Transform the Lives of Children in Gujarat, India

          November 13th to 16th, 2018 was celebrated as "Child Rights Week" in all the communities where Shaishav works. Rallies, Poster making, Pamphlet distribution, Exhibition on Child Rights were done in public places of Bhavnagar to increase the awareness on Child Rights and Protection among masses. With the guidance from Shaishav staff, Children were leading in many of these activities.         

          In the month of December 2018, there was a residential camp on the theme of Leadership. For 2 days children were actively engaged in the reflective sessions focused on quality of leader, understanding team dynamics, importance of working in a team. All the activities for the session were purely experiential in nature. Other than the fact that activities were lot of fun, they have put children in test about what team really means. Children had a great experience doing these activities and shared their learnings towards the end. 

          On January 20th, 2019 Shaishav facilitated Balsena Annual Day which is the major event for Shaishav. On the account of Mahatma Gandhi's150th birth year, Shaishav staff chose the theme "Chaalne Ramiye Gandhi Gandhi" for the event. Preparation for the event started almost a month ago and staff went through an intensive training of 3 days before the event. More than 40 Students from Lokbarti college came as a volunteer for the event. 

          On the day of event, more than 650 children activitely participated in the various activites of the event. Day started with a long rally on the roads and holding the quotes of Gandhiji. It was followed by hoisting Balsena (children collective) and Tarunsena (youth collective) flag. Guest of honor "Yashbhai Mehta" attended the event and inspired everyone with his words. Later, Cooperative games like counting with hands, blind square walk, passing ball, nav bindu etc were facilitated followed by reflecting on how we can relate the learnings to Gandhi's life. Children shared lot of interesting incidents from Gandhi's life related to the activities. This was followed by reading anecdotes from a book "Gandhi Ane Navi Pedhi" written by Father Valles. There was also a session on "I am also Gandhi" where children shared their personal experiences of doing good to the society. Towards the end, we had sammelan (convention) where Balsena President did a presentation on the different activities conducted in that year. Couple of theatre plays inspired from Gandhi's life were performed by Tarunsena and Shaishav staff. Children and Staff left the event with much joy and inspiration from Gandhiji.  

Links:

• Shaishav Child Rights