Aaranyak: A Rural Alternative Learning Space

Aaranyak team preparation for the upcoming busy months of May and June.

The Aaranyak team began with the planning process form April 2023. Planning was majorly done for the upcoming Vacation and leadership camps. The team pooled in various ideas for the leadership and vacation camps, which the children had suggested to them during their field works. Majorly ideas like doing a herbs project, knowing their village and people more and even learning mathematics came up. We decided to also include sessions on understanding emotions and some fun sessions on paper craft.

May 2023

Leadership camp

The three - day residential leadership camp began on 2^nd May 2023 with 74 children (34 boys and 40 girls) of ages 11-14. It was ensured that representatives from each 14 village is present for the same for better dissemination of learning within each village. The camp began with children drafting general agreements that will be adhered in the three days. Later they were given their family groups and children volunteered for different responsibilities.

The three- day camp primarily focussed on children creating the world of their dreams and then trying to imagine their own village in those terms. This was planned as children will be able  to assess their village and  integrate with their own child rights experience with the real world. They were trained to draw maps of their village, do resource mapping and safety audit of their village. This way they got a deeper understanding of their own village and arena's where they should act as  a team.  Even if these exercises sound like technical and complex, the sessions were facilitated with stories and activities, to make them easier to comprehend. As a mock exercise,  children  did a resource mapping of the camp venue in groups. 

FGDs were done to understand the areas of fear for children in their villages and post that they created a safety map of their village.

Children were also equally thrilled and amazed by the movie True Spirits, a biopic on Ms Jessica Watson, the youngest sailor who solo circumnavigated at the age of 16. Some of the children, especially girls really got inspired to experience sea after watching the movie. The succeeding night, the children played a unique and interesting card game called Swa-cards with their family groups. Through the game they shared their likes, dislikes, good and bad experiences and much more deep thoughts. The game was unequivocally enjoyed and accepted by children. The game was designed for children to reflect and learn about themselves and connect deeper with their friends. 

Another highlight of the camp was Skill sharing Fair, that happened post lunch everyday. All Aaranyak facilitator taught a specific hands-on skill during this time and children could choose where to visit and learn. Skills varied from quilling, mahic tricks,paper craft, leaf plate making, storytelling, making Adivasi dictionary, upcycling plastic bottles , pottery, kitchen gardening, and much more were learned by all including the team.

Vacation camp

Vacation camps begin when the schools are closed in the month of May. This is a vital time period for us as, we are able to engage with children more qualitatively in communities. Usually this is the time children migrate with parents to work and even get into child labour. To avoid these mishaps, we plan day long activities with children. This vacation camp was majorly focussed on creating village map, resource mapping and safety audit of every village. Children who attended the leadership camp led and taught other children in their village on how to execute these mappings.  Before doing the safety audit, FGDs were done separately on girls, boys’ groups by Aaranyak facilitators to capture a better understanding of fear and unsafe points for children. We also ensured participation of children with special needs and tried to understand their fears and places were they feel unsafe. 

Along with the mapping, activities on understanding emotions were an integral part of vacation camp. Beginning from identifying various emotions to diary writing, art and music therapy was executed in the vacation camp.

An expert Mathematics tutor, Ms Hina visited for two weeks in our villages and through games and card games, she facilitated age-appropriate sessions on arithmetic, angles and other functional concepts. In an effort of capacity building, she also trained the Aaranyak team in every day maths, tricks for faster calculations etc.

Sports tournament was organized within three-four villages on every Sundays. A plethora of sports activities, ranging from volleyball, baseball and other games of cooperation was played in these events. Van Bhojan was also carried out in this day, where children pooled in resources and cooked food to eat together as a family.

Mitr Diwas (Friendship Day) was a new programme, where children visit a house in their own village once a week. Before visiting the home, they draft a list of question s that can be asked to the elders in home. Questions generally deals with childhood experiences, agriculture, weather, facilities during their (grandparents) time. Children were super excited to visit and interact with these elders. The children diligently record new information’s that come out their questions in their notebooks. Senior citizens and elders also feel recognized and appreciated when they are approached as a source of information. Currently everyone’s waiting for their turn to be the host, which implies a positive response from both community and children.

Bal dost samiti meetings, (a committee of elders, who are called ‘friends of children’, thus form the Child protection Net) were a priority in the month of July. In 8 villages of the project areas, these samiti meetings were held. This time we also introduced child rights game within the community as an entry point for conversations of a friendly environment for children. They enjoyed it well and gave positive response.

The Sarpanch (Village president) of Sejpur village wanted the game kit to be taken to her home, as she wanted to play it again with her family and learn more. This eagerness to learn and contribute to child protection is what we consider as change in Shaishav.

Challenges & Mitigation strategies

1. The heat waves posed difficulty in interacting with children during vacation camps. To resolve this, flexible timings were fixed after consulting with children and parents for actiivities.

2. During vacations, children often go with parents to work on their own field, as May was a busy agricultural activity month. As a solution, Home visits were increased and parents wer convinced to send the children to our activities.

June-July 2023 

 Aaranyak team carried out a school enrollment drive in the villages encouraging all the children and parents to send the pupils to school. This was a significant drive as the during that specific month there were higher instances of migration of parents to factories in Ankleshwar. There were also follow ups on ensuring children of 5 years to get newly admitted to Balvatika (Gujarat’s state government’s new policy for admitting children of 5 years.)

Baseline surveys on 14 village is also completed. The data encaptures number of children that attends the community activities, goes to school, disabled children, children who goes to child labour, number of single parent children and other relevant data. This information will facilitate our planning for the upcoming school year.

ASHRAMSHALA

Bal mela’s on 11 Aashramshalas on topics of logical reasoning, problem solving etc covered around 1390 children. Children were intrigued by the games and puzzles initially, But with support and encouragement they found their way to solutions.

Activities on understanding emotions, child rights training was also done.

The children especially the younger kids feel home sick and alone when they are away from home. To resolve this issue, Peer groups for a total of 1338 children were formed in these Aashramshalas where older kids and younger kids are paired up. This exists as a support system and also reduces instances of bullying. Two Child rights training were also executed that engaged with 197 children. Training encompasses of games, activities and group discussions.

National consultation of Children Collectives (NACC)

From 29^th May to 31^st May 2023, Shaishav organised the three- day consultation of Children collectives in Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad in partnership with National forum for Child Participation. Four children of Aaranyak program attended along with 80 children from over 10 states. Being in a National consultation and meeting and interacting with children from other states were a new and exciting experience for the children. The training introduced them to various tools like SWOT, Power triangle to assess self and their collective. The inspiration to set up a children collective was grown among the children after deep conversations with children from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka who are part of collectives of 30-40 years old. After three-day intense training on child participation, they also toured around heritage sites of Ahmedabad.

Major Outcomes

1. Children realized the reality of working conditions of various of the resources in their own villages.
2. They as a group also drafted an Action plan to resolve the resource inefficiencies.
3. Children became emphatic to needs and fears of their own peers. 
4. Children are aware of their own history and ancestor’s way of living and understand them better by asking elders and community.