Prayas Activity classes: - An experience you can not forget

Prayas Activity classes

In those initial days in Prayas, when the Activity Class was started, I used to just sit and watch the kids. I was trying to read them and think on what they would be thinking. Over the week they have to go through the books and copies for their studies. This was a great initiative to refrain them from the load of bookworms crawling in their mind whole week. This class was started for the senior kids. We started teaching them in a playing mode which gave them lots of lessons and bring out their creativity.
Few important rules for kids’ n volunteers in this class are:
1. Nails should be cut.
2. Should take bath daily.
3. Should come to the class with combed hair.
4. Should put less oil on hair.
5. Hair should be clean and lice free.

On our first day we designed a Name Tag: All the kids were given a plain white paper. They were given to draw anything they like on that paper and write their names in the middle in big fonts. Even we designed our name tags with the kids.

Then we learnt how to maintain hygienic habits and maintain cleanliness in order to stay healthy. During summers, how to take care to avoid skin diseases and rainy days we learnt how to keep ourselves and our houses clean. And when winters came we learnt how to stay away from cold and flu.

We saw animation movie on digestive system, Solar system, Bones. The animated sounds of chewing food, passing through the food pipes and going through the intestines was a nice journey. Lines in book looks good but when a story or movie goes on, it leaves a deep impression and impact on mind. We never remember what we read in book but we do remember what we saw in a film. Similarly when we had a journey through our 9 planets and the galaxy, the sky was not far beyond us.

We had a card designing class for Father’s day celebration. This was a really wonderful session, though my card was very inferior in front of kids’ ones. Their feelings came out in the language of colors.
We learnt how to design cards and bookmarks and we also painted diyas on diwali. Diyas were distributed among the kids to decorate on the eve of diwali and enlighten them.

After a lot shout n study and play we had our Yoga session. This helped us to control our nerves system and get some moments of peace.
We had painting competition among the kids. We all painted our thoughts on the paper. Child artists were really great. When line of thoughts were drawn on the paper the color of dreams were spread out.
We also learnt what is computer what was the history of computer and how does it work and how to draw and paint in computer.

We then thought of adding a surprise visit to kid’s home for a relation built up n interaction session with the parent for each kid. We visited and discussed on their good works and complaints.

We learnt how to give speech and how to stand bold and straight in front of audience in our personality development session.

Within a period of 8 months after crossing a milestone for senior kids, now this session is also taken for Eureka and Fresher’s batch.
For The Eureka batch and fresher’s batch we do play enacting while reading stories and extracurricular activities as done for senior kids. We also did face painting for them.

This can be called as a “Breaking Thought Barrier” Class.

For any ideas & inputs to enhance and build up this session kindly Contact: Me@9971150656/subudhi.linkan@gmail.com or Raj @9871826168/ pushpraj.nit@gmail.com for senior and Eureka batch and Anvita for Freshers batch @9971546756 anvitashukla4u@gmail.com

by subudhi.linkan@gmail.com
AID Prayas Team

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

You are invited to the Independence day celebration @ Prayas on Aug 15th 2009

At the stroke of midnight when the whole world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom...- Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru

Hai jo dil mein desh k liye preet ..

Hai jo dil mein armaan …

Aao wo sab ko dikhayein...

Aao is jag ko dikhayein..

Aao kuch kar dikhayein...

These words remind us of patriotism and a deep sense of respect for our Motherland - India. Keeping this feeling and commitment of “Kuch Kar Dikhayein”, the Prayas family is delighted to invite you on Independence Day celebration on 15th August 2009.

Venue : - Prayas new center Nayabans, Sector 15, NOIDA.

Timing : - 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Now, a glimpse of the events with which celebrate the Independence Day at PRAYAS. The Event schedule for this celebration will be: -

• Start @ 2PM with Flag hoisting
• I – Day introduction speech
• A brief about Prayas
• Patriotic dance
• Patriotic songs
• Patriotic poems
• Prize distribution
• Wrap up @ 6PM with Refreshment

Now here comes the main attractions for the volunteers: -

Photography competition:- Click photos of I - Day celebration activities

Venue: - I –Day celebration, Prayas new center Nayabans, Sector 15, NOIDA.

Timing: - 15th august 1:00pm onwards till end of function

Prizes: - 5 best pictures will be selected by jury and displayed at Achievements of Prayas board in new class room with their owner name. Also, the best photographer will be awarded by a prize.

So all shutterbugs and professionals, recharge/replace your batteries, clean your lenses and ready to drain your battery to showcase your talent.

I-Day decoration competition:- Decorate the celebration place

Venue : I –Day celebration, Prayas new center Nayabans, Sector 15, NOIDA.

Timing: 15th august 1:00pm – 2:00pm before the function ends

Prizes: Jury will award to the Best team.

Limited Decoration material/ Rangoli colors will be provided on venue itself.You can also bring decoration material by own.

Performance by Volunteers:- Solo/group song,experience, any on the spot activity by volunteers

Venue: - I –Day celebration, Prayas new center Nayabans, Sector 15, NOIDA.

Timing: - 15th august within function.Confirmation need to provide before start of the function.

Contact person: - Raj @9871826168 or Linkan @ 9971150656

We heartily invite u to join us on Saturday Aug 15th @ Sector 15A, NOIDA for Independence Day celebration at Prayas. RSVP your availability.

Warm Regards,

Prayas Team

Bal Sabha - When the children took control

We had our Bal Sabha on August 3rd and initially it was looking like that very few volunteers showed their interest but later on we were 11-12 volunteers and 40 kids :) .

The Program started with the meaning of Bal Sabha and then the experience sharing of the kids. Elder kids Ashmina,Suby,Sona,Zulekha,Danista,Kiran,Poonam etc all shared their experience of being with Prayas.Their talent of Dancing,Singing,Reciting Poems and Imitating volunteers was superb.

Younger kids like Seefat,Parvina Sonu ,Dolly & Ruby were overly enthusiastic about their turn and their poems . Later on Volunteers like Anand ,Selva ,Charu,Linkan ,Satyan,Raj ,Darshan(Me) Shared their experiences of working with Prayas and the journey . New volunteers Bina,Pulkit ,Bhawana were enthusiastic enough to know the system better .

Raj could manage fruits(Banana & Guava ) for all the kids but unfortunate thing was that we the volunteers could not get Bananas :( .

Anyways overall the Bal Sabha went very nice and hope this series will carry on with new energy .We will require new inputs from all the volunteers to make Bal Sabha better and crispier .

Bal Sabha will be on every first Sunday of a month and you people can send your valuable inputs to Linkan (subudhi.linkan@gmail.com ) ,She will be organizing this event with Raj .

Here are the pictures from the event.

- Darshan Mehra

Seedhi sapaat zindagi bawaal ho gayi!!!!!!!

Heera hates being ordered around, Sonu is a tedious worker, Shahbaaz is the naughtiest one and loves to fantasize, and Rabina has not finished her homework. Charu is totally out of the mind trying to make kids mug up the spellings, so that they score well in their new school –“Nayi Disha”, and I sit there gawking at everything.

I went with almost nil expectations, to this place, met Arun. Arun was just making me aware of all the setup, or let’s frame it this way; I was having my orientation session at Prayas, when these kids poured in. Believe me, I was taken aback by their confidence, with which they extended their hands to shake mine, and asked my name. You don’t always require a convent education to be confident enough; this belief of mine was strengthened that vey day.

I always wanted to do something for the underprivileged kids for the country. Educating them is a fairly appealing idea. Charity begins at home, with this pious intention; I decided to teach my maid at home. Poor woman agreed to my torture smilingly, and there I began with my sessions. For the reader’s info she was pregnant at that time. To my horror she met with a miscarriage the 2nd week of my classes. I dropped the idea of charity at home, that very moment.

Then I came across this organization called Prayas, through one of my old school acquaintance, and leaped in for the chance. After being at the place for very few times, I regret the fact of not coming across it earlier. The delight of being with these kids, who are equally precious to their parents like any other kids, is unfathomable. At least I feel I am making a better use of my life. I do not want any credit for this, because the sheer pleasure and the satisfaction which I get being a very dormant part of the organization –which is full of enthusiastic youngsters, is more than enough. It’s amazing to see the free flow of youth energy in all these non-profitable endeavors. And I find it a better use of my idle time, better than hanging around in the malls punctuated at every corner of the city. That is why I named this composition as “Seedhi sapaat zindagi bawaal ho gayi”. Hanging around with friends is just one normal thing you can do. I got cooler ways than that!!!! And guess what… I am loving it!! :-)

Anvita Shukla

Prayas, after a milestone!

Last month, the admission month! Most of our kids joined Nai Disha. The admission to the school was a two step process, there was a written test first and then there was a convincing session by volunteers. We were around 10-15 volunteers parenting those kids. Nai Disha principal was all influenced by us and she was really a very nice person, amazing was her patience to interact with every new kid coming up and besides that we kept pressurizing her to admit our kids prior to other ones. With our assurance, she was kind enough to admit 21 out of 24 kids we took to the school for admission.

Everybody was happy. We celebrated :). We thought our part was almost done, we were relieved but here comes the tougher part! After a week or so we were summoned to the school by various class teachers. The complaint was that though we got them admitted to class 2nd, 3rd and few of them to 4th std. but their skills and understanding level did not comply with the class std.
Well, morning 8 O’clock we arrived to Nai Disha.

It was funny, as Rajiv entered the class, all the students stood up to wish "Good Morning Sir"! I further entered into the class with the fear of hearing "Good Morninig Madam" but then, some things you can’t avoid :). Anyways so after all those greetings, the class teacher called our kids and explained us few things that need to be emphasized upon to bring them up to the class level. At a point of time we felt like nothing was making much sense to us, we were just good listeners, few were the queries their parents could have answered only and trust me, few were the scolding their parents should have heard only :).

One thing we surely understood was...It was a long way to go! We came back scheduled their daily night classes, 2-3 more volunteers joined us, currently we are focusing on English. We restarted with same intensity! Everything was same except that kids now come with a purpose, and they have school books and fair notebooks with themselves, they have home works to do, it’s a busier schedule to them, they are more engaged, aware and I assume happier. After a month of conducting those classes what we feel now is - It’s always a long way to go and that’s what is nice about Prayas :)

April ’09 @ Prayas

This month was a milestone period for Prayas and here goes a brief on how it went :)

Admissions at Nai Disha & Moonlight

As I was writing the updates of March ’09, it was 12.30AM Midnight and our volunteers were going of to sleep with slightly tensed about what would happen the next morning for the admissions of the children at Nai Disha. Today we proudly announce that a total of 21 children got admitted at Nai Disha (Sec 29, NOIDA) and another 5 at Moonlight Public School (Sec 15A, NOIDA). That is, a total of 26 children attend higher quality schools and now receive better education than before.

The efforts of all our regular volunteers have been a key ingredient to this success and every time I get a chance to write about them I have a new achievement from them to talk about. The volunteers that made this happen are: Darshan, Vikas, Rajat, Rajiv, Tarun, Nikunj, Charu, Anuradha, Sugandha, Selva, Abinash, Anant, Anand (in no particular order of relevance, but as a solid team).

Raj Starts Activity Sessions with the children

One of our veteran volunteers, Raj Bansal, has come back to active volunteering in the past 3 months and has been an active part of educational activities at Prayas. He has started up an activity session on Saturdays where the children are engaged in team building and collaborative games, alertness building sessions, science sessions, and a bit of silent meditation. This has been well appreciated by the children and there is a good attendance on all days for the same.

The most surprising thing I found was one day when all 12 children present were in a sitting mediation position and silent for almost 5-6minutes. This experience, in my close to 3 year engagement with the children of Prayas, was the most silent 5 minutes that I had. And so, here is a marvelous effort by Raj at managing this class and engaging the children in a constructive way.

Raj is supported by Linkan & Rashi to take his sessions. The sessions are planned for all Saturdays from 3PM-6PM at the New Center. You can reach Raj @ 09871826168, if you wish to join him.

New Volunteers this month: Rashi, Anvita Shukla, Daisy Singh

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Class Schedules & Volunteering Opportunities @ Prayas (April-May '09)

There are these primary programs we are working on at this point:

• Program 1: Nai Disha & Moonlight Entrants - Support Program
• Batch II - 2/3/4th Batch
• Batch II - Nursery / KG / 1st Batch
• Program 2: New Batch for 2010 managed by Abhinash (Full-timer)
• Program 3: Activity Sessions: led by Raj Bansal
• Program 4: Computer Training Sesssions (Yet to begin)

PROGRAM DETAILS:

Latest details given below. To know further details contact Program / Batch Owners or give me (Arun Raj) a ring @ 9910908774.

Note: Feel free to forward this to any of your friends or family interested in volunteering. Also, visit our blog @ http://aidnoida.blogspot.com to stay updated with latest happenings.

Program 1: Nai Disha & Moonlight Entrants - Support Program

Batch I - 2/3/4th Batch

Venue: Centre @ Community
Owner: Rajiv – 9811981809

Time: 8.30-10.30PM

• Monday: Darshan
• Wednesday: Selva/Rajiv
• Thursday: Darshan/Selva
• Friday: Rajiv
• Sunday: Sugandha/Raj

Classes will held from 8/8:30 to 10:00 on weekdays and 5:00 to 6:30 on weekends.Since these days we are required to give individual attention to the children , so anybody who finds [him/her]self free on any day can attend the class.

Batch II - Nursery / KG / 1st Batch

Owner: Charu Garg - 9958363035
Venue: Centre @ Community
Time: 6.30-8.30

• Monday: Raj / Charu / Daisy
• Wednesday: Abhinav / Charu / Daisy
• Friday: Dilip / Charu / Daisy
• Saturday: Sonika and Priyanka
• Sunday: Priyanka

Program 2: New Batch for 2010 managed by Abinash (Full-timer)

Venue: New Centre
Time: 3-7PM (Batch 1: Younger : 3-5PM / Batch 2: Older: 5-7PM)
Owner: Abinash - 9971426913

Sessions held: All days from Monday - Saturday

Volunteer Opportunities: Opportunities open for supporting Abhinash to excute classes at these times. Please give me a buzz @ 9910908774 or call Abinash @ 9971426913 to know what you could do.

Program 3: Activity Sessions: led by Raj Bansal

Venue: New Centre
Time: 3-6PM (Batch II of Program 1)
Owner: Raj Bansal - 9871826168

Program 4: Computer Training Sessions

Owner: Required
Status: We have the furniture & computers ready. Computers need to be setup, configured and prepared for classes to begin.

Volunteer Opportunities: Opportunities open for setting up, starting and executing these sessions. Please give me a buzz @ 9910908774 or Rajiv @ 9811981809 to know what you could do.

First Batch of Prayas @ Nai Disha passes with success

Our first batch at Nai Disha has successfully completed one year and have advanced to their next class. Subi,Sona,Sajjad,Zulekha & Sabreen each of them cleared their respective classes.

Subi & Sona will be going in class 4th and Sajjad ,Sabreen & Zulekha will be going in class 3rd from coming session.

I am really happy about the progress of the kids. Zulekha, Sona and Subi got 4th ,7th and 13th rank in their class and as expected Saabreen and Sajjad cleared the class but could not get great ranks. But the kind of progress these kids have shown is an example and an inspiration for all of us. I whole-heartedly congratulate all the kids and all of for your of efforts you have given for their success.

I hope this wonderful work will be keep going with the efforts of all of you ,and after admitting more kids this year we will be in a position to feel the achievement . But this work has to get going because now we would have greater level of responsibility .

Kudos to Prayas and to you !!!

- Darshan Mehra