Author: Vaishali Rajan

Game changers

Game changers

A session based on “I AM THE CHANGE” theme was planned for the kids at abhayasharam , Bangalore on the 11th of Jan 2015 .
The first part of the session kick started with a discussion on various social problems the intensity of the discussion went on from lighter talks like planting more trees to protest against child marriage.
The kids blew away our minds with depth of knowledge they had.
They were comments like , ” being independent is important than getting married ” to funnier comments like ” marriage is a very boring part of life “.
In the session topics such as dowry , save girl child , child abuse were stressed upon and discussed at length . At the end of the session every child in that room took an oath that they
would step up and question if they ever come across the discussed issues , as they believe in the theme I AM THE CHANGE .
The second part of the session was an activity session , where the kids we’re divided into two groups of four and were given the liberty to take up any one social issue discussed in the class and come up with an innovative board game to spread their knowledge to others.
Initially everyone in the class were taken back , they had no idea how they could implement these issues to design a game ,a bit of motivation from the volunteers side gave them that initial push they needed.
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The first group decided to work on SAVE GIRL CHILD whereas the second group chose DOWRY. They were given one hour , chart paper , colour pencils and other stationery items for designing the game. They were instructed to make a draft copy before finalising a design , the kids for the first few minutes were lacking in ideas and wanted to give up , one of the child commented ” only scientists could invent things and they were not one ” , it was time for the
volunteers to spring back in action and motivated them to think about how much fun a game would be to play they invented rather than thinking about how difficult it was to create them .In the last 45 minutes , both the groups were busy and jotting points and designs on their rough paper . At the end of it all , both the teams had come up with two Mind blowing games .The first team who had taken up SAVE GIRL CHILD ,had designed a game on the basis of how important a director is for a movie the same way a girl child is important for a family , impressive right ?
The game was designed in a circular pattern where you had to rotate the pin and the place the pin stops is the points you get, the circle was divided into various boxes based on three messages:
KILLING A GIRL CHILD 100 POINTS
AWARENESS ABOUT IMPORTANCE OF GIRL CHILD 700 POINTS
SAVING A GIRL CHILD 1000 POINTS
the player with the most points wins the game , the winner gets a hand made thank you card with the message “THANK YOU FOR SAVING A GIRL CHILD” .The second group who had taken up DOWRY had made a game on the basis that only gifts given by parents with love are accepted and not gifts given forcefully which is titled dowry .So the game was roll the dice , they had made 28 boxes numbered , and you had to roll the dice to move your pawn to the number corresponding to the dice. If you landed on a box
stating dowry you immediately are thrown into the jail and hence are outta the game. The person who safely overcomes all dowry boxes would be declared winner . The volunteers were speechless seeing these kids design such wonderful apt games based on the theme . All the volunteers did was motivate and these kids had turned that motivation into a beautiful creative idea. At the end of it all each child had a huge smile on there face realising they were the CHANGE.
A small initiative but this can go on to make a huge difference to each child , their family and ultimately the society. The CHANGE you want to see around you starts from YOU.
I AM THE CHANGE.

Lakshya’s Day out

Lakshya’s Day out

It was a sunday; the day of vacation… when a few guys were getting acquainted in the ride in Chennai and reached the venue in an exactly planned fashion to skip breakfast (‘coz brunch was traded for early lunch 😛 ) a few were playing antakshari in Hindi, Kannad, Tamil,and Punjabi songs on the way in Bangalore. As a team on-time after a traditional south-Indian breakfast volunteers got the energy for a paintball session; on the contrary, our all time energy packages went out fetching bats, balls, nets to start with games of cricket, Frisbee,Tennikoit, handball etc…
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In Munchinbelle after paintball the ground was set for adventure with activities like tight rope walk, shaky bridge walk and Burma bridge trail in which ramalakshmi ended up proving most athletic person in the team by doing the activities twice.

The special delicacy, Pepper Chicken was enjoyed by all. To relax, volunteers got the opportunity to canoe in the big reservoir. Everything from the scenic beauty to the still water touched their soul. Occasionally guys on the other shore chilled out on the beach after fari-stastic dumb-charades in chennai, and Some of them had a dip in Rock-on style jumping from the edge into the lake in bangalore.  After that began the round of serious discussion over tea about issues like street children, it inspired the volunteers to carry on the things in bangalore but namma pasanga oru kuthaatam potu mudichaanga .Then, a journey back to home. Byju’s jokes, an integral part of the whole journey were both irritating and enjoyable at the same time. As the day came to an end, everyone had some memories from it that they would cherish for a long long time.

 

Mentors’ Notes

Mentors’ Notes

Just a note to experiment in your sessions…

This week was our first session after the ice-breakers on the module ‘social responsibility’. The children took part actively. They were enjoying in the cul-de-sac of happiness. And finally the closure was given by winnie; the kids were moved so much by it ; we collected (their individual feedbacks) what the session actually meant to them shortly written in sticky notes and gave it to her stuck on a chart (with a small note of appreciation from volunteers) which the kids presented to winnie . Briefly put this was a wonderful session with just a simple yet meaningful appreciation. {p.s. It was ashwin’s idea: instead of waiting for a caught ya card; this was an instantaneous gesture of gratitude }

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           – Santhosh, Trichy

Trust the trust in you…

The usual maduravoyal workshop session was about to be cancelled since a criminally accused was housed in that school premises and authorities have requested the session be cancelled and once we were about to move out of school premises; an inspector who happened to enter in enquired as in why we were leaving early; on learning the details he supported explaining what we are doing and he extended to take responsibility of the session and offered us a separate room to conduct the session peacefully.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            -Uday,Chennai

The Buzz is all about Leading…

The Buzz is all about Leading…

DISHA, an initiative of the MaFoi foundation, is an opportunity for children from disadvantaged background to believe in their strengths and rise beyond all odds to become grounded, educated and sensitive individuals of the society. It not only provides scholarship to the disadvantaged children but also equip them with leadership skills. Disha Leadership Programme, provides children an environment to learn,  act, and lead so that they can hone their skills, be productive and grow as concerned leaders. Disha Scholars from 8th standard onward undergo this programme till they finish their college. Recently Bhumi has partnered with DISHA to facilitate their leadership workshops for
class 11 children through its Lakshya program.

The first leadership workshop, focusing on communication and negotiation skills, was conducted on 17th Aug’14 wherein close to 45 students participated. The activity was “Junk Activity (Market Based)”,  where children negotiate to buy junks from the market and design a product based on creativity. The planning was very efficient right from the start and it was executed better than expected with minor tweaks. The major success was including the market concept in clear and precise manner which was executed perfectly. Though the activity was the same junk activity which was done every year, the additions such as including a stable market with a seller who negotiates his items (junk) based on demand and other small tweaks such as round robin fashion with multiple rounds for different teams to get their items with virtual money and at the same time having equal chance to get what they require has taken this activity to a whole new level.

Since they were 11th class children they were able to understand the concept quite easily and were very open to learn and talk with the volunteers which made the activity even better. The negotiation part of the activity was very neatly done between the children and the volunteer who acted as the seller in the market. Children were highly enthusiastic and creative in designing, while being shrewd and efficient in the negotiation part with the seller. It would have been even better if there was a way to promote negotiation between teams during execution. The only negative aspect was the time to execute this activity as it took longer than expected. Ideas such as explaining the activity stage by stage and showing the children a video on negotiation at the end of the activity were well received and it made the process smoother. Volunteers from DISHA were helpful and efficient in handling the children. They were very happy at the end result of the negotiation activity.

Three more leadership workshops have been planned in the months of Oct’14, Jan’15 and Feb’15 covering various other skills of leadership. We believe this partnership will help Bhumi-Lakshya in strengthening their abilities in conducting programs for higher grade children.

 

Happy Birthday Bhumi

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As many of you know Bhumi is turning 8 this year, so we at Nakshatra Reach Out would like to Thank all the pioneers of Bhumi and the initial volunteers to have given us such a great opportunity and platform to reach out to the kids.

Here is one of our volunteers’ Beacon experience one of the biggest platform we ever got till now.

Those who can, Do.
Those who can do more, Volunteer.
Those who can do even more, Lead.

“Am clueless, I’ve got no idea as to how to start this. My experience at Beacon 2K14, was one of the best. I added a lot of knowledge to my bag and to the project. To be right on target it was more than theoretical enlightenment.

Each one of us registered our ideas into one, found the missing spark and realised the areas we lagged. It was a platform for us to explore ourselves. We realised that its not a ONE MAN’S SHOW but an ARMY’S that drives this boat

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Change Today..

Change Tomorrow..

NRO Sports

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“SPORTS DO NOT BUILD CHARACTER. THEY REVEAL IT”

 

Sports group has been an integral part of NRO for the past three years. Football and volleyball were taught to the kids during this course of time.

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Last year, the sports group worked in four centers where football and volleyball were taught to the kids. The basic rules and regulations were explained to the kids through videos and the various challenges and techniques were explained to them.

 

At first it was difficult to get the attention of the kids. But as the days progressed and as the sessions became more interactive, the kids developed an interest towards the game and started training hard to excel in it.

 

During Kutty Nakshatra as the competitive spirit of the game set in, we could sense an exponential rise in the interest level of the kids. We also found out that the kids were trained to different levels depending on their capabilities. To ensure that a fair competition exists amongst the kids of various houses, a structured syllabus was framed for both the games, keeping in mind the level and the amount of physical workout and the way the game was taught to the kids.

 

As of now, sports operate in six centers and we plan to expand it beyond the horizon in the coming days.

 

“SPORTS ARE THE MICROCOSM OF SOCIETY”

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FOOTBALL PC :  KAARTHIC RS

VOLLEYBALL PC : GERAD AMBROSE

HR :  ANERUDH

NRO Arts

“THIS WORLD IS BUT A CANVAS TO OUR IMAGINATION”

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What started as a pilot project with just one center has now expanded to three centers. Although the expansion might seem a little less, what the kids were taught was comparatively more.

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Arts class on the go!

During the initial stages, the numbers of volunteers were less and there was no structured syllabus framed. Art was just taught to those kids who expressed interest in learning it with full enthusiasm and dedication from the volunteers. What started with a class of 10 students slowly expanded to 25 students and currently it stands at 35 students per center.

Although we failed to evaluate the students in the initial stages a great deal of improvement was observed by the teachers. The children showed more interest towards competitions concerning art, and a few kids also won prizes.

As an evaluation part, kutty nakshatra which was conducted last year made us realize that while the kids showed a great interest, we as teachers failed to bring out the creativity in them.

And hence our future plans revolve around the word – ‘CREATIVITY’. So for this year, we plan to fuse art and theatre together which will be taught in 3 centers for approximately 90 kids. (a 4th center might be added as well).  The credits go to every single volunteer in this group for their hard work and determination without which nothing could have been achieved. Kudos to everyone..!!

 “ART IS THE MOST INTENSE MODE OF INDIVIDUALISM THAT THE WORLD HAS KNOWN”

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PC :  JOHN

PR :  ISHVAR & KATHYAYINI

HR :  JANAVI

NRO Music

“WHEN WORDS FAIL, MUSIC SPEAKS”

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With the intention of teaching the language of souls to the kids, NRO music was started last year. The volunteers spent some quality time interacting with the kids and teaching them songs that they wanted to learn, which in turn helped us to get a better understanding of the kids and the genres of music that they were exposed to. Through events like Nakshatra, raw talent was also spotted amongst many kids who could compose their own songs and play musical instruments as well.

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Keyboard class on the go!

With all these points in mind and together with the valuable input from the volunteers, a dedicated and structured plan has been formulated this year. NRO music has been split into two groups namely NRO vocals and NRO instruments.

 

The numbers of centers have been increased from one to three this year (a fourth center might be added as well), with 32- 40 students from each center. Three styles have been chosen namely folk, western and carnatic, whose basics are to be covered. Each style is to be taught for a period of three months. Since most of the volunteers had been trained in more than one genre of music, it was decided that instead of organizing workshops, jamming sessions would be held on a regular basis amongst the members of the group where ideas could be exchanged and help provided if needed.

 

We believe that the future volunteers of NRO music would capitalize on the foundation and help us in molding the “musicians of the future”

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“MUSIC CAN CHANGE THE WORLD BECAUSE IT CAN CHANGE PEOPLE”

PC :  PRATHYUSHA & VIGNESH

PR :  V.M.NIKILESH

HR :  SAHEE BHAVANA

NRO Dance

“DANCE IS THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL OF THE BODY”

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  Dance has been associated with NRO for the past three years. What started with just one center in the beginning has now expanded and spread out its wings to eight centers. During the initial stages, there was no structured syllabus that was followed. The kids were taught dance steps and routines based on their liking.

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Group Dance-Kutty Nakshatra

But throughout this time we were able to connect to the kids and understand as to what they wanted from us. This helped us in framing a structured syllabus keeping in mind the child’s liking and interests.

Right from the start of 2014, the plans had been well thought of. Although it was a bit difficult in the beginning to get the attention of the kids, once we started explaining to them as to what styles we were going to teach them, they were very much interested and keen to learn it. A few ice breaker games and activities helped us creating a good bond with the kids.

The kids could relate to a lot of dance moves that we showed them to some other movies they had seen and their persistence to teach us those steps showcased the amount of enthusiasm they had towards dance.

To ensure discipline, BMC chart had been implemented wherein the kids chose their own rules and punishments for themselves as well as the volunteers. Peer learning was also implemented on a large scale to bring out the leadership qualities in children.

As far as the syllabus is concerned, bollywood, hip-hop and ballet are the three styles that are to be taught over a period of three months in the above said order. Workshops will be conducted by Species Dance Academy to get the volunteers more accustomed to the different styles of dance.

 “DANCE IS THE POETRY OF FOOT”

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PC :  KASI VISWANATHAN R M

PR :  SURABHI GUTCH

HR :  SMITHI MANICKAM