Rotary Plates for Peace : A True Opportunity to Serve!
Do you remember the showers of rainfall we had on Friday evening? Well, during those incessant showers, a small group of faithful servants- Rotarians were busy doing the prep work for a healthy meal for under privileged children from the community of Vieux- Fort and Surrounding areas. True Commitment is the backbone of any service organization and these Rotarians proved that in the midst of all the bad weather.
The afternoon of Saturday October 20th, the Vieux-Fort Primary School came alive with excitement from children and Rotarians alike! This Project, dubbed “ Rotary Plates for Peace” (name coined by Rotarian Precious) was a merger of a soup kitchen and games afternoon for underprivileged children in the Vieux-Fort community and surrounding areas.
The Objectives of this project were:
1. To provide underprivileged children with a healthy meal
2. To provide play and play materials to children in a guided free play context.
3. To provide children with conflict resolution skills and strategies during the play context.
4. To develop positive interactional and cooperative attitudes in children in order to contribute toward conflict prevention in the wider society
Service Projects Director Shermie welcomed all the children and did a brief introduction of the Rotary club and the activity with the children. Seventy Five (75) excited children, aged 2 t0 16, were then treated to a hearty, healthy hot meal! The dishes were prepared with love by Rotarians themselves. Eleven (11) Rotarians were joined by President Iyanka, Rotaract Club of South Saint Lucia, and three Rotaractors, who embraced the ideals of the project wholesomely as they interacted with the children meaningfully from the get go. 
In keeping with the Rotary areas of focus ‘Peace and conflict Resolution’, the children played supervised games allowing them opportunities to share with each other in a meaningful and peaceful manner. Strategies for conflict management were given to children as they moved around playing the games; sharing, taking turns, or exchanging when conflict arose. Service Projects Director Shermie engaged the students at each table with coming up with a definition of peace and what peace meant to them in their lives. One child expressed that “peace is when every body is happy”. If at all the food was a distraction, we are assured that they all left knowing the peace sign!
The hall area was transformed into a toy zone; Toys and games like dolls, and puzzles, ludo, twister were played with the children as each group had a Rotarian or Rotaractor assigned to them. Outdoors, children were playing football, hula hooping, skipping and simply playing catch with a ball. The highlight of the afternoon (apart from the food, of course) was the football game played by the older boys. The team were organized in record time! There were several opportunities for learning lessons on conflict resolution, as you’d imagine! Definitely, play is one of the best avenues for teaching conflict resolution skills.
It was all in all a wonderful afternoon of service and fun which ended with sharing ice cream and cake. In Rtn, Jenny’s words, “I do not regret not one minute of being in this activity” Rotaractor Sohle expressed that one of the children she spoke with said “ Today was amazing. I had a good time playing with the toys.” Indeed, a true opportunity to serve and instill critical values and skills in our future generations!