Rescheduling of classes, as on Nov '09

As we all know that we have been able to appoint a new teacher for our project, Ms Jyoti Kharey. We want her to handle the Freshers batch only. And rest of the volunteers will be taking the other two batches as always. So there is a need to specify the new timing and the concerned people taking the classes.

FRESHER's BATCH
Ms Jyoti Kharey
Monday to Saturday: 3.30 PM-6.30 PM

EUREKA BATCH
Sweta Pandey and Akanksha Singh
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 6.30PM-8.30PM

SENIOR BATCH
Charu, Darshan
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 6.30PM-8.30PM

ACTIVITY CLASSES FOR

EUREKA BATCH: Linkan
Sunday: 3PM-5PM

SENIOR BATCH: Linkan, Anant
Saturday: 3PM-5PM

If anybody is interested to initiate we can also start up with the activity classes for the kids of Freshers batch. So please raise your hands for the same.
Also we are planning to meet with the parents of the Fresher's kids because it has been along time since we had interacted with them and secondly we want them to know as well that there has been a change in the timing of the classes and we also want the new teacher to meet the parents. So we will meet the parents around 3PM on the coming Saturday with Ms Jyoti Kharey to get her acquainted with the kids and the parents as well. So whoever is interested to attend the meeting.

We are also encountering an issue: As all the classes of all the batches will be taken up in the new centre, there is no utilization of the old centre and we are giving a huge amount of rent for both the rooms but we are not being able to utilise them to its maximum. Yet at this time, the concern is more towards the utilisation of the old centre. Also because that is the only way community knows us. So we need to rethink how we are going to use that room and what all activities can be done there. So please come with ideas and let us know what can be done.

Charu Garg

"Sunday Perfect"

On the morning of 8th November, she dressed up in her best dress and her mommy gave her a sweet hug to see her off. Little eyes anxiously wondered how the day would unfold, a day they had awaited for long. Some giggled, some fell, some caught, some just ran around; The faces of our tiny angles brightened up the day of all and sundry perfectly.

Nehru Planetarium was perhaps the pinnacle for the kids. The expresions of "wow" made me feel how much little hearts are drive to the stars. Every eye in the dark looked straight up, hooked onto the ceiling. A cluster of little hands held on tight to you. Happy faces sprinkled your face with joy.

The open air made the kids play to the fullest. The children's park visit embraced the kids to surrender to their wildest happiness and thrill. Dolls in the Doll museum served as a good source of learning. The kids got to know every attire and living style :).
All in all, it was a great day, a great experience. I got to learn a lot, in addition to spending time with truly wonderful kids, because of whom every little visit to an otherwise ordinary place was so blissfully exaggerated in its beauty, that it gave the whole picnic team a "mission accomplished" feel!

" Shilpa "

"After picnic of AID-Prayas kids on 8th Nov 2009"

Prayas Update: September and October

Curiosity: Next visit to International Book Fair
After selva had taken 8 kids to Pragati Maidaan for book fair, other elder kids were amazed to see the colorful collection of books, they also expressed the interest to check out the book fair. On the last day of the fair, Gaurav came as a savior, he took the kids, Asmina, Poonam, Kiran, Reena, Danishta etc..to the fair, Raj and Linkan accompanied them. It was another adventurous trip for the kids that involved a fun driving, lots of learning, struggling with the crowd, curiosity, overeating, vomiting, speeding, chalan :P etc...all in all kids were happy, excited and occupied with lots of bits and pieces of happenings around.


Multiple wishes: 5th September
Prayas had lots of reasons to celebrate the day. One cake said – Happy Teacher's Day and the other one – Happy B'day Darshan Sir. To add to the day we celebrated BaalSabha on the same day becasue kids were ready with their small creative formulations, you should have seen the beautiful B'day cards they made. Kids acted like teachers and repeatedly sang Happy B'day :)) Most interesting thing was to see the urgency in every one's eyes while they gave last minute touch ups to their cards. The evening was very loud, colorful and cake filled :)

Moving Ahead: New Kids Admission to Govt. School
This is how we start, segregate eligible and willing kids from community and get them first admitted to Government. School. Mid September, we got around 20 new kids admitted to Govt. School. All the parents were quite supportive, all the volunteers were quite punctual. With the team effort the start looks good. We hope to see the day when all the parents would take their kids by themselves for admission to different schools the moment their kids turn to 4.


Seviyan: Eid Celebration
21st september, Eid. We reached the community center slightly late with the gifts and sweets. It was true festive there, all kids and parents super dressed up in line at the class door to put their own plate of seviyan at the center of a huge plate. They had organized it all for us, everybody looked so happy and we were overwhelmed to be a part of their happiness. After overeating the sweets, we started the distribution of gifts, Rajiv had decided to do it quickly and rush back to office. As we entered the first house, the parents hosted us with one more plate of seviyan and a bottle of cold drinks, after a mild insistence we ate them being absolutely unaware of the conspiracy that it will be repeated at every house. As we finished distributing gifts to 10th house, we were half dead!

Fear Section :Eureka kids result
Eureka kids who are going to Nayi Disha in classes Nursery and KG, cleared their exams with flying colors. Most of them scored good marks in their terminals apart from Sonu (Shahid's Brother). He failed in English, yet the school teachers said that there has been a little improvement in him and if he works hard, he can also score good marks. Other than that, the School Principal was very happy and said that all the kids from Sec 16 are good. The remarkable thing is that Seefat and Parveena have stood first in their class. So kudos to all the kids :) - These are the words of Charu on the Eureka kids result. Charu didi ki jai :)


Improvement: October BaalSabha
The best BaalSabha till now. Kids were much more prepared, clean and confident. They showcased some very good performances this time. Starting from regular group song and poem recitation to a real soothing song from a shy kid and a different cheeni bhai play from the enthusiastic ones. The day involved everything. At the end there was a fun event for volunteers which fully solved its purpose. The kids were very good, still, the best performance award goes to Prasad Haridas for his unmatchable imitation of veeru – Mausiiiiiiii jiiiii...:D It was a prefect BaalSabha, hope to see many more such events in coming days.

Bal Sabha & The Collective Cleanliness !!

I was very much enthusiastic about the term called "Bal Sabha" .I think Vijay Bhaiya introduced this to me about one and half year back and I wanted this to be replicated here in AID-Prayas as well ."Bal Sabha" is a regular monthly meet where all the volunteers and kids meet and perform something,It is a platform where kids get a chance to leave the academics and showcase their talent .

We tried to start it before as well but could not succeed thinking that it has a lower priority than teaching kids .Somehow there was a mix feeling few month back when it has been observed that now we have a good number of volunteers (Approx. 20) devoted to take care of all the activities at Prayas but we all are not able to meet together. Each and every volunteer is working with different set of kids at different time(weekened,evening or night).Different set of kids has increased our strength to more than 55-60 kids.

So my long waited desire came up with the intention, that Starting "Bal Sabha" now will definitely help us in building good relationship among us and it will strengthen Prayas family ( that constitutes volunteers and kids ).
Initial two "Bal Sabha" were not that much prepared enough but we had "masti" sessions with kids and we could find some real good talent among kids in terms of dancers and singers .

Yesterdays "Bal Sabha" was special for me ,The reason is the "Collective cleanliness in all the kids" . In my opinion, I can say that "I have never seen that level of cleanliness in each & every kid of Prayas before "

I don't wanna give credit of it to any single person but this "Change" is a collective success & it has increased my faith on the tag line we as an AIDer follow ।

" Be The Change You Wish To See "

Observing these small improvements or changes in kids like "cleanliness,confidence, leadership & discipline a bit though" is enlightening to see !!

"Great job by every member of Prayas family for taking it forward .."

.........................................................................................................................................................................

Darshan Mehra

Family interaction activity – A step forward to involve community

It has been 6 months since we started Talent class, which is huge success. Attendance in this class is always high. We see lot of positive changes in the kids. They are now more aware, determined, and confident. Each kid is different and unique in his own way, some budding talented kids are Poonam – a good painter , Jabaaz - awesome dancer and speaker , Subi - the great all-rounder , Julekha , Kiran.. all are great.

Talent classes not only entertain kids, it also helps them to understand their neighborhood, their environment. Its gives them break from the regular classes and rejuvenate them for further studies.

In spite of regular Talent classes, we feel there is a communication gap among parents, kids and Prayas volunteers .Parents blame their kids for not studying or obeying and kids blame parents for not paying attention to them.

So for overall development of kids, there should be some effort which we need to put to reduce this communication gap.

So keeping that in mind we found a new way of communication with the kids and their parents. This way the small loop holes will be filled up. Complaints and accomplishments of the kids can be discussed at their home. This would not make them feel ashamed for their mistakes as they feel in a meeting in front of all. And also it would make them feel good when it is a compliment for their good performance and good work.

So part of the Talent class program, we start a new initiative called Family interaction activity “A Surprise visit once in a week basis” on weekends, after the Talent class. We select 1-2 kids randomly and go there to meet with whole family.

A short story on our Day 1 visit:

“Our first visit was to Govind’s house. We appeared all of a sudden at their door. He and his family were just surprised. They welcomed us inside. We discussed about the complaint against him from his school. We had a talk regarding his attitude of not paying attention on studies and being inattentiveness in the school. There we came to know that her elder sister, who is also well qualified, help other Prayas kids in their homework etc. Where as Govind never share anything. We talked to his parents and suggested them to guide him just by sitting with him ½ n hr everyday while he does his study. Even Govind promised to do his part and his eyes were just filled with tear drops for his mistakes.

Also we got to know from his family members that as it was taught to them in Talent class to maintain cleanliness on personal basis, family members, and house and outside of the house, he is doing well on that regard and making family members do so.

Our next visit was to Subi’s home. She is doing well in her studies. So we just had casual talk with her mother about her studies and improvement in personal development. We did a check on if she is also maintaining cleanliness as taught. Though she is trying her level best yet found it is still needed to teach the same cleanliness lesson to their parents too. We did so and suggested her other to keep her younger kids in the same clean way as is Subi. “

Really it was a great feeling which the parents expressed as their Kids are given so much importance and Kids felt it as they were really valued and cared so much.

It made us feel that a good relation is built so……
Hope this will go building strong bridge further………

- Prayas Team

A visit to the International Book Fair

I took 8 children Sajjad, Jabaz, Shahid, Govinda, Kiran, Sona, Zubi and Zuleka today to the fair. Children were ready and were waiting at the community gate from 10.00 despite rains, I reached slightly late. We directly went to Pragti Maidan. We went through the stalls and jumped into stalls wherever children related book were present. I asked the children to browse through and pick the books of their interest and also books for the younger children.

After they did their selection I did ask them why they choose that particular book. Really unexpected question for them and to my surprise I got unexpected answers as well :). Got to know that Sona was more interested in reading books on Natak, Zuleka on Music, Jabaz on history, space and environment, Zubi on biography on national leaders, Kiran on fantasy stories. Shahid and Sajjad were randomly browsing through... After around 4 hours of book hunting we ended up in roping up 72 books [including a few small 20 page books].

By that time Rajiv had joined us along with his sister and we bumped in to Charu's family there. Me, Rajiv and children went for lunch and post lunch children were too tired and I just grabbed some books quickly for me and we started back.

Zubi and Sajjad will re-start the library and Shahid and Sona would help them. We also got a chess / ludo board and the children wanted to start indoor games soon. Raj please consider this in one of your activities session [particularly teach them chess]. I have a carrom board in our room and I'll keep it at Prayas and children can use them as well.

- Selva Ganapthy ( aid.selva@gmail.com )

स्वाधीनता दिवस 2009

मुझे भली भांति याद है 15 अगस्त 2007 का वह प्रेरक दिन ! हम 10-12 AID-Prayas के साथी "नई दिशा फ्री एजुकेशन सोसाईटी " के स्वतन्त्रता दिवस समारोह में शिरकत हुए ! कह सकते हैं की विचारों और दृष्टीकोण के जो बीज तब बोए गए थे वो आज "15 अगस्त 2009" के दिन पुलकित होकर सामने आये !

आज अचानक से मुझे मंच से बुलाया और विकास ,सेल्वा , निखिल ,राजीव ,और आनन्द ने मुझसे भी इस बात पर सहमति चाही की "अगले एक वर्ष में हम नई दिशा के सामान एक स्कूल स्थापित करेंगे " ! यधपि हम कई दिनों से इस विचार पर मंथन कर रहे थे पर अचानक से यह प्रतिबद्धता व्यक्त करना मेरे लिए थोडा सा कठिन तो था मगर "प्रयास " के साथ मेरे तकरीबन ३ वर्षों के सम्बंध ने इतना जरूर सिखाया है कि

" लक्ष्य निर्धारित करो ,उस दिशा में ईमानदार

कोशिश करो ,लक्ष्य जरूर हासिल होगा "

आज के हमारे स्वतन्त्रता दिवस समारोह के पीछे राज ,लिंकन ,चारू ,रजत,राजीव,विकास ,सेल्वा ,आनंद (भाई :) ) के महत्त्वपूर्ण कोशिशें तो थी ही वरन बच्चों की भरसक मेहनत भी थी ! और उसका यह असर था कि आज का यह दिन सबसे यादगार "समारोह " बन गया ! चाहे बच्चों का नृत्य यो या गीत-संगीत सबकुछ बहुत मोहक था ! पुरे समारोह में सबसे मुख्य आकर्षण "नई दिशा के संस्थापक " कैप्टन जायसवाल ,कर्नल जीता राम जी ,प्रिंसिपल मैडम और उनके सहयोगी थे ! हम जब भी इन लोगों के संघर्ष के अनुभवों को सुनते हैं तो प्रेरित होना स्वाभाविक है !

"प्रयास " परिवार के सदस्यों ने आयोजन स्थल को बड़ी मेहनत से तिरंगे के तीन खूबसूरत रंगों में रंग दिया था ! सारे volunteers इस समारोह के सफल आयोजन के लिए भागीदार रहे !

मैं व्यक्तिगत रूप से इतना कहना चाहता हूँ कि "प्रयास परिवार " के पास युवा ऊर्जा का जितना भण्डार है अगर हम सब मिलकर इस ऊर्जा का सर्वश्रेष्ट उपयोग कर सकें तो "कम से कम हम इस "कम्युनिटी" के हर एक बच्चे को शिक्षा पाने की स्वाधीनता प्रदान कर सकते हैं "

और सही मायनों में यही हमारी और इन बच्चों की असली स्वाधीनता होगी!

जय हिंद !!

दर्शन मेहरा