Venue: DPEP School, Pragathi Nagar, Kukatpally, Hyderabad
Members: Amardeep, Krishna Prasad (KP), Geetha, Sumanth.
Date: 24th march, 2007.
The workshop started on time, at 8:30 a.m. By the time I reached the place, KP and Amardeep were already interacting with the kids. The fifty odd kids (predominantly in the age group of 5-9 years) along with the two teachers of the School welcomed us whole-heartedly.
Amar kicked off the first event, a ‘breaking the ice’ kind of an interaction session. The kids came forward to introduce themselves by telling their name, interests, talents, hobbies and ambitions in life. The kids mostly wanted to become Lawyers, Teachers and Policemen excepting one who wanted to become a politician (MLA, to be precise) when he grows up. In more than one way, the event was successful in giving us a peek into the mindset of the kids.
We had a Drawing competition following the interaction session. The event started at around 10 a.m. The kids were given white papers along with the freedom to draw whatever they feel like. They started drawing things like birds, mountains, etc. They were smart enough to use some of the paintings on the walls of the school. They borrowed colors from their neighbors and gave a really good shot at winning the competition. By the time the event ended, Geetha joined us.
After a short break, we had a small session by KP which started at around 11a.m. The event was about educating the kids on some very basic things like Traffic rules, Health, Good habits, etc. KP used some of the charts we bought for the school for that session. The kids were very interactive. They used some of the lessons they learnt from their regular teachers and had a few questions for KP. While KP was busy with the kids, we (Geetha, Amar and me) were busy selecting the winners of the Drawing competition. Some of the drawings made us feel a little inferior. With a lot of difficulty, we were able to pick some winners and by then KP was done with his session. We then took some time off for lunch.
After Lunch, at around 1.30p.m, we started our next event. It was a Talent show, wherein the kids had to perform something for us. Some of them stuck to what they had mentioned in the introduction session. They sang, cracked jokes and danced for us. There were some kids who had special talents. Two of the kids knew around 80-90 poems from the ‘Vemana Sathakam’. They not only recited some of those poems, but were also kind enough to explain the meaning of those poems. For a brief while, it appeared as if they were giving us some lessons.
At around 3 p.m., we moved onto our next event, an essay writing competition. The topic for the event was ‘My School’. In the stipulated half an hour time, they were able to jot down decent essays on their school, highlighting their teachers and the activities that they normally do at the School. We were in awe looking at some of their handwritings. We took some time to pick the winners for the competition.
At 4p.m., we had the final and probably the most exciting event of the day for the kids – the ‘Prize distribution’ ceremony. We gave them something to take back home from the Drawing and the Essay writing competitions. We also had a few consolation prizes for the kids with special talents.
We had a small photo session with the kids before they left the School for the day. We then gave our donations to the School (Few charts, Fans, Books and Sport items). In Summary, I would say that the workshop was successful in doing what it was intended to do – give the kids a break from the routine school work, identify and appreciate some of the talents.
-Sumanth
