The United Art Project

Brief Description of the Project:

Our group’s goal was to shed light on the importance of inclusiveness in society through art. Inclusive societies help us be more accepting, empowered, and give us an understanding of different perspectives. Furthermore, art is powerful. It can have a profound impact on communication, self-confidence, and self-discipline. In an effort to underline that children who are struggling with illnesses are part of society and together we stand united, the “United Art Project” was created.

We partnered with the Children Smile Society of Bahrain with the aim of raising funds to sponsor children battling cancer to attend an art class. On November 27th, we welcomed 30 aspiring children from the society. The art session was held at Artly – an art studio that’s mission is to spark creativity, to help people of all ages create their own fun journeys of exploration, discovery, and development through art classes, exhibitions, and experiences. With skilled artists leading the sessions, the children had the chance to enjoy two activities, namely, fizzy rainbow experiments and painting wooden coasters. Additionally, an inspiring message of hope was shared with the attendees by a former cancer survivor. To ensure that the children make the most out of the day, we ensured to have healthy food available and simple giveaways that catered to the ages of the children (5-11 years).

In the days leading up to the event, we raised awareness through several marketing efforts. We created a specific logo for our project that we used to brand our social media posts, banner, giveaway bags, and organizer t-shirts. Similarly, we exhausted most of the commonly used social media outlets (Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, & Linkedin). In the span of six days, we raised an amount of BHD 1,000 ( $2,652) and were mentioned in three news outlets (Albilad Newspaper, BizBahrain Magazine, and the Daily Tribune Newspaper).

       

Brief Description of the Charity:

Smile of Bahrain Society is a non-profit organization that supports initiatives that provide psychological and social support to children suffering from cancer and their families. The society is focused on four main initiatives:

  1. A wish – organizing birthdays for cancer warriors
  2. Psychological support – a program provided with a specialized team to tackle psychological and social challenges by the children and their families
  3. Education – program that provides education to those who could not attend classes due to treatment
  4. Improving the home environment – families who have a cancer warrior and do not have the ability to adequately equip his/her room

Factual Analysis of Success in Terms of Project Objectives:

Measure

Target Actual

Overall

Number of Attendees

30 children

33 children

Achieved

Money Raised

BHD 345

($915)

BHD 1000

($2,652)

Achieved
Impact 100% positive post event surveys 100% positive post event surveys

Achieved

Awareness

1 press release in a leading newspaper

3 press releases

Achieved

26.6K views on Tiktok

1065 views on LinkedIn

 

Two or Three Lessons Learned About Managing Projects:

  • Leverage on the strengths and skills of team members, this helps everyone contribute effectively
  • Always have 1-2 contingency plans
  • Keep things simple, especially when asking for donations. Although we raised more funds that expected, we still received some comments on how our registration form was a bit confusing

 Advice for Future Teams Doing Similar Projects:

  • Make sure to establish a strong team dynamic at the beginning of the project
  • Choose a communication method that suits all team members
  • Organization and alignment are key. Make sure to have an accessible forum such as google docs or Microsoft Teams where information can be visible, shared and edited by everyone
  • Be flexible  and keep an open mind as things may not always turn out as originally planned
  • Don’t forget to have fun!

Photos Related to the Project:

 

TEAM 1: Donation Dash Padel

 

Executive Summary:

Our  Idea was to raise funds and make some fun out of it at the same time, as this will encourage people to donate more, therefore we choose a Padel tournament fundraiser which we named “Donation Dash Padel”. As the game has been a recent trend among people and they have been enjoying this activity lately.

The Project’s focus was on raising funds and getting reasonable support for Ayadi Relief a nonprofit, charity organization where our efforts were directed towards encouraging people to donate and support the cause.

We created an Instagram page for the event as an official communication tool, announce the date and timing, and register participants for the tournament. The selection of this communication method is because of the popularity of Instagram in our region many businesses are using it and it is a great way to advertise and attract people to participate in the event. https://www.instagram.com/dashpadel.bh/

The event took place on Saturday, November the 27th at Pink Padel, which is located in Riffa, Bahrain. Following are the event activities:

  • Ayadi Relief joined the event through their booth, where they sell products that were locally made such as games, scarfs, notebooks, and other accessories with the outcome dedicated to charity.
  • Guest are welcome join and see the match and enjoy free mojito provided by one of our sponsors RIVALMOJITO.
  • The tournament consisted of 16 players, playing on four groups of two-player teams.
  • At the end of the game, winners were granted prizes that included Coffee Capsule Machine, watches, and cinema tickets.

 

Below are images that we designed for the tournament, that shows how we divided the 16 players:

 

The event was successful and achieved the result we anticipated where the participants and our team had a lot of fun. Most importantly we were able to raise funds and exceeded our target of 340 BHD with a total donation of 500 BHD approximately 1,300 USD.

 

 

Overview Of Nonprofit Organization:

Ayadi Relief is an international humanitarian association that is led by a group of ambitious youth to serve the affected communities in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa by establishing projects aimed at rehabilitating the education and housing sector with the help of strong partnerships with organizations/entities in the targeted countries.

 

Ayadi focuses its work on the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, establishing educational projects in Djibouti and Somalia, housing projects in Bahrain, and Syrian refugee communities in Jordan.

Their team was wonderful and supportive, they were happy to support us even with the short notice that we highly appreciate.

 

 

Our Goals & Objectives:

Time management – keeping track and completing tasks within the due date.
  • Managed to stay on track with our MILESTONE SCHEDULE
 Accomplished
Staying within the budget allocated.
  • Budget = 100 BHD
  • Final Cost = 80 BHD
Underbudget
The numbers of participants.
  • Target 16 players
  • Actual 16 players
Accomplished
The amount of funds raised.
  • Target 340 BHD
  • Actual 500 BHD
Accomplished
Overall satisfaction of the Stakeholders in the event held.
  • Participants were happy and thanked us by posting on their social media accounts that they enjoyed the event and even asked to do more tournaments.
  • Team members enjoyed the event and had a lot of fun.
  • Ayadi Relief are satisfied and enjoyed the event.
  • BIBF was happy of their students and the  success of the event by posting on Instagram account.
  • Pink Padel are satisfied with the event they posted on their Instagram page pictures and videos tagged by participants in the event.
 Accomplished
The use of project management skills among the team.
  • Each team member was able to contribute their skills in to the project such as strong leadership, organization, negotiations, problem-solving, and time management.
Accomplished
Enjoying and having fun during the process and the event.
  • This was a joyful and fun event all members were able to enjoy their time while organizing the event
Accomplished

 

Lessons Learned:

  1. The role of a project manager is important, most projects fail because project managers fail to understand the requirements of projects, and do not stick to deadlines, Project managers should fight for their projects, and engage their team members by delegating tasks and responsibilities to them with realistic deadlines, in order to achieve the ultimate outcome.
  2. Communication is a vital key for project success, it is essential for team members to share ideas, thoughts, knowledge and information, where team members exchange clear and precise messages, and if anyone feels confused at any stage should always seek to clear the confusion by asking questions until the information is fully understood, and by engaging in effective communication the relationship between team members will be strong, it will also reduce any stress and tension between team members, which leads to project success.
  3. Openness to change, we have changed the scope of our project and the charity to be funded at the planning stage, sometimes things don’t go as planned, and it is totally ok because success requires the ability to adapt to things, team members should accept the need of change when it is necessary for project success, it is also essential for team members to be willing to support the change, have positive feelings about it, and be involved in the change process.

 

 Our Advice For Future Teams:

  1. Work together, when team members are working together it is easier to generate creative ideas and share valuable information, which boosts performance and creativity.
  2. Communicate regularly, by having scheduled meetings with written agenda of the things that will be discussed.
  3. Check-in regularly, project managers frequent check-ins keep everyone on track, providing support and feedback.
  4. Prioritizing can help to schedule things based on importance and complexity, in order to start and focus on things that take longer time, or complicated issues.
  5. Emotional intelligence is a key skill to deal with different types of people, by understanding self-emotions in order to use them in a positive way and other people emotions by showing empathy and understanding their nonverbal cues that help to understand their feelings and emotions.

Photos & Video of the event:

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

International Men’s Health Project

Brief description of the project:

Our group’s aim was to raise awareness about men’s health in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We were inspired to focus on men’s health because it is often an overlooked topic in the Middle East. Additionally, the month of November was aligned with the international movement that is dedicated to the awareness of men’s health, celebrating male role models in our lives, improving gender relations & promoting gender equality

To raise awareness about men’s health, we collaborated with Bahrain Cancer Society (BCS) to hold a virtual Zoom session for BIBF’s students and staff. The awareness session covered Prostate Cancer symptoms, treatment, therapy & early detection advantages. The guest speaker leading the session was one of the society’s trusted experts. Dr. Akbar Jalal is the head of the Urology unit at al Salmaniya Medical Complex at the Kingdom of Bahrain. He has more than 14 years of experience in the field of Urology and Urological surgeries, Endourology and minimal invasive urological surgeries. Dr Akbar is also a consultant at Al Salam and Royal Bahrain hospital. He is a well-known and respected Doctor in his field and holds a strong passion towards raising awareness.

The awareness session took place on November 22nd, 2021, from 12:30 – 1:30 PM Bahrain time via Zoom and was facilitated by one of the group members. Moreover, as a group we created a video that raised awareness and highlighted important facts about Men’s health such as suicide, domestic violence, and depression. The video revolved around common facts presented by several students from the BIBF – DePaul MSHR 2022 Cohort. The video was posted on our Instagram account that has been created for raising awareness – @mens_day_2021. Our collaboration with BCS and BIBF was covered in a press release by The Daily Tribune newspaper on the 25th of November 2021.

Brief description of the charity:

The Bahrain Cancer Society is a voluntary non-profitable organization. Since 1989, the organization’s mission is to provide education and information to the public about causes of cancer, cancer treatment, and methods of prevention. The society has also been supporting relevant research studies undertaken by individuals, institutes and providing training for individuals participating in the field of cancer prevention. Over twenty years, the society has been successful in expanding its membership base to cover a wide range of all those concerned with cancer and its different aspects. It also has organized seminars and workshops to educate patients, medical staff, and concerned officials to assume their responsibilities and their role in the fight against cancer. The society has the following objectives:

  • Raising public awareness.
  • Promoting health education and emphasizing the importance of early detection and treatments and self-examination in cancer prevention.
  • Strengthen the relationship among the patient, family, physician, and hospital.
  • Social publishing booklets on cancer.
  • Cancer Patient Support.
  • Organizing lectures, seminars and workshops on cancer, its prevention and treatment.
  • Cooperating and coordinating with local, regional, Arab, and international agencies to fight cancer.
  • Participating in exhibitions and philanthropic activities held in Bahrain.

Factual analysis of success in terms of project objectives:

Success measure

Outcome Supporting Data

The awareness event takes place on November 22nd, 2021.

Achieved

Refer to picture 1 & 5

Recorded session of the event

25 participants attend the awareness session on November 22nd, 2021 Achieved Refer to picture 5
Creating an awareness video that includes 10 participants from the MSHR cohort 2022 & includes Professor Cook Achieved Refer to picture 4
500 likes/views received on our social media campaign through our Instagram account. Achieved

Refer to picture 4

Publish an article in Daily Tribune newspaper about our project before 30th November 2021. Achieved

Refer to “BIBF_DailyTribuneArticle_Group 2

 

Two or three lessons learned about managing projects:

  • Have a proper communication plan at an early stage of the project. Discuss communication preferences such as style, method, and frequency among team members. Expect people are different and try to accommodate these differences.
  • All assigned tasks to team members need to have clear targets/deadlines. Additionally, create a process where check-in meetings take place among team members and updates, challenges, risks, and opportunities are discussed.
  • Ensure to have the right documentation process where updates and changes are tracked. Access to the latest data and information is critical for the success of the project.

Advise for future teams doing similar projects:

  • Create a comfortable environment where open communication, flexibility, support, and adaptability is part of the team’s core values. This is key to create harmony within the team.
  • Identify each team member’s area of strength and weakness. This helps in allocating resources to tasks as per the availability of talent and skills.
  • Create a contingency plan even if you are 100% sure you don’t need it.
  • Use connections and social networks when and where you can. It can support the overall project in terms of getting information and reaching key stakeholders which help for the benefit of the project.
  • Enjoy the different phases of the project, learn from the experience, and have fun as a team.

Other references:

  1. Instagram Account
  2. Instagram homepage screenshot
  3. Instagram Statistics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
  4. Group 2 meeting face to face to discuss implementation plan
  5. Group 2 emergency zoom call to discuss risks and worst/best case scenarios
  6. Project Managers’ weekly plans and track of documents
  7. Recorded Session of the Live Event: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sSXiE8AiTlc58Li_M1EUzLi-onEZAVz2/view?usp=sharing
  8. Post-event group face to face meeting

All files can be accessed on the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XeiKUM_wp07tRGILXWhqNyX-F614yEUa?usp=sharing