Hello friends! Here’s wishing you all a very Happy New Year and also bringing you all the latest updates up from Seem.
With the pandemic situation improving, there was a cautious increase in the involvement of the children. However, the onset of winter and the calamitous rainfall on 18th October acted as a dampener.
Tuitions and computer Classes
Since schools have started, we have reverted to the tuitions and library & activity sessions as before. With the winter timings in place, the senior children have to brave the biting cold to attend tuitions from 7 to 9 AM, after which they rush off to school. Considering the cold their dedication and sincerity are very commendable.
On seeing the children attending tuitions in the morning, Vibha sponsored atta and madua (ragi) cookies for the children as a breakfast snack. So now those coming for morning tuition have a wholesome snack on their way to school!
Having completed his fellowship with SBI & Chirag, Shubham, whom we had assisted earlier with an outreach library at Rengal village, joined us for a month to teach the kids while continuing his online classes with TISS.
INTernSHIp
Himadri completed her three-month internship in September. As part of her assignment, she put up a “Nukkad-natak” on pollution control and the environment with kids in middle school. A very competent performance was put up by the children in a very different form of theatre during a wrapping up session on 3rd October.
She also teamed up with Lalit to guide the older kids in 4 groups to put up a PowerPoint presentation on the culture, customs, music, and food of Uttarakhand. The children did a lot of research and came up with many little-known and interesting facts about our hill state.
OUTREACH
This initiative continued with a twist. Since Bhavana was already conducting the library outreach in Byasi village, with the resumption of schools, she was seconded as a teaching assistant to the Govt. Primary School at Darmadi. So now she takes all her village kids to the school, teaches there and brings the children back. She also attends the library sessions every Saturday at Seem.
It pleases us to see that this has been instrumental in increasing the student strength at the primary school. Seeing the impact of such outreach, we are now exploring the possibility of finding such resource people in other villages and attaching them with the other Primary schools in the areas from where the children come to the library.
VISITORS
Our old friends, Vibha and Usha from Mumbai, visited us again in the first week of October and interacted with the kids to understand their aspirations and discussed career options with them. Usha also taught English to some children during their stay.
In the interim, some other friends from Mumbai visited for a day, spent fun time with the kids, and distributed thoughtful gifts that they had lovingly brought with them.
Ranjan, a well-wisher from Bangalore visited on 9th Nov. He met some of the older children and discussed with them how they could use the tabs and computers available to them to increase their understanding. He is also exploring ways and means to teach coding to interested children.
WORKSHOPS
We were very fortunate to hold two daylong workshops with the assistance of some friends from Suryagaon.
Ishita, who has worked with youth for many years through her association with Youth Parliament conducted a session with about 25 older children on ‘Understanding themselves & relationships with those around them’ on 9th October. It was very revealing for the kids and we hope to be able to conduct more such sessions in the future.
Prachi & Sai, ‘the chocolate couple’, who produce some amazing chocolates in Suryagoan conducted a baking workshop. They taught the kids some nuances of baking and 4 groups of children baked some yummy cookies under their guidance. These cookies were then shared by all the participants. This is another initiative that could be furthered.
THEATRE and Dance Workshop
During the quarter, we could hold only one session of this initiative due to disruptions because of the heavy rainfall and the subsequent closure of the library activities in December. We hope to revive this very necessary initiative soon.
Rainfall related disruptions
The excessive three-day rainfall in mid-October created havoc in the village and its surroundings. Roads were blocked due to landslides and some houses were fully inundated. Fortunately, there was no loss of life or livestock.
With some generous donations specifically for this purpose, the library trust provided immediate assistance in cash and warm clothes & blankets to the affected families.
Due to the complete power outage, there was no possibility of the phones and torches getting charged. Since the library has rooftop solar power, it became a ‘charging station’ for 50 – 60 instruments from 5 surrounding villages for about a week. Some older kids took charge to organize the smooth & equitable implementation of this process.
CELEBrations
DIWALI
After a long time, we could arrange a fun event on 3rd November. The children gathered together and decorated the amphitheater with handmade diyas & flower rangoli and enjoyed a lot of games and dance. Sweets and prizes for different events held earlier were distributed among the kids.
CHILDREN’s Day Celebration
This was held on 14th November with a creative writing competition on ‘bachpan kaisa hona chahiye’ for middle school kids. They came up with very interesting and fun suggestions. Prizes were awarded to the most creative submissions.
Vocational training initiative
The vocational training initiative is progressing very well. Some good outstation orders for Diwali and new year corporate gifts swelled the earnings. Feedback from the recipients has been very encouraging.
Since the start of this venture in June-July each member of the SHG has been able to earn an average of Rs 12000/= towards making charges. The additional bonus will be declared at the end of the financial year.
A very generous well-wisher from Mumbai has supported the VTC with a lot of quality material. He has assured of similar help in the future as well as the possibility of donating some industrial sewing machines.
He has also sent some beautiful jackets for the younger children – so in the cold winter season here are some snaps to warm the cockles of your heart!!
With that, it’s goodbye from us & have a great 2022!
Your work is so good . Jaya didi you have difference to so many lives. You are a real hero. Hats of tonyou and your team for their selfless efforts and work. Wish I could be a help in some way or the other. All the best wishes.
The last pics r toooo cute…👏👏👏 for the fortitude n help during the floods…the guests n children always gain interesting experiences 😇😇😇HCL ROCKS💖
Amazing stuffs done for children’s holistic learning Keep it up
Excellent altruistic work being done by Atul and Jaya. Their dedication and commitment is unimaginable. Children of Seem and surrounding areas are really blessed that this remarkable couple made their Karmabhoomi here.
The vagaries of the pandemic coupled with the gloomy foggy cold, all vanish into oblivion on reading about the positive outcomes at our Children’s Library ! Kudos to you all; bash on regardless !!!