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