Mitchell Fox | June 7, 2021
Sometimes, when it comes to school clubs, we forget about the greater impact that they can have beyond raising school funds or boosting student life. We fail to remember that the fun events that we attend are being held not only for our own pleasure, but for a greater purpose. Of course, it does not help that during this crazy, lockdown-filled year, all events seem to lose their meaning. A rare chance to see our friends and fellow students? Yes. But is it the same as it was in any other year? Of course not.
For those outside of the school walls, maybe it is the same. In some way, online events can serve the same purpose as in-person ones, because everyone still benefits, not just because of a few hundred dollars in fundraising, but because of awareness and learning.
At The Woodlands, this may be a fitting introduction for a variety of clubs or events. But it is especially true for one club in particular - one that faced the challenge of the pandemic year on multiple fronts; as a club, and as an international organization. That club is MEDLIFE.
For those who are not aware, MEDLIFE is a non-profit organization which works to target poverty and lack of access to fundamental needs such as education, healthcare and community development in Africa and Latin America, with a focus on their “homes” in Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Tanzania. Their ultimate goal is to rid the world of the constraints caused by poverty through the empowerment of students, volunteers and advocates alike. Through their Chapters, campaigns, and much more, they raise money for their various community development programs. They also host Service Learning Trips for their volunteers.
Their mission statement is as follows: "Our mission is to build a worldwide Movement empowering the poor in their fight for equal access to healthcare, education, and a safe home. To achieve our mission, we take a different approach to social justice work: listening, collaborating, prioritizing sustainability, and always following-up."
The Woodlands is home to one of these MEDLIFE chapters. The club started in 2018 and has grown significantly in the time since. The current executive team is made up of grade 11 and 12 students, and their task this year has been a challenging one. While the cause that they represent has increased in significance, the means by which they can raise funds and awareness for it have all but disappeared. In its short time as a club at The Woodlands, MEDLIFE’s events were in-person and mostly involved selling some kind of food, item or service, but this year, evidently, those events could not be held.
Like most clubs and organizations, their solution was to go online, and to continue with the events and initiatives that are already feasible from home. This year, in lieu of the events which have made MEDLIFE popular at The Woodlands - such as their highly-regarded Beavertails event - they have turned to whatever they could make possible online. Anna Nasirzadeh, President of the Woodlands’ MEDLIFE chapter, says this has forced them to change the way they do things. “We have been relying more on donations from people from both in and outside of the school more so than profits from events.”.
The MEDLIFE organization has always had something of a multi-pronged approach to fighting poverty in the developing world. But this year, Nasirzadeh says, the organization has had to change their goals in order to address the pandemic and the way that it has decimated the “informal forms of employment” that many people - especially in Peru - depend on. “MEDLIFE’s focus has always been on impoverished areas in Latin America, however due to the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions in Peru, MEDLIFE has been forced to narrow their focus to life sustainment projects rather than improvement and development.”
So, in the past year or so, they have turned their focus to providing COVID relief in the form of food, water and similar necessities to those who have been most affected. It may not withhold the uniqueness that makes this club especially noteworthy, but with an opponent that just got a whole lot more daunting, they are going to need a new approach to this fight.
Anyone in the club will admit that this year has certainly been challenging, but Nasirzadeh says they have done their best and hopefully the club will get back to the upward trend they were on before the pandemic hit. “...it's been rather difficult to keep the momentum going. However, we buckled down and focused on simply raising as much money as possible for COVID relief during the first half of this year through various online fundraising campaigns.”
The MEDLIFE Woodlands executive team: (Left to right) Ekam Sidhu, Hanson Liu, Janhavi Gupta, Yaoxiang Song, Brendan Fox, Anna Nasirzadeh, Julia Issa
In order to provide the relief needed in the most affected places, MEDLIFE counts on its chapters and volunteers to raise money. According to Brendan Fox, Executive of Administration, “The most important thing that we have done this year is by far the Moving Mountains Campaign.”
The Moving Mountains campaign is a COVID-relief campaign involving the raising of money to provide food packages to underprivileged and vulnerable communities in Medlife’s “homes” in Peru and Ecuador. Medlife’s main mission is in Union Santa Fe, Peru, and that is where the donations were sent.
The Woodlands’ chapter has held multiple call-in events known as “Power Hours” in order to raise money for this campaign. For one hour, the Medlife chapter members held a Zoom call while they called various friends, family members and peers to ask them for their donations. They would send out their chapter’s unique “Give Lively” link, which pooled donations together and sent them to MEDLIFE to be used for food and resources.
They also offered volunteer hours to anyone that helped take part in the event.
A “Power Hour” may not sound like a lot to some of the more cynical thinkers out there, but a considerable amount of preparation and communication ahead of time helped the Woodlands’ chapter raise a lot of money. With the first event, which occurred in September of 2020, over $1500 USD was raised (enough to make them first among Ontario high schools in amount raised). In the time since, which included more call-in events and as Fox calls them, “on-and-off campaigns”, they have raised that total to just over $3400 USD. “We are super grateful for the Woodlands community and our members (and their families) for their hard work and generous donations.”
The MEDLIFE organization is also known for their Student Learning Trips (SLT’s). This, of course, includes the trip to Peru which unfortunately did not happen in March of 2020 (and if you want to know more about that story, stay tuned, We have something in store for you). This year, during the delayed “April Break” (April 10th-17th 2021), a Virtual Student Learning Trip was held. According to the club’s Instagram page, students were able to take part in “interactive learning and remote service opportunities” as they learned more about the impacts of the pandemic on the people of Peru and interacted with some community members and medical professionals, while also being able to network and interact with fellow MEDLIFERS from around the world.
Of course, one cannot write about a school club without writing about the events that they have held for Woodlands students. The basis of all school clubs is to boost school spirit while achieving their major goals, and MEDLIFE is no exception. They hold interesting and often unique events (and for those of you that do not know them by now, I hope this article helps).
For the first few months of this school year, however, it was difficult to organize events outside of what MEDLIFE put together with the Moving Mountains Campaign and the Virtual SLT. However, they did find a way to put some events together, and some fairly unique and sought-after events at that.
One such event was a Valorant tournament, held on April 10th and 11th. Twelve teams competed in this online gaming tournament, which served as a nice opportunity for MEDLIFE to promote their club and their cause, while also raising some money through entry fees. The tournament was streamed over Twitch, with Danny Wang, a grade 12 student at The Woodlands, supplying some incredible MCing for the finals. There was a lot of strong competition, but the light-hearted attitude and knowledge that it was all for a good cause allowed for a fun time for everyone involved. It may not have been as lucrative as the events of the past few years, but every dollar counts and every chance to have some fun is a good one.
Another event that was held was a free art competition, held in conjunction with The Woodlands’ Art Club. Officially titled the Frontline On Canvas Art Competition, the theme for the event was art inspired by health care workers and their integral role in the fight against COVID-19, especially given everything they face on a daily basis.
The great thing about Medlife is that no event is just an event. It is also a learning opportunity. And in this case, they made this event into something of a campaign, including a post detailing why they chose the topic that they did and giving some facts about frontline workers, the work that they have been doing, and the incredibly difficult challenges they have faced during the pandemic.
On April 10th, three days after the submissions were due, the results were released via Instagram. To say that the top 3 submissions were incredible would be an understatement, and Fox admits even those involved were blown away by the incredible talent and thoughtfulness put into the pieces. “When we came up with the prompt of ‘Frontline Healthcare Workers’ we knew we would raise some awareness for these important members of our community, but we never could have expected the high quality artwork we received.”
The artwork was amazing, but it was also touching. Each entry focused on a theme and a message that the artists wanted to share, and each was more than effective. Congratulations to Sandy Tran for a 3rd place position, Ambar Kaushik for 2nd, and Catherine Zhang for earning 1st place for her incredible and inspiring submission focused on how healthcare workers have been stretched thin by the circumstances of the pandemic. Fox also revealed to The Woodstock that there is a hope that the Top Three submissions could be used for Medlife promotional material, a great reward for these incredible student artists.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place award winners in order from left to right.
MEDLIFE has been busy this year, even if it was a bit of a slow start. Through their events, social media presence, and overall commitment to raising awareness, they continue to show that the cause that they serve is important to them.
MEDLIFE is so much more than only a school club. Global poverty is no small issue, and their work shows that, sometimes, it is important to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk. The members of the Woodstock’s MEDLIFE chapter - as well as of all of the other chapters in high schools and beyond - do this by committing themselves as leaders in a fight with no victory in sight; a race with no finish line. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the tough living conditions that many people all over the world face, and MEDLIFE helps students to catch a glimpse of what that looks like, while also imploring them to do their part to help make the world a better place.
Clubs at The Woodlands represent so much more than just an opportunity to collaborate with friends; they are a learning experience and they help to do the same thing that education sets out to - to turn students into active citizens, and in turn, make the world a better place. At least for now, no other club exemplifies this as well as MEDLIFE.
If you would like to donate to MEDLIFE Woodlands: https://secure.givelively.org/teams/medlife/moving-mountains/medlife-woodlands
Thank you to Anna Nasirzadeh, Brendan Fox and the entire Woodlands MEDLIFE team for their contributions to this article and the content it addresses. Images courtesy of the MEDLIFE Woodlands Instagram account: @medlife.woodlands.
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