Together we can change the world..My 2015 resolution

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

In 2015 I would like to take a resolution that will further enrich my experience of helping.

Helping Bag was a fabulous new idea that we created last year. I think we have potential to help more. Lots of times we are in a hurry and we forget about the Helping bag and I'm able to say this from my personal experiences. I would like to make it a habit that whenever I see someone in need I will help them and my helping bag will always be full.

Another desire that I have had for a long time is to visit a blind school. Some children are not as fortunate as us and I feel it would be a really good experience and a good exposure to do some thing with them...Be it talk, help in teaching, make posters, or maybe just interact with them. It will give those children something to look forward to and think about how amazing it would be to be really good friends with a child who is blind! We can help and teach each other..

I'm really looking forward to this year:) 

Hope its a great year for everybody - a year with loads of new experiences and helping;D

My 2015 Resolution - Helping Students in Need

My new years years resolution is to help a poor student every month by providing simple supplies. For example give them books, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, colour pencils, sketch pens etc.

We children have lots of school supplies but other poor children have very less. So lets share and learn from sharing. It makes me feel good as I am able to help a poor student study well.

In this blog I will share what I did towards this resolution. I hope to find a school and student with whom I can share each month. My aim is to make all the poor people to be rich and happy. The way to do that is to make them all educated. This will make all people in this world equal - there will be no rich and poor division.

I would like to share what I did few weeks ago. My father took me to a school that serves the poor children. This school was run in a Sai Mandir near our house. My father, sister and I gave pencils and sharpeners to a 150 students. Doing this made me feel good about serving students in need.

Helping is bliss !!!

2015 - some new things we should do

Happy new year my dear readers, I thought it would be  good  to share some of my ideas on what we should be doing  this coming year.  Many in the group published their resolutions, just like I did.  The next step is to see if we can take some of those ideas and make some plans together for 2015.

I would like to suggest a few projects, let us discuss this as a group and then we can figure out what we want to do.   I would like to list the following projects which I want to suggest:

1. Help the children in the blind school.We should visit the schools and understand what difficulties do they face.We could help those children in some areas .
2. Visit Anjana vidhya kendra again and visit those wonderful   children we met.  Last time we went we went around the school and saw their way of learning things  this time we can  do something  different we can share some of our experiences with them and they could share their experience with us.
3. Visit  Sai  Mandir and make some posters or charts that can help the  children in learning much more easily.
4.  Keep the helping bag in mind when our parents go out to do the grocery .Take the helping bag and go on small car rides to help people every other weekend.
5. Visit the bridge school and help the students  in studying instead of cleaning the library.
6. Visit the orphanage and donate some old toys , books and games.
7. My brother and I have a lot of board games.  Some are opened and most of them are new.  We can distribute these board games to children in various schools.  We can also get all our board games together so that we can give these games to many other children.

These are all my suggestions,  I look forward to hear  about your ideas and we can have a group meeting soon so that  we can  discuss about  what we could do this year . Have a good 2015. I would like to thank my dad because this is my first blog and he helped me a lot with this list of ideas.

A library of different sorts...

Kids put their time and minds together to setup a library in a Government school. This is a school in Whitefield where a lot of books have been donated by many but were not cataloged or arranged in shelves. The books are valuable for the Government school children as well as to the students of the Bridge program who come to this school before they do full-time enrollment.

School & Bridge Program...

The Bridge Program is for out of school children, most of whom have migrated to Bangalore from other states and speak Telugu, Hindi, Bengali etc. This is an one year program to bring them up to speed, so that they may attain age appropriate literacy in English, Kannada and their mother tongue along with basic numeracy, maths and EVS concepts. After one year they will be admitted to mainstream schools. Along with the bridge program the same premises also runs an after school program for children who have been bridged in last 3-4 years and now attending mainstream English Medium schools.

This Bridge program was setup in the Government High School in Thubarahalli Bangalore by a local NGO.

Help needed...

Setup the library for the Bridge and mainstream Govt School students. 

Shelf and Books are available in the school. Help was needed to catalog and set up the library - arrange books by category, create a log so that it makes it easier to checkout books from the library as well as to know who has borrowed book. The school also wanted to be aware of who is reading what books, who are reading regularly etc etc.

Kids Deliver...

Enthusiastic kids spent 2 weekends at the Government School in Thubarahalli to organize and setup the library for the school and bridge program students.

Over the 2 weekends (spent close to 5 hours) they cataloged close to 800 books.

Cataloged and arranged books in the following categories

- Stories (~250 books)

- Educational (~150 books)

- Language (~270 books )

Tagged each book with small stickers

- Marking them as S1, S2 etc for Stories category

- Marking them as E1, E2 etc for Educational category

- Marking them as L1, L2 etc for other language category.

Explained the cataloging process and inventory to the local school teacher, Mr. Raghunath and how to catalog future books.

Kids at work

Team Work at its best !!!

And voila !!! 

Helping Bag

Have you ever seen someone in the street who needed help and wondered, How I wish I had something to give!!!

We see so many who need help, as we walk on streets, as we look out from our cars,  buses as we travel. They may need basic things that we take for granted - like food, clothes, footwear and other basic supplies.

What stops us from helping? Most times we have nothing to offer, other than money.

What can we give? Simple useful things.

How can we be prepared to help? Keep something handy to give at all times.

A group of us created what we call the "Helping Bag". A bag that we carry with us when we leave home, one that we can keep in our vehicles.

And in the Helping-bag, we have a few things:

1. Few Biscuit Packets
2. Soap, Tooth Brush and Paste
3. Old Clothes (washed and usable)

We keep the Helping-bag, always handy -  never leave home without it.

When in the car or walking in the road, there is a good chance of finding someone who needs help. Our parents may be busy and may not notice. Keep that phone away, take your eyes off that mobile game you are playing. Instead lookout and observe the many opportunities you have to help - in the streets, pavement and at the signals. When you find someone in need - a beggar, a poor kid, a disabled or aged person in need of help, you reach out to your helping bag to see what you can give.

As kids, we don't venture into meeting anyone alone. Have our parent or an elder accompany us. When we find someone we can help, request our parent or accompanying elder (in car, as you walk, in 2-wheeler) to stop. Carry our helping bag and give appropriate supplies to the needy.

As we give away items from the bag, we refill them with new supplies. Give, refill and spread the joy of helping the needy.

A group of us have tried this for a few months now. We have come across many opportunities to help. We have experienced the joy of helping, the smile we can bring and the happiness we can create for the people whom we help.

As you do this, share your experience with others. Talking about it, you draw happiness from your actions and you inspire others to help.

Happy Helping!!!

Children experience the joy of giving - With the Helping Bag

This post captures the experience of Children using the Helping Bag, in their own words.

Kaavya's Experience

Hi everyone,

I`m going to tell you about my last week experience with the Helping Bag.This was when my dad took me, Thanish, Eshan and Saatu for a drive.We were supposed to keep our eyes open and if we found a person we could help we would yell `Stop the car!!!!' and my father(A.K.A Go Cool mama:) would tell us whether we could help him or not. You would not believe the number of people we helped​, every where we went we always found someone to help within 5 minutes...It was a great experience and seeing the joy some people get out of things we dont even care about is something else..:)

P.S one main thing I learnt dont ever ever under any circumstances give the excuse that you could not find someone to help because people are ALWAYS there it depends on you if you choose to help them or not....

BTW had a great learning and fun experience that day so thank you so much appa:D

I`d love to hear more from all of you,

Kaavya


Thanish and Akshar's Experience

When I was coming back from akshars birthday party, I was talking in the car and then suddenly ramu nuncle told us to help the people thankfully akshar had his bag.We gave biscuits to the poor couple.i felt happy and contented

Adding to Kaavya and Thanish's experience below...

When we drove the kids last week...the one that Kaavya has mentioned, this is how many people we helped in about an hr of driving around...

1) Kids helped an Old handicap man in the signal with biscuits
2) Kids stopped at a small roadside shop to see 2 girls (aged 5 years and below) - we gave them biscuits, soap and tooth brush
3) Kids saw a homeless sleeping in a bus stop and gave biscuit packets
4) Kids stopped at a construction site and found a mother with 2 small children - we gave them biscuits and tooth brushes. The mother said she had no money to pay for those things and we said that we dont need money and we are giving this for free as help. She was happy and her smile conveyed a lot.
5) Kids also stopped by a old man who was sitting in the pavement. When we offered biscuit packets,the old man politely said no and was not looking for help. We did not offend him. We were not offended either. 

These things happen and will not discourage us to reach out to help the ones who need help.

We helped using the 4 helping bags we had in the car (Kaavya, Saatvik, Eshan and Thanish).
Was a wonderful experience for all of us.

Eshan's Experience

I'm going to give my version of our "road trip". Thanish, saatvik ,kaavya, gokul mama and me drove around Marathahalli. we helped an old man sitting near a signal by giving him some biscuits.we also helped a man sleeping near the bus station. we helped  we helped a bunch of other people too. it was really fun to help people who were in need .it was really inspiring too. when i go to chennai i will tell my grandparents to join the "helping bag" revolution.

Adarsh Shares with his school - The Helping Bag Idea 

Adarsh shared the Helping Bag idea with his class teacher and his entire school by posting on the school Facebook page and on Deens Academy Blog.

http://deens.blog.com/2014/10/28/30

Hello Ma'am,

I am Adarsh Suresh from 5D. As you may recall, I came to your office on Tuesday ( before Diwali) and gave you a printout about the helping bag. You told me to write it and give it to you. I have sent the following below and I will also give you a printout tommorow ( 28 October ) .

Hello, I am Adarsh Suresh from 5D and I want to share an idea created by my neighbour uncle , Mr. Gokul and tell all my teachers, staff and beloved schoolmates about this.

Adarsh's Experience

I have set the ball rolling!!! Here's a riddle for you,  I helped 3 poor people on my way back from Patt class, but there were 4 smiles. Whose was the fourth smile???

ANS: Adarsh

1st Initiative by Kids-Share-N-Learn - Visit to a Rural School, Anjana Vidya Kendra

July 19 2014

Share and Learn - First Initiative by our children with a Rural School, Anjana Vidya Kendra

Thanks to our wonderful children, the enthusiastic Vth Graders of Anjana Vidya Kendra, Dr. Channa Raju, Mrs. Raju, Teachers Navaneetha and Manjula for giving me the opportunity to spend few memorable hours this Saturday. Hoping to do more in the coming days with Anjana Vidya Kendra.

The kids enjoyed the day and that is an under-statement. Find below their experiences in their own works - on what they learned, experienced and shared during the day. Please take a moment to read them all...its worthwhile.

To me the visit and the followup report from the kids, is humbling and an inspiration to do more.

Kaavya - My day at Anjana Vidya Kendra

- VII Grade

Today, we got to spend an entire day to interact with the 5th graders of Anjana Vidya Kendra. It was a fabulous experience and I am looking forward to going there next month.

The first thing we did was talk to Mr. Channa Raju (founder) about the school. Next we met the 5th graders, and we introduced ourselves. We were divided into 3 groups. I was with 5 other girls from the school. They were Yasheswini, Anusha, Sangeetha, Chaithanya and Ujuwala. The were all very enthusiastic and friendly. They showed me around the campus and we took interesting pictures. They had an extremely beautiful campus. We had loads of fun and saw different things depicting the rural life. We saw a cow-shed, ponds, trees, classrooms etc.After that we went for lunch.

By now I already made some great friends. We shared jokes, played Kho Kho and did much more. then we sat down in their amphi-theater. We shared our hobbies with each other. Later they all chanted Vishnu Sahasranamam. They were so dedicated, well-behaved, organized, kind and super friendly. 

One thing that made me feel very nice and touched was without us asking them they called us as Akka and Anna instead of friends.We later did clay modelling which was also really fun. I really really liked today and next time I go, I hope to meet them again and make more new friends !!

Saatvik - My visit to Anjana Vidya Kendra

- IV Grade

When we reached we went to a Temple. It was a Ganapathi Temple. Anybody can come to this temple but you have to take a bath and then only come. Then when we came inside and saw the ground that was made of cow-dung and had many different Kollams. Still it did not smell even a little bit. Then a lady took us to the Amphitheater, it was called Bodhgaya, And there were kind of seats made of pebbles. It was very nice, he lady took us to a man who was the Principal of Anjana Vidya Kendra. His name was Mr. Channa Raju. He gave us very unique kind of Bananas that tasted very nice, 

We also met the 5th graders of Anjana Vidya Kendra. We introduced ourselves. My father split us into groups. I was with Eshan, Yashwant, Nandushree, Malikarjun, Manasa and Yasheswini. My father told us to see the whole of Anjana Vidya Kendra. 

At first they showed us the pond. Then a very nice open playground. After that we went and saw another big pond with a nice blooming Water Lily. Then we saw a guest house which showed a path to a terrace. The view from the terrace was my favourite thing I saw today. Then we saw the school's dog. Then we went to the library. We did a puzzle in the library. After that we were starving so we decided to have lunch. After lunch we played this game called, Kho Kho. It was the best thing I did today. After we played Kho Kho we told our hobbies. My hobby was Tennis. I like Tennis because its all about skills and hardwork. My favourite player is Roger Federer. After that we did clay modelling. I made a face mask. It took a lot of hardwork. Then we had to leave, so I said good bye !!!

Adarsh - Our Trip to Anjana Vidya Kendra

- V Grade

Today (19th July), we went to a school in a village called Anjana Vidya Kendra. This was a very different because they come from villages and we are city children. I liked the day because it was such different experience to interact with rural kids. I also liked the greenery in the school. We saw many different types of plants. Overall, I loved the day. We reached the school at around 10:15 am. We saw 1 of the volunteers as she took us into the amphitheatre. Then we drank Tea with Mr. Channa raju, the founder. Then we assembled and split up into groups. The children could speak english so communication was easy. They took us around the school and showed us the classes and other rooms. We all assembled near the prayer hall and we all went to eat lunch. After lunch, we played a game called Kho-Kho. After Kho-Kho, we shared our hobbies with the other children. After that, we did clay modeling till around 2:45 pm. We then said our goodbyes and left. I really liked everything we did so nothing was really better than the other event. I liked them all equally. I learnt about how rural children live and how they behave. I shared my like for football with the children of Anjana. I saw how enthusiastic they were just for see and talk to city people like us.

Lastly, I thank Gokul uncle and Priya aunty for taking me there and I loved the trip....

Akshar - Experiences at Anjana Vidya Kendra

- V Grade

             

The day was awesome with the kids of Anjana Vidya Kendra. During the visit we first went to the temple outside the school, ate the bananas grown in the school's farms, met the 5th graders and introduced ourselves. We made groups of 6 and were shown around the school by them. At 12:00PM we made a puzzle and at 12:30P.M we ate. At   1:00P.M we shared our hobbies and at 1:30 we modeled clay. At 2:45we left. I liked seeing the school the most in the trip. I learnt about rural kids life and learnt how to play 'kho kho' . I shared my thoughts about drums. I really liked the school !!!

Thanish - Email sent to Gokul on his experience at Anjana Vidya Kendra

- VI Grade

It was the 19-7-2014, the morning was really cold and we were really excited. I liked the fact that we were helping the rural kids because I have never seen their lifestyle and surroundings.We were split into 3 groups. Adarsh, Akshar, Karthik, Ajay, another boy but I forgot his name [sorry!!!] and me were in the same group . All the boys showed us the school and their dogs Ragi, Pepsi and Subboo. We saw 3 monkeys, 2 cats and many birds. There was a road filled with touch me not plants [or Mimosa]. We saw the amphitheater which was like Gear. They had a library and a slide to come down from it. When it was lunch I saw the simple village food that people eat which included Rice, Sambar, Buttermilk from the cows in the shed, avakai[I don't know if its the correct spelling]. I liked how the bananas which tasted like jackfruit & banana and how the children and Gokul Mama played Kho Kho. I also liked this school for its ideas like the floor was cleaned with cow dungand how they made faces out of clay. I learned a lot from this experience. I shared my hobbies and tried my very best to  interact with the children.

If I wrote every thing you will fall asleep. So I shall write that I learned how to be contented, to be happy with what i have, to maintain the greenery of my surrounding etc[end of thinking capacity].

I would like to conclude by saying that this was an experience I will never forget. Thank you Go cool mama and Priya aunty. Thatha was really happy that they had Ramanars photos in every class.

Eshan - Sharing his experience from visiting Anjana Vidya Kendra

- X Grade

The trip to Anjana Vidya Kendra was very memorable. It was an experience that I will cherish for a long time. I enjoyed every second of the trip. I learned a lot from the children there. Their simple life opened my eyes. They received happiness from small things. This trip has given me new perspective of life. Their school was very well designed. The Bodhgaya left me speechless and their amphitheater was very beautiful. I liked interacting with the kids the most. The openness and homely feeling of the school was what I appreciated the most. I believed we shared our way of life to them. We gave them exposure to things they would have never been able to see. They were in awe to see so many new and exciting things

during our brief visit we took a tour of their school. I enjoyed playing Kho Kho with them. Me and Saathvik also solved a few puzzles with them. I also enjoyed sculpting the clay models and sharing my hobbies with them. Thanks for giving us such a wonderful experience