Hello  friends  –  Greetings of the coming festive season  from the children of  HCL!

Fortunately for us the monsoons this year were not too bad – we did have a few rainy days’ break though. Now with the onset of the winter, library timings will reduce substantially, but a fair number of events are planned.

Some assorted activities during the period

Sonal visits again – This year Sonal, accompanied by a friend and volunteer, Jayashree – an avid birdwatcher, spent about a month at the library. She continued with her bird watching and identification project with the children.  In addition she worked with different groups on science for “the sense of taste”, acidic/basic solutions/electron microscope, on coin collection and identification, different artists and their styles and also introduced them to the Chandrayan 3 mission during its launch.

Science & Chandrayan 3

Tuitions & Library sessions – despite the rains, the attendance at the library continued to be around 100 children each day. In the evenings, when the VTC is free, one of the groups is accommodated there.

The playground is being well utilised by all the groups. Every saturdays the XS (Class 2 – 5) group reach the library smartly turned out in track suits & shoes, with water bottles in hand. Two of the senior children, Choti Mahi and Gaurav become the trainers to conduct basic taekwondo training and organise team games for this group very competently.

Taekwondo sessions – The children look forward to Kamal’s visits every Sunday. They do training from 10 AM for about 3 hrs after which they play organized games of kho-kho, kabbadi and dodge-ball for another hour. The rains  are also not a damper because then the  training sessions continue inside the library!

Seeing their enthusiasm we have arranged for taekwondo dresses and kit for all the participants, so they now turn up smartly attired in their kit and participate in the training and sparring. They are also provided a healthy and wholesome snack at the end of the session

Shiv conducts a math workshop –

Shiv, a math teacher in a college in New York had visited us last year for an afternoon session. He was so happy to interact with the children that this year he allocated a full week from 20 July. He worked with 2 groups comprising  kids from class 2-5 and class 6-8 on different math principles, methods and puzzles. The children’s interest has been piqued for future exploration of an apparently difficult subject.

We also used his time here to expand the library outreach with a session for senior school children in Govt Inter College, Garjoli.

Shiv conducts his sessions at the library

Janamashtami celebrations –

The festival was celebrated in the library with the toddlers coming dressed as “Kanihiya” and “Gopi”. They sang and danced and had fun.

Session on menstrual health –

International Literacy day was celebrated this year in a unique way – a session on menstrual health and hygiene practices was arranged at the library for the women and young girls. Priyanka, a young woman from our village, who is a qualified nurse with the Uttarakhand Health Service, spoke to about 30 participants.

She dispelled the myths and practices being adopted in the community and even shared her own experiences as a young adolescent in the village – her mother was also one of the attendees!

What was very encouraging was the fact that the ladies opened up on what is considered a taboo topic among the villagers and that the young girls did not hesitate to ask questions during the session.

Priyanka conducts her session

Interactions and documentation of village information – Geeta and Rajeev, two close friends had spent about 20 days in May-June. They had guided 12 senior children in 4 groups on survey, data collection and documentation of different aspects of the village, Seem. The results of the exercise have been compiled as a very informative document in the form of a flipbook ( see https://heyzine.com/flip-book/9011a0bdc4.htm  ).  We hope to be able to print some copies for distribution in the village and among schools in the area as a means of preserving the history, culture and practices prevalent in these villages.

 Agnipath training –

A new initiative has been started at the library with support from Clearwater Analytics – from 15 Sept a group of 5 boys are undergoing preparatory training for the written examination to qualify for the Agnipath scheme for recruitment into the army.  In collaboration with an institute in Haldwani, we have also arranged for online mock tests to give the aspirants the real feel.

Arrangements are being made to secure the services of some army trainers/ PT instructors to conduct the physical training for candidates qualifying the written tests. This is a start and we hope that in future we will get many youngsters for more such qualifying examinations.

Coaching & Mock test for the written examination

Interns – Gauri, a bachelors student from Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, Pune spent 15 days volunteering at the library as part of her course. She worked with a group of middle schoolers on english conversation and computer presentations. She also helped them develop keyboard skills on a casio keyboard that was presented to the library.

Khushi-ka-ek-din (KKED) – This event is making a comeback after the pandemic. Seeing the success of the pilot programme held here in 2020, Udhyam and their partner sponsors are planning on 25 such events in some areas of Uttarakhand. ( see the earlier one here https://youtu.be/thh3we2xvSE?si=37Krc8Z7H0tpUpge )

One such programme is being organised by us on 28th Oct 2023. The preparations have started and meetings with the women have been conducted in different villages to increase their participation.

There is a lot of enthuasism among the women and we are sure this edition will be a great success. Watch this space for an update on this event.

Thats all for now then – Goodbye and enjoy the festive season !!