Transform the lives of 3200 children in Hyderabad

This report shares a few stories of projects from our classrooms. 

Story # 1 -

The students of Government Model Primary School, Narayanaguda participated in the ‘Design For Change’ challenge and were among the top 100 projects out of 2512 entries across 27 states in India. The project that they did was ‘Craft For Change’. The children started by looking for problems that their school and community faces. They met beggars on the roads in their community, noticed that their school had a broken fence, that their curriculum did not include arts and crafts  and also saw that the toilets close to their school are not well maintained . After going through the ‘Design Thinking’ process ; Feel – Imagine – Do – Share, they realized that the only problem that was feasible for them to solve was that they had no arts and crafts in their curriculum. Since they did not have a crafts teacher in school, they decided to write to their Principal to find them an arts and crafts teacher. Soon after, they found a crafts teacher and they started learning and teaching their schoolmates everything that they were learning. With this idea, they started making diyas and candles to sell in different places. They started selling their diyas and with the profits that they made, they bought mugs and buckets for the toilets near the school, they bought blankets for the beggars in their community and also bought materials for making more crafts.

Through this challenge, they learnt how to work in teams, divided responsibilities among themselves – money management, knowledge management, quality management and feedback management. 

Story # 2 -

The students of Diamond Mission High School were bothered about lack of cleanliness, student misbehavior and incomplete home-works. They wanted to bring in some change in their classrooms, so they decided to work on student behavior in school because they felt that big changes can happen only if they start by making small corrections. They felt that if they help students in improving their behavior they will also improve in other areas like studies.

The different solutions that they came up with were as follows: a) counseling the students who were frequently showing improper behavior. b) Giving marks for behavior  c) giving attractive rewards like key-chains, story-books, playtime after school and making them leaders for a day etc.

They started with a meeting with all the teachers in the school to find out the names of students in each class who needed help in improving their behavior. They also asked teachers to list the specific behavior issues like not being attentive in class, attendance shortage, using bad language, not finishing work on time etc. that they wanted to change.

So students collected waste cardboard cartons lying in the school and made  ‘Behavior Marks Cards’ for each class. It had names of students who needed help along with the common issues in that class for the teachers to track improvement in them.  They also cut out badges like “HERO”, “CHAMPION” AND “GOODBOY” from old cardboard carton boxes for every class so that the class-teacher could use it like a reward to encourage the students to show improvement. After a week handing out these cards and badges, we took feedback from teachers to find out how effective it was. We also helped a few teachers by demonstrating how to use the tracking cards and badges effectively to see good results.

As a result of their project the students who did not behave well earlier are showing interest in winning the badges by showing good behavior. Most of the teachers and students are happy because their classroom has become better now. There is less noise and disturbance and everybody is able to learn more and enjoy at school. The teachers are also feeling happy about coming to the class and teaching.

The children are planning to work with other teachers and principal to design behavior Report Cards for every student in the school. They also want to share this report card with the parents in Parent-Teacher Meetings so that they can also encourage their children at home.

Story # 3 - 

GPS NBT Nagar had garbage bins just in front their school which were always overflowing and affected around 1200 students causing bad smell and diseases. People threw garbage down if the bins are filled. It spread bad smell in and around school area. It caused diseases such as headache, stomachache, vomiting and fever and fewer students attended the school.

The students studying in Primary and Secondary school pass by the garbage every day. Spitting and urinating near garbage had become common practice. It causes bad smell. But more serious problems were the health issues faced by the students.

Initially students carried out survey to understand the root cause of the problem of garbage bins in front of our school. After this they approached municipal authorities (GHMC) to clear up garbage multiple times. Post this they registered telephonic compliant to GHMC and with support of GHMC shift garbage bins and imposed fine (RS.500) on people for throwing it in front of our school.

They also came up with ideas to reduce food wastage (Mid-Day Meal) from school by creating awareness among students with teachers' support. Students used placards with slogans about cleanliness and health, performed skits and also gave speeches to make is more interesting and engaging. They also approached community leaders by various ways; visiting their houses, writing letters.