Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign Reflection

By: Justine Faith P. Melgar

Date: October 29, 2015

The Breast Cancer Awareness Day was an activity-filled

day that my classmates and I have organized in order to spread
awareness of this ruthless disease. In relation to CAS, it
represents Activity and Service. And in relation to the learning
outcomes, LO3, 5 and 6 were the main learning outcomes. LO3
is to demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
LO5 is to demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of
working collaboratively. LO6 is to demonstrate engagement
with issues of global significance.
In addressing the 3rd learning outcome, I had to actively
take part in the decision-making processes of how the whole
day was going to play out. First, we had to think about all the
activities that we wanted to prepare for that day. And then, it
was I who designed the days schedule of events. I also
collaborated with Mariam to fix the final schedule, as well as
dividing the class to assigned jobs in specific parts of the
school, or maintaining the order in relation to specific grade
levels. As for the 5th learning outcome, I would say that it was
really a whole class effort. All of us helped make the ribbons;
some may have done fewer than the others or vice versa. But
making 1400 ribbons really wasnt possible without everyones
contribution. Even with our tight schedules studying for tests
and as well as doing our daily tasks, we still found a way to fit it
in our schedule. And lastly, the 6th learning outcome is
personally what I think is the most important learning outcome
of all when it came to this particular event. Spreading
awareness of the disease was our ultimate goal. We wanted to
educate people. We wanted to inform them of the risks so that
they too can help themselves or others around them. In the US
alone, it is said that 1 in 8 women suffer from breast cancer

yearly. Imagine how it must be in a world-scale. It would be way

worse. As you can see, breast cancer, along with all the other
types of cancers and terminal diseases should not be dealt with
lightly. We must fight these diseases with aggression so that it
ceases to terrorize the lives of otherwise happily living healthy
people.

And now that I have talked well enough about the events
purpose, I also want to share my personal thoughts on how the
whole event went. The event was a success, theres really not
much doubt about it. But in terms of effectiveness and overall
presentation, I think we had a lacking. This lacking may be
because of issues that were out of our hands such as watching
out for certain words to use or showing certain images that
may not be socially acceptable to show because of the
countrys culture. There was a part of the presentation about
menstruations and related possible indications of breast cancer
but we couldnt show it. There were photos (cliparts/not very
graphic) of the possible sites of tumour growth in the breasts
but we couldnt show them neither. This certainly was a
handicap because I felt that we avoided some of the biggest
aspects that people should be educated about and all because
of cultural restrictions.
The second issue is that in my opinion, fair distribution of
credit was not done at the end of the whole affair. To make it
quite clear, the event was a combined effort of the whole class
and not only of one person. And yet, at the end of the whole
affair, it was only a small group of people given all the credit
and most annoyingly though not naming anyone but only one
person who claimed all the credit. Others like my team -- the
yard preparations team-- whove worked hard in making
ribbons, pinning them, painting the photo booth/ free wall and
making the big ribbon shape in the yard were not even
mentioned nor properly credited by anybody. Instead, all the
attention was focused on just one group of people. And this

injustice really brought me great distress as those uncredited

people also deserve praise. Even now, thinking about it
threatens to break my composure. And because of this, I am
overwhelmed with resolve and determination to not let this kind
of injustice happen again. A team effort is a team effort, and I
strongly believe that a teams success should ever only and
exclusively given to a single person.