“Standing on the shoulders of giants”, after a successful Rotaract year (2017/2018) for RACALBS International Services avenue, the current Rotaract year started off with hopes of similar success in the IS avenue. With a mammoth uphill task ahead of us, the first International Services project for the Rotaract year 2018/2019 kicked off on August 23rd,2018.
Behind every project idea for international services, the fundamental goal was to educate our members on the many different cultures we live amongst and establish events that promote international relations. Project “InQUIZitive” is the first in a series of projects aimed at fulfilling those goals, by educating club members on the vast number of cultures and vital events that take place around the world. To create a sense of general awareness of world happenings.
The project idea was eventually warped into a competitive general knowledge quiz, so that the learning session had a direct engagement from members, and created general interest for active participation. Project “InQUIZitive” was hosted during the club’s weekly meeting, coincidentally this also happened to be a joint meeting with the Rotaract Club of Informatics Institute of Technology (RAC IIT). With President Hamdhan requesting the presence of IIT club members for “InQUIZitive”, the quiz had a high attendance.
This was organized and hosted by our very own International Services Directors Mariam Husni and Navin Suresh, while the club’s treasurer Nuwanthi Mannapperuma was the designated Gamemaster and Scorekeeper. The most challenging part of the project was finding the right balance in questions, covering a variety of informative topics. To give meaning to the “Competitive” part of the general knowledge quiz, all the members present in the room were split into two teams (Team A and Team B ), without bias for the club they hail from. Coincidently with the two presidents of RAC IIT and RAC Achievers being on two different teams, they both took charge of the mantle of their respective teams. President Vimukthi with Team A and President Hamdhan with Team B.
The quiz rules were simple. There were overall four categories with 6 questions each. Teams have to answer 10 questions each, with having to answer a minimum of 2 questions per category. The categories being Current Affairs, World History, Entertainment, and Business. Each team receives 10 points for answering their question correctly, and 5 points for answering the opposing team’s question, in the event they are unable to. The team to score the most number of points wins. With the rules defined, and the questions set, the knowledge conquest began.
Team A took an early lead in the competition by successfully answering the first few questions, with their points originating mostly from Current Affairs and Entertainment. Team B had a rather difficult start, having encountered some difficult questions in World History, but managed to be right on their opponent’s tail. As we went further into the night, Team A successfully maintained their lead, beating their opponents by a respectable margin.
Like the chess proverb, “At the end of the game the king and pawn go into the same box”, all those present were full of cheers and applause for the winning team. The project turned out exactly as expected, with all those present in the room, leaving it a little more informed about the world, than when they entered it.
Rtr. Navin Suresh
Editor