Make A Difference

Hello hello!

Thirty students gathered at RBK International Academy for the second ULead student conference in Mumbai to learn about how to get more involved with Operation Smile and make new friends. Speakers and breakout sessions are based on the 2012 theme, which is “Make A Difference.”

First, Rohan Das, the marketing and fundraising director of Operation Smile India, made a presentation about what Operation Smile is. This way, students who are new with Operation Smile can be experts on what Operation Smile is, how it operates, and what you can do to help Operation Smile. In one hour, students learned everything they needed to know about Operation Smile. Thank you Rohan for your informative, inspiring and important presentation!

Rohan

Rohan

Students learning about Operation Smile.

Listening to Rohan! 

After a delicious breakfast, we had our first icebreaker of saying our name and what we like to do so that we could get to know other participants. There were more icebreakers throughout the day, especially when we were with our teams. The four teams are earth, wind, fire, and air. Each team makes a poster in preparation for the team games tomorrow. The posters should relate to Operation Smile, the theme “Make A Difference,” and the team’s element. We are all excited and so pumped up about the team games because we each think our own team will win.

Breakfast 

Breakfast 

Ice breakers

Students introducing themselves

Ice breakers

Making team posters

Hmm... what should we put on the poster?

Trying to be creative

Team banners

 The teams travel to the breakout sessions together. Each breakout session should inspire students to be leaders within their Operation Smile clubs and in their communities. The presenters, who are RBKIA students and have attended ISLCs, give advice on how to have successful Operation Smile clubs, fundraise, and get more involved with Operation Smile.

Breakout session

Breakout session

Changing one life can change your life! 

We have fun in breakout sessions! 

An team building game: making a tower our of toothpicks and clay.  

A presenter about to make his breakout session presentation. 

Learning about service within Operation Smile. 

How do you harness your good qualities? 

Dancing away. 

Learning how to make a gown for patients to wear during surgery. 

After a delicious pasta lunch, Sagar, the student programs director in India, taught the students about the four health modules. Tomorrow, we are going to an elderly home to teach them about dental hygiene, nutrition, burn care and prevention, and oral rehydration therapy.  Each team made a colorful and informative poster about one health module. Tomorrow, we will have a good experience presenting about these topics to the elderly.

Making health posters

A team banner in the making

After one more breakout session (and a tea break), we were so lucky to hear Olivia Linderoth speak. She is a 19-year-old girl from Sweden living in Guwahati, India. She works for two doctors who have moved to Guwahati to work for the Operation Smile Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Center. She takes care of their two kids. Before this, she started student programs in Sweden. She gave great advice today on how to make student programs a vital part of Operation Smile India. Her story is so motivating because you realize that if she can make student programs important in Sweden at age eighteen, then anyone can surely take that much leadership and do something huge like that.

Tomorrow is a busy and exciting day! We cannot wait to learn more about “how to make a difference,” play team games, and visit the elderly home. Please look below for comments from students about what they learned today, ideas on how they plan to make a difference in the future, and any other thoughts.