Blood donations / Supplying labor camps

The idea behind our projects was to provide unique services to the community, as the team unanimously agreed that the element of success needs not necessarily be money, but a different measure altogether. As shallow as this may sound, money as a success measure could’ve turned the whole thing into a competition between the groups, burying the very ‘soul’ behind our projects.

Project Objectives and Methodologies:

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1) The blood drive aimed to create a convenient platform to bring together potential donors with a medical crew in order to support the local hospitals with blood packs. We started by contacting various hospitals to find out the procedures, terms and conditions needed to launch the event, fully knowing that it being a medical matter things will not go as smoothly as we hoped. Our contacts at the hospitals were kind enough to talk us through the requirements and pointed out the things we needed to keep in mind. We decided that it would be best if we held the event in the student lounge at the BIBF; a room large enough to be a venue and has a strategic location. The venue also allowed us to persuade spectators to participate, as we demonstrated that a measly 10 minutes of your time could save a couple -if not more- lives.

The blood drive was a complete success by all means and measures:

  • Due to short notice, the hospital offered to only accept 20 blood packs within a 2 hour time frame. By the time the drive was over, 13 individuals successfully donated blood, whilst 18 were disqualified due to various reasons such as smoking, alcohol, low blood pressure, and other blood related sicknesses. This brought us to a total of 31 participants.
  • Individuals that were not able to donate blood due to various reasons had the opportunity to have a quick medical checkup and consultation on their individual conditions.
  • The hospital congratulated us on a successful blood drive given the size of the venue and the very little time we had for arrangements.
  • Another prevailing success was gained by raising awareness of the importance of checking your blood for diabetes or other diseases caught by blood tests, something that a lot of people underestimate.

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2) Our second venture was to support labor camps; to supply and shed light on the difficult situations that the migrant workers live in, a hardship that remains fairly unknown to a huge number of citizens.

This project consisted of the collection of clothes, dry and canned foods (such as lentils, rice, and beans) and toiletries to migrant worker labor camps. Most of these camps are deprived of the very basic necessities that we take for granted. We placed a number of boxes in BIBF to collect the abovementioned items from the staff and students, which we in turn distributed to the labor camps that were among the worst in the country. We decided on splitting the group into two as it was best that a couple of members did the collecting while the other half was in charge of sorting out the items and managing distribution.

Supplying the migrant workers was also a success given that:

  • To our delight we were surprised with the amount collected: 4 boxes full of supplies. The boxes overflowed and donors had to use plastic bags and stash them next to the boxes.
  • We initially coordinated with the Migrant Workers Protection Society to visit 2 sites. We ended up visiting 3 labor camp sites that the society mentioned needed the most help.
  • Communicating with the migrant workers was hard as most don’t speak a single word of Arabic or English, but the happiness in their eyes spoke louder than any word could that day.

Advice for future teams doing similar projects:

  • Be sure to get the proper procedures, approvals and confirmations in time. Establishments such as hospitals are unpredictable and have certain terms and conditions that need to be met.
  • When it comes to lengthy procedures, do not make assumptions and always pursue facts and written communications. Do not hesitate to take brave decisions to save the situation by triggering contingency plans.
  • Choose a convenient location that everyone passes by. We had a healthy number of onlookers who donated on a whim because the event caught their attention.

 

Lessons learned about managing projects:

  • Communication: Projects give individuals the opportunity to share and discuss ideas without a bias outlook since you all share a common goal. Although each individual has a different personality, effective communication creates solidarity which is key for any project’s success.
  • Coordination: Assign each individual to a task he excels at, or at the very least comfortable with. Forcing roles on team members creates bottlenecks as the individual struggles to pull his weight. Therefore it’s best to coordinate accordingly; after all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
  • Plan, plan and plan! No amount of planning is excessive. Exhaust all your options and weigh your pros and cons. Use your planning phase to assess your risks, to have a clear and concise action blueprint, and to come up with contingency plans. If plan A doesn’t work, don’t fret, the alphabet has 25 more letters!

 

Bonus Tip: Have fun!

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Fawaz Alabdulla – Ahmed Jahromi – Ahmed Buhejji – Hisham Engineer – Mohamed Alkhalifa.

MGT 598 TEAM 2 PROJECT LAZY__ EYE

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Brief description of the project

 

A_m_b_l_y_o_p_i_a_ _is also called ‘l_a_z_y_ _e_y_e_’, it’s a disorder of sight. It involves decreased vision in an eye that otherwise appears normal, or out of proportion to associated structural problems of the eye. There is much more damage to or impact on vision in that eye than is predicted. This disorder has been estimated to affect 1–5% of the population. The project’s scope is to visit one primary school in Bahrain and examine 200 kids. Since it’s a Community Service project, no revenue is expected.

Our team shall conduct screening in a primary school “Abdurrahman Kano International” to help diagnose early stages of this disease. This session will be a pilot, if successful to be proposed to the Ministry of health to become a nationwide program.

The aim of this study is to raise awareness in the public for the overall vision care in Bahrain. Detecting cases and treating them in time will save vision for the population and improve the quality of life for countless generations to come.

Factual analysis of success in terms of project objectives and meth­odologies used

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To conduct initial screenings in a public school in Bahrain for 1st graders the screening will be carried in three stages. 1. A vision test for the entire population. Phase 2. Identify any students with vision less than score 6 to advance to the next stage Dry refraction. Phase 3: identify any positive cases of any time of refractive errors to be referred to Salmanya Hospital.

To elevate the awareness of the general vision health and educate the kids

End result of this program will lead to Zero present of Amblyopic in Bahrain.

  • Study Area: Primary School
  • Study Subjects: 1st graders in Abdulrahman Kanoo Elementary School in Bahrain
  • Study design: Case-control and triage of patients by a practicing licensed in Bahrain Optometrist.
  • Sample Size: 200 kids
  • Sampling technique: Three stages of screenings using state of the art calibrated and certified Medical Equipment.
  • Data Collection methods: three phase Screening that will identify and segregate the entire targeted population

 

Advice for future teams doing similar projects

 

In charity projects such as ours Education and planning plays a vital role in the team commitment, which in turn will guarantee success.

In such projects many factors can go wrong it is essential to develop a micro detailed Risk assessment plan to manage any risks associated with the project as well as securing all compromises and contingencies needed to ensure success and smooth completion.

Checks and balances very important to measure and track before the project, in preparation stages and during the execution of the project.

 

Time line and deadlines must be realistic and synchronized with project scope and objective. Best starting point is during the brainstorming stage to keep in mind the time line achievable goals.

Select the right project manager with a bird’s eye view vision that can give freedom for creativity and still monitor the overall scope and progress.

 

Two or three lessons learned about managing projects

 

Legality of our project and securing all permits and licensing helped the success of the project from the initial stage.

 

Kids Friendly Team members the female motherly presence factor Helped secure total cooperation of the kids in the screening and assured smooth execution. Special thanks to Manal and Nujood from our team.

 

Passion and Team Commitment about the cause and the project overall objective Gave us tremendous will power to never give up and succeed.

 

Useful references and Photos:

 

 

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Mini Bites for Orphans

The project was a combination of two individual ideas put forward by the team members. It consisted of the direct offering of cookies in the aim of collecting donations and using the collected money to sponsor our own art event for Al Sanabel Orphan children at one of Bahrain art centers. The team has made it on purpose to take advantage of its flexibility to offer the cookies in different areas of the country. That helped us more than if we would have sat on a kiosk trying to do the same.

While planning the project we ensured to set clear and SMART objectives for our project that could help us assess the success and progress of our work. The project was named successful given that we were able to meet the pre-set objectives of:

  • Collect a total donation of 700 BHD: The team was able to actually collect the sum of 1084 BHD since people were receptive to our idea. Part of the money was used to cover the cost incurred by the project and a total of 703 BHD was donated in cash to the charity organization.
  • Achieve the total of 400 likes on social media: After we finished the event we sent out a thank you message for the donors and the charity organization. Using our personal social media accounts that message was delivered to more than 16000 person and we got 644 like in return (engagement of 3.95%)
  • Organize the art event on time: In fact the art event was organized on time. Children had the chance to see the mad scientist, do the foam mosaic as well enjoy dinner and takeaway gifts.

 

Advice for future teams doing similar projects:

  • Ensure that the number of cookies offered for donation is explored at full capacity. We believe that if we took the risk of ordering more cookies we could have collected double the donations and doubled the kids joy.
  • Set a formal communication plan since effective communication is an essential key in project success.
  • Always have a backup plan (contingency plan) as you never know what might occur during the project’s life.
  • Documentation is a key. Have everything documented from the initiation till the closure of the project to ensure staying on track.
  • Due to the short notice of the invitation, not everyone will respond positively henceforth, try to broaden your targeted number of invitees.

 

Two or three lessons learned about managing projects:

  • Planning: Planning took the biggest part of the project. The event by itself needed two hours to be completed but meetings, discussions, planning; scheduling and follow up took almost two weeks of time.
  • Team management: The major part of the project manager is to ensure that people are given meaningful work. This is essential in order to keep people motivated as well to ensure fairness among team members. In addition the project manager should always listen to his team members ideas. This is essential especially in big teams, it might sound time consuming, but it can only add value to the project and encourage people to be more engaged.
  • Be ready for the unexpected: Make sure you draft the risk assessment plan as early as possible and ensure its revision before the big day. Things like kids fighting can really happen and risk your project if you are not ready to handle them.

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Shall you also want to donate to Al Sanabel Orphanage please go to www.alsanabel-bh.org

Movie for a Cause-Supporting Autism

 

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Project Description:

Many different ideas and proposals were generated for our field project, however we had less than two weeks to prepare and implement so it had to be something not too big and feasible. We decided to do a Charity Movie Night and to partner with the Bahrain Society for Children with Behavioral and Communication Difficulties and Alia for Early Intervention to raise funds and awareness supporting autism.

 

We had a screening of the movie “Temple Grandin”, a biopic of a woman with autism who became one of the most prominent female animal scientists. In addition to the movie screening, we had an informational speaker who gave us a short interactive presentation about autism. We managed to generate funds by selling entrance tickets, as well as selling food and beverage to the audience. We also made donations open to anyone who wanted to contribute, even if they were not able to attend the event that way we were able to maximize fundslogo

 

Project Objectives and Methodologies:

Our project objectives were to raise funds, and to create awareness about autism.

We started planning for the event on 7th of April 2015 and we scheduled our event to be on the 15th of April 2015, so we only had a total of 8 days to plan, schedule, organize, and implement our plans for the event! So we had to have a very hands on approach with this project in order for it to have been successful.

We split our tasks and gave each other functional roles that were split into marketing, operations, logistics, finance, public relations and having a project manager to overlook all the tasks. Even though we distributed tasks we had a cross functional team strategy which allowed us to help each other when necessary.

Our primary tasks were to secure a location as well as have proper advertisement.

Since we had such little time, we wanted to spread the word as soon as we could. We created an Instagram account “@movieforacause” and used other means of social media  in addition to posting flyers on notice boards and digitally as advertisement. We also managed to get a local news crew cinstagramover the event.

In terms of the location we managed to secure a venue within a day from planning with Bahrain Polytechnic, a local university, who gave it to us rent free, including technical support for the event. We also had a few other sponsors, Canar who provided us with funding for the event and Janahi Design who created our banners and flyers.

In terms of logistics, it was very simple as the venue was fully equipped with chairs, speakers, screen and projectors. It also conveniently had a food area to set up stalls. For food and beverage, we had those delivered by either family members or the vendors themselves.0c8d8c404bbe8b521245f9dec24cdc8b

Also, plenty of parking was available as the event began after regular work hours, so a lot of free parking was available by then.

In terms of revenue, we charged entrance fees for 3 BHD (Bahraini Dinar) and for snack and beverage, we sold popcorn, nachos, chips, chocolate, baked goods, soft drinks and water.

We managed to have 75 attendees which equated to 225 BHD from entrance fees alone, 130.2 from snacks and beverages, and we also sold 87 BHD worth of autism accessories provided to us from the society. In addition to the money we received from the event itself we managed to raise 878.2 BHD worth of donations, so total funds raised were 1381.2 BHD. All in all we managed to create a very successful event in a very short period of time.

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Advice for Future Teams

  • Make sure all of you communicate well with each other, because communication is a key factor in helping you succeed. Use the most compatible means of communication for your team. Ours was meeting before and after every class and creating a shared whatsapp group.
  • Make sure you plan and document everything from the get go.
  • Have contingency plans in place, and if you’re doubtful of getting last minute approvals from somewhere or someone it is ok to work in parallel with your contingency plan.
  • List down all the possible challenges and consider the mitigation process in order to overcome any surprises.
  • Most of all, remember you’re doing it for a noble cause, so have fun with it and remember that it is very possible! We only had 8 days to deliver, so anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

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Lessons Learned:

We learned three main things from this project:

  • Planning. Planning is a key element that will contribute to the success of your project, it will help you think of every detail that you might have missed, and it will definitely help you avoid any risks.
  • Communication. We made sure we always had a way of communicating with each other; the workflow of our project went very smoothly thanks to that.
  • Commitment. Although a lot of us had prior engagements either with work or our personal lives, we were all committed to completing our tasks and meeting deadlines. No one fell short in that aspect in our group and everyone delivered on time which is what helped make our project so successful.  food2foodsponsor3sponsorsponsor1