DownSideUp!

DownSideUp is an organisation that helps with kids that are down-syndrome. Since September I have been helping with the organisation. They would send me email every month and tell me what I can do to help the organisation. Helping them is not hard, they only give me simple tasks that I can do from home, such as downloading pictures in order to support the kids, and answer some questions on what to improve about the organisation. It's not that hard at all, it's a pleasure to help them.

After doing all this helping, I decided to go to their premise and see the kids. They were so enthusiastic when they saw me. Eventhough they are Russian, I tried my best to speak Russian with them, when I asked them questions, they would all laughed at me, because the way I speak Russian is funny to them. They were so nice as well. Thank goodness I had Anastasia with me, she works there, and she's the one that always sends me update about DownSideUp. After talking and laughing with them, eventhough most of the time they were actually laughing at me because of my Russian, they told me if I can read a Russian book for them. I read the "Sleeping Beauty" book for them, eventhough the story is for girls, but when they chose the book, the boys also liked it. I have no idea why. Probably because they are used to it. 

When I was reading the story, they would stop me at some point, and asked me why did that happen, or what will happen next. Thank goodness "Sleeping Beauty" is one of my favourite stories from Disney. So, I answered the questions in English, then Anastasia would translate it for me. 

After reading the book, I told them that I had to go because my mom has been calling me for the ten times, and told me that I had to go home because we were going to the embassy as we had an event there.

It was a lot of fun meeting them, and I hope that I will have time in the future to go there again. 

The CAS learning outcomes that achieved by meeting with them are:

• Engaged with issues of global importance, I went there and made them smile, it was fun seeing them smile and laughing at me, it's not that easy to make people smile!
• Considered the ethical implications of my actions, I let them tell me what to do instead of me choosing the activity for them, and again to make them smile.