time in this place, that I live in a bubble, where not much of the "rural side" of Peru is shown. To say thank you to the family and to inaugurate the house, we brought in balloons and ribbons to decorate the place before giving it to them. The smiles on their face said it all, the way there smiles illuminated the room made me feel proud of what I did. I might have not solved the whole issue in Peru, but I did help one family to improve the situation for them .
Here are some pictures that were taken on Day 1 and Day 2 of our build: