The time was 3 pm on a usual warm Saturday in Chennai when a handful of us volunteers got together at the Ramakrishna Mission – Sharadha Vidyalaya Women’s Hostel to have some fun with about 50 children from the ages of 6 to 15. Anusha, the iVolunteer co-ordinator had put together a neat idea of doing something productive while trying to kindle the children’s interests and helping the volunteers mingle with the children without having to really try hard. She had organized for a short interactive and creative 2-hour session where the children had to use waste material, colors, brushes and the works to make a tree – the theme for the day. This, she explained, would give the children the opportunity to learn the uses of trees and why it is important to grow more of them.
The session started with the volunteers introducing themselves to the children who were an absolutely adorable audience listening with rapt attention and cheering for the volunteers who were clearly there to make the most of the evening, more for themselves than the children, who were already having a great time. Once the introductions were over, the children were divided into 10 groups of five each along with one volunteer who would help and guide the children. Then, one of the volunteers explained to the children that the idea for the evening was to build a tree with whatever materials was available and that they could choose them, in turn. At this point already, the children had started getting to know each of their volunteers a little better and were discussing ideas. As soon as the go ahead was given, children raced to get the material required and started work in earnest. It was such an exhilarating sight to watch children coming forth with ideas that I could never have imagined myself.
Once the commotion of running around to find material and the cacophony of voices discussing ideas died down, there was some serious creation happening in every group. If one group of children were talking about what tree they wanted to draw, one group was talking about what colors to use while the next group was thinking of the theme they wanted to portray and the next one was dividing work amongst themselves to get to the end result they had in mind. The volunteers, I noticed, were purely excited at the energy the children exuded and were trying hard to match it. As time progressed the ideas were taking shape on chart paper as paintings or as 3-D models.
Amidst all this I noticed a few things about all the children as I had the privilege of just walking around and watching everyone. I put this as diplomatically (just as only an adult can!), instead of just saying I couldn’t contribute much to the children’s creativity, which was no match for mine (considering my creativity quotient almost tends to zero!). The children, I noticed, were so willing to share the things they had – so unlike the usual behavior I have seen with kids from our affluent families. There was not even a whimper when some child from one group asked for something being used in another group. I guess this is a behavior that is only learnt by living together in one happy family that understands that they are each other’s best friends. I also noticed that in each group children, though were their usual selves talking in excitement, each child paid heed to what the other was saying and tried to help each other with their ideas. I couldn’t but stop thinking how it would be if, as adults, we could do this at least once in a while.
Soon, the two hours came to an end and the children assembled again and each group presented their work with a short description of what their work meant. Again, here I must highlight that the children displayed quite a bit of confidence explaining what they had done and some of them spoke almost impeccable English. Then there came a surprise! After all the 10 groups were done, there was one more group, which according to Anusha, had been silently working away to make some lovely greeting cards for each of the volunteers present, on occasion of friendship day. The cards were handed out to each of the volunteers by the children and the volunteers were beaming blissfully at the thought of having had such a wonderful time and then getting a memorable gift as well from the children. After all this, one of the volunteers, who had brought along some plant saplings, handed them over to the Hostel Warden and Correspondent as a fitting end to a productive day. The saplings were promised to be planted all around the campus and taken care of by the children as a lesson learnt from the day’s fun activity.
I am sure you are all probably wondering by now why I haven’t spoken a word about the work of the children. I guess words were too hard to find to describe the love, warmth, dedication and enthusiasm behind each of the works. So, I’ve just let the pictures here (taken by the volunteers) of each of the works to talk for themselves! I could go on writing more about how we all felt, but I guess the only way to understand it, would be to be there and experience it all for yourself!
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The session started with the volunteers introducing themselves to the children who were an absolutely adorable audience listening with rapt attention and cheering for the volunteers who were clearly there to make the most of the evening, more for themselves than the children, who were already having a great time. Once the introductions were over, the children were divided into 10 groups of five each along with one volunteer who would help and guide the children. Then, one of the volunteers explained to the children that the idea for the evening was to build a tree with whatever materials was available and that they could choose them, in turn. At this point already, the children had started getting to know each of their volunteers a little better and were discussing ideas. As soon as the go ahead was given, children raced to get the material required and started work in earnest. It was such an exhilarating sight to watch children coming forth with ideas that I could never have imagined myself.
Once the commotion of running around to find material and the cacophony of voices discussing ideas died down, there was some serious creation happening in every group. If one group of children were talking about what tree they wanted to draw, one group was talking about what colors to use while the next group was thinking of the theme they wanted to portray and the next one was dividing work amongst themselves to get to the end result they had in mind. The volunteers, I noticed, were purely excited at the energy the children exuded and were trying hard to match it. As time progressed the ideas were taking shape on chart paper as paintings or as 3-D models.
Amidst all this I noticed a few things about all the children as I had the privilege of just walking around and watching everyone. I put this as diplomatically (just as only an adult can!), instead of just saying I couldn’t contribute much to the children’s creativity, which was no match for mine (considering my creativity quotient almost tends to zero!). The children, I noticed, were so willing to share the things they had – so unlike the usual behavior I have seen with kids from our affluent families. There was not even a whimper when some child from one group asked for something being used in another group. I guess this is a behavior that is only learnt by living together in one happy family that understands that they are each other’s best friends. I also noticed that in each group children, though were their usual selves talking in excitement, each child paid heed to what the other was saying and tried to help each other with their ideas. I couldn’t but stop thinking how it would be if, as adults, we could do this at least once in a while.
Soon, the two hours came to an end and the children assembled again and each group presented their work with a short description of what their work meant. Again, here I must highlight that the children displayed quite a bit of confidence explaining what they had done and some of them spoke almost impeccable English. Then there came a surprise! After all the 10 groups were done, there was one more group, which according to Anusha, had been silently working away to make some lovely greeting cards for each of the volunteers present, on occasion of friendship day. The cards were handed out to each of the volunteers by the children and the volunteers were beaming blissfully at the thought of having had such a wonderful time and then getting a memorable gift as well from the children. After all this, one of the volunteers, who had brought along some plant saplings, handed them over to the Hostel Warden and Correspondent as a fitting end to a productive day. The saplings were promised to be planted all around the campus and taken care of by the children as a lesson learnt from the day’s fun activity.
I am sure you are all probably wondering by now why I haven’t spoken a word about the work of the children. I guess words were too hard to find to describe the love, warmth, dedication and enthusiasm behind each of the works. So, I’ve just let the pictures here (taken by the volunteers) of each of the works to talk for themselves! I could go on writing more about how we all felt, but I guess the only way to understand it, would be to be there and experience it all for yourself!
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Savitha Rengabashyam
iVolunteer,
Chennai
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