"Baale" is the name of the school that we were visiting. It is run by an NGO called Paraspara Trust. Here, girl children from the slums aged between 7 and 14, whose parents cannot afford to educate them, are taken care of. The children living here are given basic education and also taught means of earning their livelihood. There are close to 60 children here. 30 between 7 and 10 years and about 30 from 10 to 14 years of age.
13 of us had volunteered to go to Baale on the 31st to spend the day with the children, conducting games and competitions for them. We started out from office, after having breakfast at 8.45. We were carrying with us food for the children, prizes for them and also lots of old clothes which they were very much in need of.
The school is 25 kms from Yashwanthpur so the journey took close to 2.5 hours (thanks to the traffic and bad road conditions) during which we played Antakshari and a very hilarious round of dumb charades.
On reaching the school, we saw the children eagerly waiting for us, all dressed up and ready to perform for us. We first distributing sandwiches to the kids and with breakfast done, it was time for the fun and frolic to begin.
We started off with the dance competitions. Half way through Dhoom (which was the first song they were dancing to), the battery of the tape recorder ran out, so we moved over to the drama competition. The 1st play which they enacted, depicted the difficulties rural girl children faced. The next one was a comedy drama revolving round an insane doctor and the third and last one was another comedy about a deaf family.
Next in line were the games. We conducted lemon and spoon race, sack race and also had a round of musical chair. By the time we finished with the games, it was close to 1pm- time for lunch. The kids patiently waited for everyone to get their plates loaded, recited a prayer and only then did they start eating. A few of us volunteers, being early lunch goers, were famished by then, so we too loaded our plates and hogged away to glory along with the kids.
Right after lunch we had the drawing competition. While most of them drew sceneries and made them really colourful, some of the kids had amazing themes for their drawings. One girl’s theme was unity of religions. Another had drawn 2 girls, one in school uniform and the other one in working garb -- with "send this girl to school" neatly scrawled in kannada next to it. We were really amazed by their talents.
In the meantime , someone had gone and got the battery charged up, so we could go ahead with the dance competition, this time without any breaks. How much these kids had practiced! They never seemed to tire out at all. They pulled all of us also to dance with them. It was really good fun!
It was close to 4pm. We distributed chocolates, fruits and juice to the kids. Then was the official prize distribution ceremony. We’d seen to it that all the children won prizes for something or the other. After all…. we weren’t there to judge them, only to cheer them and encourage them.
When we started to pack up and leave all the kids came to us, shook our hands said sweet thank you-s and asked us if we’d be coming the next day also. Sadly we wouldn’t be going there the next day, another group of volunteers were going there to build a playground in the school. So we promised them that we’d try to come and see them when ever we could.
An entire day spent with kids, I personally learnt so much from them. Seeing these kids, the love, affection, enthusiasm they had, even though they faced so many problems in life at such a young age – made me realise that life wasn’t just about school, college and work. It was about people, challenges, efforts, perseverance and the ability to have a big smile on your face and laugh out loud even though you weren’t sure if tomorrow you would even have any food to eat or clothes to wear. Little angels they were and they definitely made our day very memorable (though it was supposed to be the other way round). I now gladly look forward to the same time next year, when we’ll again get to do something similar
The pictures can be viewed here : http://good-times.webshots.com/album/357833666ioeibY
good job buddy...
hats off..