'Holistic Development'for 300 Poor Kids in India

Dear Donors,

Greetings from IDEA Foundation!!

IDEA has been following a holistic approach to education, to ensure all-round development of children. To achieve this goal IDEA runs many Study Centres for underprivileged children where the main focus is imparting not just knowledge but also values and skills. To make the process of learning fun and stress-free, the children are taught not in the traditional way but through fun group activities like enacting stories, playing games or making something with their own hands. When the teachers are friendly and peers are encouraging, learning becomes fun. This motivates the children to come back to class each day with renewed enthusiasm and curiosity to learn and experience something new.

The children who come to IDEA Study Centres are from underprivileged and tribal communities, for whom education is not as much important as their own customs, traditions, and festivals. Care has to be taken to ensure that the communities don’t see the Study center activities as something alien. Then how do we accomplish providing modern education without them perceiving it to be a threat to their way of life? The answer is simple – to join them, to celebrate their festivals and teach the children unforgettable lessons through these celebrations and merriment. After the class is over, each festival is celebrated in the community study center by conducting a related activity through which they can learn a lesson or a new skill. Here we focus on the cognitive aspect of learning. Teachers are given frequent training on how to deal with these children while imparting the necessary knowledge. Where education is not given priority we have to use methods which are acceptable to the communities, for example, these past few months we celebrated many festivals like Dahi-handi, during which the children make a human pyramid which requires them to work as a team and to trust each other. We celebrated Raksha-Bandhan by learning how to make rakhis, thereby learning a new craft. We also celebrated Ganesh-Chaturthi by teaching the kids to make eco-friendly Lord Ganesha clay idols, all by themselves, which was a fun way to learn environment-friendly practices.

Dear donors, we are so happy and grateful for your generosity as the results of this holistic development approach is proving to be extremely encouraging. Not long ago an entire community of Katkari tribes near Pune was illiterate and just last month we held an award ceremony for 100% attendance for 10 bright and happy kids. You will surely enjoy the photos. Speak volumes don’t they?