Making Well Cover @ Savarkundla_Divij_Sanjanwala

Description of the particular activity and goals:

This activity was a school led activity where we as students had to contribute towards the biodiversity by creating a well cover at a site. The crisis at the location was that, animals including the Asiatic lions fell into the wells and severely injured themselves or died. These cases are completely preventable by the humans by creating a well cover which could help us prevent losing biodiversity. Hence collaborating with rural pleasure (NGO), we went to the site and built a well cover designed for a certain type of a well.

We covered Creativity: designing a well cover, Activity: On field labour and Service: serving the environment during the course of the activity.

2. Meaningful reflection explaining the learning outcomes achieved using the following questions.

I achieved a lot of learning outcomes like, 

• Learning outcome 2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills: This learning outcome had been covered while we were developing and learning new skills of handling heavy machinery. We learnt, how to cut, weld and polish metals used in the well cover. These skills could help me in my life as, I want to pursue an engineering career which would hence allow me to use these skills of cutting and welding.
• Learning outcome 3– initiate and plan a CAS experience: We had a planning and understanding stage where we understood how the camp would proceed, and we were also introduced to the design of the well. We planned less but learned how to plan such work. We listened to the workers who were our sole educators while going through the building process. We discussed the plans like measurements and cutting measurements with the educators (Workers) and then proceeded with the work.
• Learning outcome 5– Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively: We learnt a lot of skills while we worked in a group as we assigned duties and gave turns to each and every member to learn and try out different tools with great care. We cared for each other and helped one another to be proficient in a task. We understood that a work may end faster if we worked in a group, hence realized to value each and every individual in the group as every individual has a certain significance. Every person was good at different things. It is important to collaboratively work as we learn things from each other, working with my friend helped to gain new skills that he had developed very well. It was difficult to work with my friends as everyone had different ways to work on, hence as the working style differed, it was difficult for me to collaborate. Though generally working with everyone is difficult for me generally as I usually have different thinking than my peers.
• Learning outcome 6-engagement with issues of global significance:
• The endangered Asiatic Lions shared a great global significance as they only exist in Africa and in West India. This completes the biodiversity change and if so many lions die then those become endangered species. Hence saving them by creating well covers would help solving global crisis of endangered Asiatic Lions. Knowing about those issues would increase my general knowledge about what is happening to the world, hence would make us self-aware. About 250 lions died past 5 years, if this continues then it would be really difficult to maintain the levels of biodiversity.
• Learning outcome 7: Lions are a special belonging for our nation and the world. Preserving their habitats and the animals are our responsibility. Hence I thought to make an ethical choice for my action of making a well cover to preserve the beauty of nature.

Final take away

“Life isn’t just about succeeding and trying to be first in the human race”. It is also about serving the community and doing good too the community. Our prize for this achievement/service would pay off in the future as when we expect the Asiatic Lion population to increase and be safe from endangered. We understood the beauty of nature and explored the lifestyles of individuals living in the village. We realized the importance of biodiversity and understood the link between humans and the biodiversity.

We even understood, how prestigious the place, Savarkundla was, as this was one of the only places where endangered Asiatic Lions are found. I would preferable revisit the place just because it is an escape from the busy city we live in. It also reenergized me.

We even learnt some beautiful aspects of life such as living in simplicity. As the place where we lived had very less resources and no luxury items. This also made us adapt according to the situation and we developed another ethic of life, which is adaptability.

This was a lifelong experience where we served the community as well we developed our own self at multiple areas.