Student Committee at The Emerald Heights International School

Posted: 13 August 2018

School:

The Emerald Heights International School, India

Number of students on the committee: 

25 (rapidly expanding)

The leadership structure of the group: 

Composed of a team of 5 core group leaders from senior classes, who lead discussions and manage the committee in an executive role. The other members actively participate in discussions and form teams to efficiently execute specialized roles

How often does the committee meet: 

Twice, every week

What is the core function of the committee? 

The committee meets twice weekly, deciding upon activities that may be initiated to collaborate with Indore Cancer Foundation and aid the organization in various aspects of its operations. Having initiated activities like filling patient feedback forms, compiling the data, conducting statistical survey to identify high risk-prone cancer populations etc. The committee aims for innovation driving social change.

How does the committee communicate with the wider student body/school: 

Through assembly announcements, large-scale promotions through posters and awareness campaigns, and an online blog.

Recent initiative: 

The C word – students campaign and support research to combat cancer. Recently the students analyzed the data collected from  360 people from village Hatod  near Rau. The Student Committee at The Emerald Heights International School has been working to increase cancer awareness among high-risk populations.

To get started, we conducted a statistical survey among our school staff support system and employees from the Madhya Pradesh electric board” explains Sahil Lalwani.

Working in collaboration with the Indore Cancer Foundation (ICF) students composed questions for the survey based on three major parameters: awareness on cancer, habits which could potentially lead to cancer and appearance of symptoms which may show that the person is at a high risk of cancer. The questions were statistically validated and special measures were taken to ensure that the results of the survey were non biased. About 250- 300 people from the school staff support system participated in the survey.

Based on the data obtained in the survey, students categorised the respondents into three categorised: low, medium and high risk populations. “The results were quite shocking,” admits Kainat Zakarya “a large majority of people who took the survey fell into either the medium or the high risk population. The data reflected a lack of basic awareness about possible causes of cancer among a majority of respondents. It made us realise that the risks of cancer among the high risk prone population can be mitigated to a great extent by increasing awareness on various aspects related to cancer among them.”

Under the guidance of doctors from the Indore Cancer Foundation, a group of 15- 20 students conducted a full-fledged awareness campaign and follow up sessions among Emerald Heights school staff support system. The students talked about the symptoms of cancer, types of cancer, potential habits which may contribute to cancer and how can one overcome these habits in order to prevent this fatal disease.

We found that following our effort, about 60% people who were a part of the survey and the awareness campaign have seen a tremendous improvement in their awareness towards cancer,” says Madhav Pandya “In fact, many of them also recognised the long-term threats of consumption of tobacco, alcohol and smoking and as a result, have quit or limited its consumption.

Inspired by the success of the awareness campaign and driven by a passion to spread the movement, a team of 30 students went to the village Harsola (Indore district) and conducted the survey and awareness campaign among the residents of this village.

“In our initial rounds of survey, we identified one major problem: it was extremely tedious to digitize the records of the survey for further compilation and analysis,” says Sumedh Rathi “Scoring the results of the survey manually also invited human error. To solve this problem, we created the C- Aware mobile application that makes it much easier to record responses to the survey and compile the data. The app also has the feature of an audio survey and can be taken in both Hindi and English languages.”

The Student Committee brought colouring books for the patients of the hospital run by the Indore Cancer Foundation. A group of 20 students visit the hospital on a weekly basis to read stories to the patients. This has helped divert their attention from the pain they experience during their treatment. Students also painted a wall outside the O.P.D. Department of the hospital. Feedback from the patients revealed that it creates a relaxing atmosphere for a patient in a situation otherwise full of anxiety. Students have also helped the patients in filling up the hospital feedback forms, which helps the hospital address the patients’ resentments during treatment.

A group of 25 students have been working with the Indore Cancer Foundation to start and maintain a cancer registry for the hospital. The job involves analysing patients’ files since 1995 and feeding the personal and medical data into a database software. “The registry will not only help the hospital in tracking the past trends related to cancer, but also help them follow up on the patients’ health status post treatment,” explains Amey Pratap Rathore.

Students have started a ‘Daily Awareness Section’ blog which details basic improvements you can make in your daily life to help prevent the threat of cancer. Student have also utalised social media to raise awareness.

In the days to come, we hope to spread our campaign further to new regions. Raising funds by organising cultural fests in the days to come, we shall go ahead and work on various other aspects related to the Cancer Hospital. Meanwhile, we shall continue to work on the Cancer registry for the hospital. Above all, our project is sustainable in its vision and is aimed at long- term improvement.”

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