Janmashtami Celebrations at SAS

What a day for the kids. It was nice to see them perform along with other children during the festival of Janamastmi. Shanti Asiatic School (SAS) was generous enough to give Prayaas kids a chance to perform with their students. It was a great learning experience for them as they were preparing for this event for last 5 days at the SAS itself. The performance was exceptionally well given the time they had to prepare. The environment was very cheerful with little kids dressed up as radha and krishna. They showed different colors of krishna's life through the dance. The incidence like krishna stealing makhan, krishna fighting with yashomati maiya for being black, rishna teasing radha and radha jealous of other girls cannot be displayed in better way. A group of small kids performed the 'matki phod' with lots of candies and chocolates in the matki to end the event. There was special mention of the Prayaas kids during the event. What touched me most was the way they mingled with the other kids and the zeal and confidence they showed during the performance. SAS is looking for long term relationship with the kids. Hopefully the kids will get more such chances to perform. Special thanks to the teachers who were there with them all the time and helped them to prepare for the event.

Parent Teacher Meeting

We had a small Parent Teacher Meeting today for the kids going to the privte school. We feel that education happens as much at home (if not more) as in school. Especially with Prayaas, where are efforts are directed towards sending kids to school with willing consent and pledge for continuation of education, such an event gains even more importance.

We conveyed 4 things:
1. They need to spend time with the kids making them study
2. They need to take ownership of the child's academic performance along with the school
3. They need to continue sending their kids to school. Not to be discontinued at any cost
4. They need to pay Rs.100 per month as token money to show their support towards the cause

Looking to extend this to other kids in the school also ...

Cheers.

Bid adieu ...

This is that time of the year when one bunch of people associated with Prayaas leave the campus. The association does not break, yet it changes. One goes on to become more of an outsider from someone who is actively involved in the day-to-day activities.

One batch at the B-school is about to complete its education and is waiting for the Convocation. They are happy that these were two years well spent, and they look forward to their life ahead. Many are also sentimental about the place and the whole experience, not to mention the different groups each one has formed.

Volunteers share these emotions and they are not too happy with the fact that they would not be able to see the kids as often as they would have liked. They would not be able to celebrate festivals with them, but just eagerly wait for photos to be uploaded to see what happened. They would have to rely on blogs, notice boards etc. to know about the new initiatives, the academic progress of kids etc. One can always visit the city, but I understand that it would not be very easy.

At the same time, volunteers are happy that the next batch has taken over the responsibility rather well. They have been involved for the last year and the transition has been smooth. It is now upto them to take the effort forward. Well, one of the primary aims of Prayaas has been to associate as many people with it as possible. So, this periodic transitions augurs well to that end.

A new batch is also getting ready to come to the B-school. They might not have heard about Prayaas when they are outside, but they would surely do once they are in. Some of them would want to get involved in the effort and the cycle would continue. They would be waiting when the baton gets passed on to them ...

Chaos pics

Chaos, the annual cultural festival of IIMA commenced on January the 29^th and the Prayaas kids helped light up the closing evening on 1^st Feb, giving the viewers an evening’s worth of blissful movement. Innocence, poise and zest spurted out from the 50+ young dancers of various ages. Graceful skips and leaps along with the idyllic outfits rendered a visually heartwarming experience.

Latent talents of these children were on exhibition and their feat gathered great compliments from the large assemblage, giving them the respect and adulation they deserve. The preparation for this dance number had started quite early and it was heartening to see the kids maintain their initial enthusiasm and project it on stage. Dance for the sake of dance draped the Louis Kahn Plaza (LKP).   

The free-spirited kids danced to the bright positive tunes of Shankar Mahadevan’s “Sabse aage honge Hindustani” and came up with a stirring performance in line with the Chaos theme of “Khalbali”. These young artistes, of different ages, impeccably massed with each other to give the audience lots to cheer about.

Such platforms help inspiring and encouraging children to cling on to their dreams and work to bring them to fruition. Taan and Mohit Chauhan followed later in the night, but needless to say that the evening was lit up by these young talented kids. More the opportunities such as these in our nation, greater would be the standing of “Sabse aage honge Hindustani”.

Different strokes for Prayaas kids

TOI Link

Viral went home on Saturday, holding a trophy for her mother. This was no medal but a greeting card, that she had hand
painted herself, so what if the lines and strokes were not perfect.

After all, Viral and several other students of Prayas, an initiative of students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to impart education to underprivileged children, were trying their hand on water colours for the first time under guidance of trained designers.

Children of Prayas, on Saturday, met students of NID where they were taught various techniques of art and craft, using which, they made cards and bookmarks which are being sold on IIM-A campus. Over 10 NID students participated in the workshop, which was conducted for students above five years.

"Around 36 students of Prayas participated in the workshop. NID students know of Prayas and they expressed interest in conducting the workshop," said Sameer Gandhi, second year student at IIM-A, a Prayas co-ordinator.

"We taught kids spray painting, blow painting and thumb painting. We had a lot of fun and it was great to see their creativity. they exceeded our expectations," said Fatema Jaliwala, a student of Apparel Design and Merchandising at NID.

Prep time

This is that time of the year when Prayaas gets into the preparation mode. Chaos, the annual cultural festival of IIMA is approaching. From 29th January to 1st February, the campus would witness a different colour, a different crowd, a different ethos and it would have a different feel than the rest of the year.




There was a post about how Prayaas gets involved at Chaos sometime back. So, there would be dance and fun, stalls and cards, crowd and the cause.




This year as well we are planning to have the dance event and the stall. The preparations for the dance sequence have started 2 weeks back and the kinds are full enthu about giving the audience a worth for their money and time. I would not mention the name of the song and break the surprise. I will talk about this after the event.






Last weekened and the current weekend, we are organizing workshops for kids for making cards, bookmarks etc. This ways we would have sufficient items for the stall - to sell and thereby make people aware about the entire effort.






But frankly speaking, many of us are far away from coming up with creative ideas for cards. So, we had to take help of the experts and they were kind enough to oblige. Few of the students from NID, Gandhinagar came for the workshop on a Saturday morning. They spent time teaching kids many methods of making cards and actually sat down with them helping them do the same. The loved the kids so much that they stayed around even after the workshop, just to play around with the kids.

Update

Just wanted to provide an update on the activities at Prayaas.

In total, there are around 50 students enrolled at Prayaas. 25 of them are now going to Sahjanand school which is a main-stream private school not very far from the IIMA campus. The other 25 go to a municipal school near Vastrapur lake in Ahmedabad. The kids are in classes from I to IV.

Of the 25 kids going to Sahjanand, we have been able to get 18 sponsors who are sponsoring one kid each. We allow them to choose the kid they would like to sponsor and plan to extend the programme for subsequent years. This would allow a donor to sponsor the entire education of one particular child if he / she wishes to do so.

Given the current resource constraints, for the time being, we have stopped adding any more students to the initiative. This would help us in consolidating our efforts and help the current children in an effective manner. We think that it would be better to keep the efforts small and sustainable, rather than becoming too big and facing the risk of shutdown and thereby affecting the lives of all the children.

The academics and other events (festival celebrations, movie screening etc.) are going on as before and the first year students have taken the responsibilities in their hands well.

This blog, that we started sometime back, is a good way of getting to know the current happenings at Prayaas.


Team Prayaas