Pankhudi Foundation Blog

Team:
·         ~ Pankhudi Chennai
Date:
·         25-Feb-2007
Venue :
·         Avvai Home, Adyar
Participants:
                             
·         Divya
·         Muthalib
·         Mathu
·         Mehar
·         Sasikant
·         Shobana
·         Sivakami
·         Renuka
Activities:
 
·         Separation of Kids into various classes
·         Delivering Speech
·         Knowing about scientists
·         Birthday celebration for the kid Swetha
 
Experiences and Challenges
Separation of Classes:
·         One major difficulty we faced with the children was that few were interested in only games and few were interested to learn new things.
·          So going by majority when we play, we actually lose the gems who want to learn.  So from going forward we will have split of activities.
·         We will have four classes or activities every week going forward from this week. Science and experiments based on Science ( Major Teaching Focus here), Only Games, Physical Training, English. Each of the regular volunteer will be the host for these activities. Each kid has already subscribed themselves in the activities.
·         So each volunteer can focus on kids interested in their activity. This will help us in identifying the talents of children in their field of interested. Though we can split the children into much broader spectrum this is just an experiment.
·         All these weeks we only had everyone together. We need to see how split of activities work out. If successful we can have many fields of interest classes taken.
·         Last week, since Veena and Nayeem took Laptop and gave a presentation about Gandhi the entire crowd was controllable. Every week one presentation will be there common to all kids.
·         The other major problem we faced was that we cannot control the children. Each of the kid was in their own world (that is the characteristic of kids). It was quite difficult for us to tell them what we are up to. I tried to be little serious and sorted out things. When we started there were only 13- 15 kids. Most of them were taking bath. After sometime we had only 5 – 6 kids with us listening and others were in play mood. I am totally into the fact that we can’t do anything with their freedom. Only thing we could we can do is give our full efforts to the kids interested in learning.
Delivering Speech
·         I took a book which has 101 topics and essays about it. We made the children read it. We gave each kid a chance to read the topic of their interest. It turned out to be good. They were good in reading a paragraph. At the end of every topic, we would ask the meaning of what they understood from it. Still we need to train the children to listen when others read. I think they will get it slowly.
·         In the middle we were giving small instructions on how to read and deliver.
·         We have given the book to the kids there. Have asked them to prepare on topics of their interest and to deliver a speech without seeing paper.
·         It is just a healthy competition.
·         Hoping to see good speeches next week.
Knowing about scientists
·         I got a printed material of all Indian Scientist in a big banner like sheet of profiles of more than 20 people. It extended to about 2 meters.
·         Before actually displaying we asked who is a scientist.. name few scientists you know etc.
·         They were able to name very few scientists from India.
·         After we displayed, the kids were interested in reading. They in fact were not able to identify any Indian scientists.
Health Problems faced by children
·          There is one thing which we need to discuss to the management of the home. It is with respect to the health of the Kids there. There was one kid called Ramya. She was crying so much that there is Sinus for her and her headaches so much. But the caretaker who is responsible to take her hospital is not present. So there is no one to take her to hospital.
·         It was really uncomfortable seeing her suffering. We had no clues how to handle this. There was no one to talk to on this regard.   This will be action item for me this week to talk to management and do something for it.
Birthday Celebration:
·         This week we initially planned to celebrate the birthday of a kid – Swetha
·         We thought of having a cake cutting function and gift her with some books. As Veena pointed out this may affect the other children and everyone else would want to celebrate and some would be there who don’t even know their birthday. So we decided to celebrate it in a simple way.
·         The kid Swetha welcomed us with a warm smile. She wore a new dress and was very happy.
·         We thought we will celebrate birthday once all activities are done so that the concentration of the children would not be missed. It was lunch time and when we decided to sing song and gift the book we realized she was missing.
·         We came to know that her mom has come and she left in the middle of the activities to see her mom unnoticed. We sent one girl to bring her back (She was with her mom in a nearby place). But by the time she was back with us most of the children left to lunch.
·         So there 8 of our volunteers and few other children when we sang birthday song for her.
·         Then we gave a Tamil Book as a birthday gift, Chocolates to distribute to the kids in Home and her classmates in school. For next few mins I was not able to grasp what was happening to her. She was wordless. She was happy. She wanted to tell something but only gave us smiles back. I felt it was more than happiness.
·         We told her to celebrate the day with happiness and also distribute the chocolate to her classmates. She fed chocs to all of us there.
·         I guess she was admitted n this home last year and today was the first day her Mom is visiting her. She was delighted for it too.
·         Later when we were discussing the plans to be carried out for next week, Swetha interrupted us, with her mother. Her mother seemed to be so younger and she talked with me for few mins
·         She told that she was so happy that we celebrated her birthday requested us to continue coming to the home and take care of Swetha. We promised we will do that.
·         Later, one of our volunteer shared the story behind Swetha. Swetha father expired some few years ago leaving Swetha, her sister and her Mom. Her younger sister was adopted by their relatives itself. But no one was ready to adopt Swetha. Since Swetha faced some medical problems her mom faced financial problems too.
·         It was the decision of Swetha that she would stay in a home like this until her mom comes to a good position. She also said that instead of staying in relatives home, who hate her, she was much happier in staying in an orphanage along with her friends.
·         It was really touching the hearts of us… Needless to say, every kid in the home would be carrying a similar story like this and it gives us additional responsibility to us to bring smiles to them.
A beautiful transformation:
·         Possibly this could be most wonderful feeling I had got in Avvai home in the past 8 weeks.
·         Revathi was the toughest kid for me to handle for she was very naughty. She was the most uncontrollable for me. It is not that she won’t be in activities. She would be in activities. But never allow anyone to speak about.
·         She enjoys interrupting in middle and discouraging other students when they speak out. Today as when the kids started reading out the essay she was disturbing. She was not able to sit in a place and was roaming about here and there.
·         It was highly distracting and we requested her few times to be quiet. I used to make her sit with me so that she will be little silent. But not this time.
·         I told her – I want to talk to you for sometime. Will you come with me. She was first reluctant and then she said Ya.
·         Then we both started roaming together. My hands over her shoulders. I showed all the love possible to her. I was careful not to hurt her or scold her for her behavior. We just started talking about her studies, her interests, what she thought about me, what she wanted etc.
·         I am not a psychologist. But I was quite aware of the areas which a kid is vulnerable to. I never touched those.
·         I made her feel I am there for her and promised to her in learning math’s and English in weeks ahead. Then I was asking what are the problems faced by her. In this total span of 20 mins, never I took my hand off from her. I felt it assured her that I am really concerned for her and I was!!
·         She then shared her dream of becoming a police inspector. There is a gem hidden in every kid.
·         After spending few more mins together, we joined the other kids in the activity.
·         She was totally opposite the moment we returned back. She was quite and receptive to what others were reading.
·         When she was reading, she wanted me with her holding the book. I don’t have words or I may not be able to actually describe what I observed.
·         She took the responsibility of taking the book with her and motivating her friends to prepare for a small speech competition for next week.
·         We didn’t talk anything more. But some one she assured me there will be a positive change in her. I was able to feel it from her eyes.
·         What big thing can I do than this? Bringing up a positive change in a kid. It was just a few kind words that made all the difference. This is what we used to call “Pankhudi Touch” – Touching lives of someone with a magic wand called “Love”
Plans for next Week
 

·         Muthalib will be handling Science related activities.
·         Mehar and his team will help the children in learning English. They inturn will learn tamil from them.
·         Swetha volunteered to teach singing to the children.
·         Me, as usual going to sit and look around if things are happening fine
·         From March each of us would contribute a little amount to manage the expenses on carrying out the activities.