Written by Siyana Zhelezarova from X “b” class.
On 1st December, members of the Red Cross Volunteers Organisation held an open discussion about healthy habits and the expected outcomes of an unhealthy life. Siyana Zhelezarova from class X “b” at ELS “Geo Milev”, Doriana Petkova from 10th grade at SMNS “Acad. Nikola Obreshkov” and Margarita Atanasova from 11th grade at SRL “Georgi Stoykov Rakovski” gave a lesson to a lovely audience. The pupils were 6-graders from Primary School “A.G.Kodzhakafaliyata”. Both Doriana and Siyana had studied there and graduated with honours back in 2020.
Siyana Zhelezarova mentioned: “Coming back to the school where I used to go every single day seemed almost like a dream to me. It felt so unreal, yet so heart-warming to see all of my teachers and the small pupils… Memories brought tears into our eyes, together with an enormous amount of joy!”
1st game
The lesson started with a fun game where the students were separated into groups. They had to connect each of a list of diseases with their relevant causes. After that, they should also present the finished assignment to their own class.
When the Solitaire game had finished, Siyana and Doriana shared some more information about plenty of respiratory or heart diseases, diabetes and cancer. They included the definitions, the causes and also the ways of prevention of all. The volunteers also demonstrated a few pieces of hospital equipment to the children. The idea was to teach their usage and appliance in real-life situations or illnesses.
2nd game
Finally, everybody had to form a circle and play another game related to stress. As we all know, it is among the greatest factors for many types of diseases. Here is how the game went: somebody had to pass an object to the person on their left and another one to the person on their right. Everyone followed the same order and the objects went around from hand to hand. As time passed, the circle added more objects. Eventually, one of the participants dropped everything to the ground.
The game simulates the stress we feel on a daily basis and the way it amounts, without us even noticing. It also points out how stress could reflect on our productivity and work.
Margarita Atanasova shared: “Everybody had such a great time! The kids came to us and told us they had never been more thankful to learn something new. This made me feel so proud of our team. I’m grateful to the Red Cross Volunteers Organisation for giving me such an amazing opportunity.”