Knowing yourself (Part 1): Amal Session 1
A night before my first session, I was pretty much excited yet tired due to the recent workload. As usual, I woke up at 8:30 am which was quite early from the start time of my first session. I started preparing a bit, did my breakfast, and anxiously waiting for the time to come. I was excited to see some new faces, excited to make new friends, excited to learn, and excited to improve.
Finally, the time did come and I joined the session at 9:50 am, although, the official time was 10:00 am. Our project manager Ma’am Rabeea started asking some general questions, just to make us a bit comfortable and getting us out of our comfort zone. She suddenly after asking about my well-being, inquired about what I ate in my breakfast. Sounds pretty odd yet interesting right?
I answered with a smiling face and then the rest was asked the same. Then, we had been told some informative stuff along with the historical background of AMAL which was actually very inspiring. Finally, the time came and we were told to get ready for our first activity. The activity was again to get ourselves out of our comfort zones. The activity demanded to tell a story about our own names. Like, we could even tell about how our name was originated or even anything interesting about that. Ok, so we were divided into like 5 participants each and sent to breakout rooms. I started the conversation and asked my group mates to volunteer for the activity. But, they were like “Asa krta ha phr ap se hi start krlata ha. Why not you first”. Haha, I was like ok. Eventually, we all completed those interesting stories and we were back to the main room.
After the first activity, we were indulged in some healthy discussions regarding the values of AMAL and we were even encouraged to share our own values of life. Values are those beliefs or priorities around our which our life revolves and they play a significant role in your lives. The values recommended by AMAL are Honesty, Humility, Responsibility, Acceptance, and Growth. One can change his/ her life if one would set these as their values of life.
Further, we were told about the Principles of progress devised by AMAL, and believe me, those principles were pretty amazing as well. Those principles are AMAL, Khudi, Kaam Kaam Kaam, and Ek or ek Giyara. Based on those principles of progress, we all watched an AMAL-customized documentary and it was actually very inspiring. It was about Abdur Sattar Edhi that how he initiated his humanitarian work and eventually got success. We learned that how “Just start, take small steps and eventually you will get success” kinda attitude is momentous to have in our lives.
We ended today’s session with yet another activity, however, this activity was quite different. We were again divided into breakout rooms and we as a group had to make a dog by using a specific amount of mathematical shapes by using the digital whiteboard feature of Zoom. To be very honest, Haha we as a group had the worst of the experience in that but still, we enjoyed it. That activity was a practice of teamwork and how one manages his/her time.
Finally, we were given the exit ticket and it was actually nothing but a survey form regarding today’s session. Today’s session was really worth-taking. Every one of us learned and enjoyed a lot.
