Onto the second week of my leadership in action project, we learned how to prototype and make a project plan. We learned to make different forms of prototype, and how to evaluate our prototypes. We were also asked to make a project plan, which involves setting SMART goals and making a clear plan with timeline for our project. As we make our project plan, we discovered that we still have a lot of questions to clarify with Huerto Roma Verde. So, we scheduled a visit to the organization tomorrow, hopefully we will be able to find a clearer picture of our role in the project. After today, I fully understand why the process of design thinking is cyclical, as we kept finding in details that we should fix in the process, we can return to the previous step to refine our project.
This is the second day of our second week, we finally visited Huerto Roma Verde for the second time. This time, we have a better idea of what we are supposed to do: we are to make graphic materials about 10Rs to educate children about a sustainable lifestyle, also to make signs for key plants in Huerto Roma Verde’s new green house. Additionally, we might make an animation for the green house to educate the public about what the purpose of the place. Afterwards, we moved on to making plans for mobilizing the volunteers. It is quite a daunting task as there were only 4 of us, and there are 14 volunteers. After discussion, we decided to first send a self-introduction video and a WhatsApp briefly introducing what we are going to do in the next weeks. I found that considering both online and offline meeting options, and to think about what the volunteers may need for a fruitful experience working on this project helps us draft an action plan on how to organize everyone. I am very happy with what I have learned in this experience.
On the third day, we spent our day working on the template for introducing the 10Rs. I believe we are finally getting into the flow, as we finished our work very quickly, and we begin to move on to other work, include making a checklist for the project and designing logos for each of the 10Rs. I love how we keep discovering new things that we can work on during the day, making today very productive. I learned that the process of working can give your new insights on what to do, so there is no need to wait until everything is planned out to start. Instead, it is helpful to begin some simple work first, then we will discover what we can work on along the way.
On the fourth day of this week, we had our first inspirational morning held my Laidlaw scholars. We focused on affirmation this morning, reflecting on what would make our past selves proud, and what qualities we will want to keep in 5-10 years’ time. As I look back towards how far I have come, I thought my past self will be proud that I joined the Laidlaw programme and went to Mexico for one and a half month. Since I used to be a nervous child who would cry when I went on a 3-day camp. I hope I will never lose my sense of adventure and the willingness to step out of my comfort zone.
After one day of rest, we visited one of the organizations Makesense work with ---- Las Sabinas. This organization aim to empower woman who survived sexual violence by helping to share their story, and to help them reclaim control of their own body to participating in activities like roller skating and embroidery. I think what they do is very meaningful, and I am glad that I have the chance to visit them. After the people from Las Sabinas shared their work, we moved on to an activity of making collage based on how we experienced rape culture and how we feel about it. I had trouble thinking of ideas at first but soon realized that rape culture does exist in my own culture. As I do feel fear walking home late at night, and were told by my parents to wear fewer revealing clothes to avoid predators. I think many problems in society exist in a sort of invisible state, since everyone became used to many things that happens in our society, we do not recognize how problematic things are. I believe being a leader is to examine issues in our society that easily goes unnoticed, and have the courage to take action to solve them.