#JoiningHandsofKindness: A Student-Led Volunteer Session

Under its visionary mandate of curating activities rooted in SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and its mission of developing student-led volunteer programmes immersed in social service, CBS-LUMS organized a one-day session in partnership with The Children’s Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore. 

The session titled “#JoiningHandsofKindness” was set in the essence of its very name, to come together and create an environment of companionship and camaraderie with the children and their families. Thus, CBS curated a holistic volunteer-led session that was three-pronged and featured; 1. activity clusters (storytelling, storybook narration, coloring books), 2. Peer counselling with the families of the children and 3. distribution of gifts and goodie bags among the children.
 

The CBS team initiated a volunteer recruitment drive and received an overwhelming response from the LUMS student body, which is a testament to the spirit of community service at the university. Ultimately, the centre on-boarded a team of 11 student volunteers from across all five schools that worked with the CBS team to prepare goodie bags and gifts for the children prior to the visit. The team along with the student volunteers visited The Children’s Hospital, together, on April 15, 2023. 
The session included children between the age of 5-12 years old, who spent time with the CBS team and the student volunteers, in engaging activities and heartwarming interactions. The programme ingrained with emotional support and empathy, concluded with the CBS team and volunteers doing rounds of various wards at the hospital and sharing gifts and goodie bags with the children and their families. 
 

The CBS team is especially grateful to Project Arzoo (a Non-Profit Organisation with the mandate of working towards crowd fund-raising to aid with the rehabilitation of the children)  for connecting and mediating the partnership between CBS and The Children’s Hospital, Lahore.