I would like to thank members of the ACS community especially Julia Grifferty and Nuno Andrade for inviting me to be part of a magical afternoon at the ladies camp in Khalifa City A. The purpose of the gathering for me was to have a time away from the daily life, both for the students and workers. The students were presenting a water filtration system that they had purchased by doing different fundraisers, each of the workers were gifted with a reusable water bottle.
I was invited as a guest to do an “Expression Session”,a means of bringing poetry therapy or poetry as a way of self-expression to the ladies in the camp.
There was a wide range of nationalities represented in the camp. There were ladies from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. It seemed that for the most part everyone understood English, but we did have a wonderful student translator Vidushi Saxena who translated into Hindi.
Here is part of the write up in the ACS newsletter.
WATER FOR WORKERS EVENT – POWER OF DEEP ENGAGEMENT
This final service event captures the multi-layered dimensions of REAL service learning and community engagement. This was an entirely student driven event, born out of the experiences, training, and personal commitment of the best the service program can offer.
- Deep passion for social justice,
- A genuine relationship with the Cleanco Women’s Worker Camp,
- A vision for a sustainable future – one water bottle AND dispenser at a time,
- An understanding the human connection is where real “service” happens,
Boot the Bottle invited Bahareh Amidi, a professional at using language and poetry as a means for therapy, took 150 women through a 40 minute “Expression Session”. She opened up her expression session with “How do you say hello your language?” going from villa to villa, seeing which group of women would cheer the loudest. By the end of the session eight women took hold of the microphone to share their thoughts and feelings that Bahareh’s poems induced. In fact, women took hold of the mic to sing in front of everyone else. Throughout the entire session Vidushi Saxena, junior at ACS, and a Boot the Bottle leader, provided translation.
Volunteers, students from Gems American Academy, the British International School joined ACS students to facilitate the session, took some of the women through the activities, made sure every woman was equipped with paper and pens and reusable bottles. Most importantly, we got to know some women more personally and became more aware of life as a migrant worker.
At the end, the volunteers distributed reusable bottles that were sponsored by the Advanced Cure to each woman, and opened the newly installed water dispenser. Before so, Vidushi Saxena delivered a speech in Hindi about the importance of drinking water from a sustainable source for health, finances and environment.
I would like to say that none of this would be possible without the vision and mission that Anne Russell has brought to us in the ACS community and in Abu Dhabi. I will forever be grateful for this and other such experiences of heart.
Be blessed all always and share your blessings.
Bahareh
*Enjoy the pictures which were provided by Julia Grifferty head of Boot the Bottle group.
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