Prayas has been more than 3 years in the nurturing from a humble beginning. From supporting a few teenage boys, post their work schedules, through late evening sessions to a full fledged preparatory school for young girls and boys we have grown leaps and bounds. From a humble one room setup inside the community we are moving into a full blown Centre – a two room set with more space for as the children say, playing and study.
The volunteers or friends of Prayas have been a dedicated set of didi's and bhaiyya's for the children for this span. And the beginning of this year sure had a few defining and milestone setting moments that we have to share with you.
Inauguration of our new class at Nayabans, Sector 16, NOIDA on 11th Jan '09
We inaugurated the 'much talked about' new center of Prayas. It was attended by most of the children's parents plus a whole bunch of volunteers. We briefed and introduced Prayas covering how it evolved to its current level, why we felt the need to start the new centre and what value new set up would bring to the children to the parents. Nikunj was formally introduced to as a full time teacher. The parents of – Subi, Sabreen, Sajjad, Sona & Zulekha, who we placed into Nai Disha (a free school for under-privileged children at Sector 29, NOIDA) shared their experiences and changes felt by them in their wards. This was followed by cultural program by the children showcasing their inherent talent.
The Dance team performed @ AID Delhi's Birthday Celebration 25th Jan '09
An innocent request came from the children that they wished to perform a proper dance program on stage well-dressed and trained that we felt honored to work towards getting it done. Thanks to the good hearted and active volunteer lot that we have at Prayas we found not one but two choreographers. Good Work - Sonika & Tarun. But we finalized with Apoorva who was from Tarun's office - Kritikal Solutions.
They trained for 2 full weeks with Apoorva & Tarun for close to 2 hrs everyday. The enthusiasm and happiness while watching them dancing has been an invaluable sight to us the past few days. All this peaked out when we finally saw them on stage performing. A small achievement by mere size of quantified action but one wish full-filled for many children.
Republic Day Celebrations with People of the Community on 26th Jan '09
'What is the next step?' is a question we have been asking in at least the past few months of debating and dinner discussions. Then finally it struck as if a bolt of lightning. And yes, it was a real bolt of lightning when Darshan jolted us all in a mail on the group after a failed survey.
The next step was to engage more actively with the parents and the community at large. For this we felt that 26th January – Republic Day, was the right day to work on this. Planned and executed with success, we had a good turn out of parents and other people from the community. A parallel survey captured details of at least 35 families in the vicinity.
The objective was to take our message - the need for education and support we could offer to them, in a representative way through programs by the children who we currently work with. There was an important hand of the parents of some children we work with to effect the entire event which was an achievement in pure qualitative measurements.
Prayas today has become successful in inspiring many families and children in the community to look forward to education & literacy as a means to getting their deserved rights and live a better life. We look forward to seeing the same in a much more amplified and focused effort from people much like you and me.
1 comment:
This surely was a really happening week at Prayas and we sure have taken some quantum leaps.
Kudos to the team :)
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