Educate school dropout children in rural India

Two of our main programmes organized in this quarter (January - March 16) were events that focussed on the innate talents of our beneficiaries and their parents. These programmes are planned at this time of the year as weather wise it is much cooler and the programmes are undertaken in open spaces, availability of parents is higher and beneficiaries enjoy this creative space before they begin their studies for teh annual exams in earnest. 

Bal Kala Mahotsav

The annual talent programme - Bal Kala Mahotsav was organized for Anando beneficiaries of Jalna District on 09^th January 2016. In all six competitions were organized: rangoli making, drama, solo singing, solo dance, group dance, essay writing. 75% of the beneficiaries participated enthusiastically in the programme. The Bal Kala Mahotsav had a tremendous impact on the children, their parents and teachers. The enthusiasm of parents seen now is far different from the earlier days when the same parents were totally against their daughters dancing on stage, working with boys together, travelling from one place to another like this, etc. This visible shift in parents thought process is a huge achievement for the LOLT Team in Jalna District. 

Palak Melava

Objectives:

• To give parents an opportunity to enjoy a day in their lives without tension.
• To showcase their talents
• To give the parents the responsibility to organize the event for themselves.

Parents took on the total responsibility of organizing the Palak Melawa, along with music system, Pandal and lunch for all the participating parents. This was a great achievement for Jalna District as it showcased the impact of all the efforts of the team over the last 4 years. Parents participated in all the activities with great enthusiasm and joy.

The impact of the programme was –

• Parents enjoyed the day making the LOLT team feel they have fulfilled the objective of the programme.
• Some games organized during the Melawa created a feeling of competition amongst the parents and made the winning team parents strengthen their commitment to the group.
• During the question & answer session, parents participated with full enthusiasm which at some point, made the team feel that they were conducting the activity with children.
• During the whole programme, there was a great response from the parents.
• During the feedback it was found that all the parents had really enjoyed the sessions and activities. They commented that for the first time they felt that they were still in their childhood
• Schools teachers were surprised to see the performance of the parents.
• Most of the parents had attended the program missing out on their daily wages as they felt that they had to be present in such a programme.

The activities organized during the Palak Melawa were a combination of group and individual based games like - making a home out of available resources, talent show, singing folk songs, playing musical chairs, how many biscuits can one eat in a minute.                              

• Global_giving_report_January__March_2016.pdf (PDF)