Posted by Murtaza Hamid On: Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Youth 2k17 by ICBSS

‘Challenges Channelling Change’

Avenues: International Understanding & Finance

Date: 14th October 2017

Objectives– Youth 2K17 was organised with the aim of expanding Interactors knowledge of their city and surroundings and rebuilding their perspective of service by showing them how even small individual actions can make a difference; through each task they faced. We also succeeded in earning a large surplus which will be implemented in funding future community service projects
.Execution: The project was chaired by Int. Aarefa Shiraz. Our main sponsor for the event was the Imperial Institute of Higher Education (IIHE). Additional funds were obtained through banner advertisements and donations.
Youth is one of ICBSS’s most successful annual projects and this year the event was of a previously unprecedented calibre. In an attempt to maximise social impact as well as participation, Youth 2K17 was open to both Interactors and non-Interactors of all ages. Participants were expected to come in teams of 4-6.

The event started off at 10:30am at the Qutbi Hall with a welcome address by the project chairperson which was followed by a fun and interactive orientation lead by two esteemed speakers: Mr Gajan and Mrs Sakina Shabbir. The second phase of the day consisted of a scavenger hunt around Colombo City. The participants were presented with their first clue at the Qutbi Hall which was then followed by an unforgettable adventure around the city. The participants wracked their brains trying to solve each clue and figure out the next location. At each location a fun task was planned for the teams. All five avenues of service were incorporated into the project by formulating each task based on them.

In one task which was based on the avenue of Green Life, teams were required to plant and
water the seeds of different vegetables in one of our Interactor’s home garden.
A task based on International Understanding made the teams search for information on certain remote countries; expanding their knowledge on people of different cultures and nationalities.
In a Community Service task at the Sri Jinanandha Orphanage, participants made chappatis and these were given to the orphanage children for lunch.
While completing the tasks participants raced against the clock to get to the finish line first and win the LKR 15,000 cash prize. Cheques of LKR 12,000 and LKR 9,000 were also up for grabs for second and third prize winners respectively. The event concluded at 4: 30pm after which all attendees were served refreshments.
All participants said that they had had an extremely fun albeit tiring experience and were already looking forward to returning next year. A fellow Interactor from Kurunegala stated that this had given them a great opportunity to explore familiarise themselves with the streets of Colombo and they would definitely return for Youth 2K18.