Greetings from Diksha!
As part of the effort to contain COVID-19 spread, all the public spaces such as schools, offices, universities, educational institutions reopened from the month of August.
Taking the government protocols and COVID-19 safety measures we also reopened our KHEL centers, during the quarter of July-September we engaged in different activities of the KHEL project and in order to stay connected with our students.
Major Activities –
The major events that took place in the quarter are as follows
With the commencement of the quarter the relief work continued, we distributed 1072 with support of Reliance Foundation to different communities of Patna districts and benefitting 1072 families along with masks distribution in order to create awareness amongst people.
The students were able to familiarize themselves with storytelling platform and sessions on the occasion of World Youth Day along with using digital media to create comic and stories on various topics of inclusion, social, emotional and ethical learning, gender based discrimination, world political spectrum etc.
On the occasion of Independence day, following the protocol of COVID-19, we celebrated our 75th year of independence, which started with recognizing the efforts of Independence and the struggle behind it followed by cultural activities presented by our students (music, dance etc).
The objectives of BAL Sansad are focusing more on values and respect for children's opinions and capabilities. This innovative platform provides students with the opportunity to actively participate in the running of the Centre through a democratic process that is above gender, caste, creed or economic situation. This unique exercise helps root education in the local context and builds appropriate and relevant life skills. It teaches children about politics and the electoral process within their world, retains the interest of the students and enhances their curiosity to learn and to question. There was also the election of the children's parliament in this quarter, and a new children's parliament was formed.
The points discussed in the BAL Sansad meetings noted below: 1. Planning shared by each ministry for the upcoming months.
2. Progress powerpoint to be shared by each ministry/members.
3. Each ministry chooses their team and initiates the planning without further ado.
Open House Meetings are organized every month and chaired by the Prime Minister of BAL Sansad. The Prime Minister reviews all the previous work and focuses on the progress of Mathematics, Computer, English and Hindi. The departmental heads of the BAL Sansad note down all the activities and make a diary entry of their development, and accordingly, took necessary actions on it.
Volunteer Activities –
During this quarter our volunteers even helped us with tele-counselling and keeping a check over students mental health as well as their family conditions and issues/challenges they have been going through, apart from the same they even actively participated in the process of relief work by volunteering in the distribution process as well.
Future Plans –
With decrease in case and government guidelines we have re-opened our center for the elder students in batches, so that there is minimum gathering and get started with their academia and supplementary classes taking into account that nobody is prone to getting affected or catch the virus easily.
Taking into account the government guidelines and protocols we will be planning of celebrating Gandhi Jayanti, Children’s day, Diwali, and Christmas while keeping proper arrangements of sanitizers, seating capacity, masks, instant/rapid testing kit in case of emergency.
Greetings from Diksha!
As part of the effort to contain COVID-19 spread, all the public spaces such as schools, offices, universities, educational institutions had to close down to prevent everyone from the hazardous effects of the disease. Taking the government protocols and COVID-19 safety measures we had to shut down the KHEL centers, during the quarter of April to June we engaged in different activities of the KHEL project and in order to stay connected with our students.
Major Activities –
The major activities that took place in this quarter are as follows:
Further, it was getting incredibly difficult for us to stay in connection with our students as we had to close our center due to government regulations. Thus, to remedy the situation we started the facility of tele-counselling whereby children could discuss their situations. During these sessions, we got to understand their financial problems as their parents had lost their livelihoods, due to lack of smart phones digital divide is being created.
Under our relief work we provided relief kits including nutritional kits and medicine kits to our students along with distribution of ration in the later stage, by far we have provided these relief materials to 250 students of our center.
COVID-19 has resulted in loss of livelihood opportunities especially with the daily wage earners, in order to support our students and their parents financially, we are providing them with grant amount in order to start new business opportunities or to expand their existing business which we help them in sustaining financially also will build a strong relation with our students.
Under this program the students are being trained and groomed by facilitators on different areas of studies that will help them in becoming a global citizen, in this quarter the students learnt about 21st century skills, Official Communication- IT and computer skills-email etiquette, and pride month.
Since many of our students don’t have access to digital mode of learning, we brought learning to their doorstep by providing books from our library and helping them stay connected to academia and work on their communication skills.
We even distributed stationery items to all our girl students of KHEL center, to motivate them and keep them connected to the fun and learning process.
Volunteer Activities –
During this quarter our volunteers even helped us with tele-counselling and keeping a check over students mental health as well as their family conditions and issues/challenges they have been going through, apart from the same they even actively participated in the process of relief work by volunteering in the distribution process as well.
Future Plans –
Through Tata-tele conferencing we will help in bridging the digital divide for our students and help them with their studies, it can be access by everyone with or without internet and also smart phone is not mandatory for it.
Taking into account the government guidelines and protocols we will re-starting our vocational course training for the elder students by maintain proper distance and also will take consent from the students before beginning the in-person sessions.
With decrease in case and government guidelines we will soon re-open our center for the elder students in batches, so that there is minimum gathering and get started with their academia and supplementary classes
Through one of our project one of our donors is willing to support around 7-10 students who are financially weak but are focused and dedicated towards their studies and future, by taking charge of their higher education, from preparing them for interested course to college fees to other requirements
Dear Well wishers,
A very happy and healthy New Year!
We hope that we find a solution and cure for COVID -19 this year.
We are grateful for your kind support to us throughout these years. It has been an insightful journey and we have learnt a lot while on it.
This quarter began with the celebration of Makar Sakranti at Patna KHEL Center. Students joined the festivities with great enthusiasm to celebrate the beginning of a new year with the hope that they would soon be able to join classes in the normal manner. We are trying to open our KHEL Centers now with minimal physical presence while ensuring all the safety precautions.
We also celebrated Independence Day on 26th January. The students participated in various dance, drama, songs, debate and quiz competitions to expand their knowledge while also teaching us about India and their futuristic mission and goals for the nation.
The students participated in huge numbers for “Kabaad se Jugaad”- Art and Craft Exhibition. They showcased their creativity through various products that they had designed. It brought forth their talent while also bringing us all together in the lively KHEL spirit.
We are currently trying to engage students virtually for our English Access Microscholarship Program. We were hoping to start offline classes, however, could not proceed with the same in order to ensure safety precautions against COVID-19. We are trying to open our KHEL doors for our senior students in order to help them with their upcoming board exams.
Major Activities:-
We have started to enroll students for our vocational learning course of Diploma in Computer Applications for girl students.
Plan Ahead:-
We are hoping to start in person classes for all batches from April while ensuring safety precautions. In further news, We hope to start Access classes in offline mode in 2 separate cohorts.
We are also planning on starting afresh with Jagrik, the civic education program in a small cohort. In the coming quarters, we are trying to strengthen our digital library to inculcate in our students reading culture.
Dear wellwishers,
Hope you find some respite from COVID-19 this festive season!
Thank you so much for your generous contributions to Diksha Foundation. We have achieved some remarkable milestones through these contributions. We are extremely elated to share with you that we completed 10 years of community service this year.
Through these quarters we had to keep our KHEL Centers in Patna and Hilsa closed due to government regulations and to prevent the spread of COVID -19. We had to find alternate approaches to stay connected with our students and to ensure that learning continues even in these difficult times. The idea to solve these 2 problems was suggetsed by our students in collaboration with the team.
We came up with the solution named “Khel Ki Door, Aapke Ghar Ki Oor”. Through this campaign the middle school and high school students volunteered to teach younger students in a small group of about 10 children. We believed that if Diksha could reach out to the students at their homes and conduct sessions and activities, it would encourage student’s participation within Diksha while also maintaining the safety and precautions norms against COVID-19. Thus, around 13 adolescents volunteered to be a part of the campaign as student teachers/youth volunteers for our students between classes 1 to 5. We also distributed workbooks and stationary items to our students.
In further news, we have continued our “Annapurna Campaign” through which we provide ration kits to students and their families. So far we have distributed about 750 kits to the families of our students and other needy families. The kits include all the necessary items that are essential to sustain a family for a month. We have distributed these kits in 6 phases to ensure safety and precautions of COVID-19.
Major Activities:-
The children celebrated Gandhi Jayanti with much enthusiasm. They prepared speeches and tributes based on the lives of Gandhi and his principles. We screened “Midnight’s Children” for our children at KHEL Patna. They also submitted essays based on the movie that reflected their perspectives on the same.
We celebrated our 10 years anniversary virtually this year. The children prepared short videos of themselves commemorating their fond memories of Diksha. Children enjoyed the virtual event in which there was a virtual band performance Manzil Mystics. It was telecasted virtually across our social media platforms.
Plan Ahead:-
English Access Microscholarship Program (Access) in collaboration with RELO and US Consulate, Kolkata is a program that is helping students in improving their English language skills and making them global citizens. The program is already being run virtually, however, we are hoping to start offline classes.
Further, we have strengthened our library setup to ensure a better accessibility to our children. This will help in developing reading skills of our children, expansion of knowledge base and innovative thinking skills.
Links:
Dear Contributors,
Greetings from Diksha!
Thank you so much for your faith and belief in us during this period. This has helped us in achieving some remarkable heights. We are working constantly to make this a better and safe place for children, through various measures.
We are happy to share with you our quarterly updates. This quarter we had to close our KHEL Learning Centre in Patna and Hilsa Due to COVID-19 pandemic. However, in this quarter we are proud to share that 6 children (4 boys and 2 girls) passed their class 10th board examinations with good marks. In the class 12th board exams, 5 more children ( 4 boys and 1 girl) passed the exams with flying colours.
We tried to engage our students through online classes. However it proved to be difficult as most of the students do not have smartphones. Thus, we provided them with tele counselling so that they could cope with the difficulties of lockdown during the pandemic. We also conducted a survey through telephone to understand the issues our children have been facing.
We are also extremely proud to share that 2 girls and 1 boy from our Centre got part time teaching jobs in a Coaching institute. They plan to pursue their higher studies while earning so that they can be independent. In the DCA (Diploma in Computer Applications), 3 girls and 2 boys successfully completed the programme.
Further, our MLMF programme came to an end with 105 participants successfully completing the course in Patna and Hilsa. After the course, most of them shared that they felt more confident in sharing their thoughts and feelings with their parents. The students have developed better public speaking skills. They also participated in an event organized by Oxfam where they had prepared a youth manifesto regarding upcoming Bihar elections. It included our youth’s perception about a responsive and equitable society for gender equality.
Major Activities -
At Diksha we believe in celebrating everyday with equal zest. The quarter started with the celebrations of Holi. Children celebrated eco friendly holi in order to save water, earth and environment. The children were preparing for an Art Exhibition that was supposed to be held in March end. However, we had to postpone it due to COVID-19 outbreak.
In the telephonic followup, most of our students mentioned that they had been facing hardships due to the lack of ration. We spoke to their parents in order to understand their financial conditions and well being. In order to help our children, we started the Annapurna Campaign through which we have been providing ration and personal safety equipment kits to our students’ families in Patna and Hilsa. So far we have distributed 110 kits to our students and their families in Patna.
Volunteer Activities -
Volunteer activities spiked before the lockdown came into force. We had incorporated 2 more volunteers who wanted to teach students various subjects. 1 volunteer also celebrated her birthday at the Patna Learning Centre. This helped in engaging students in understanding the importance of community sharing and learning.
Future Plans -
We plan to extend our Annapurn Campaign to meet the needs of 110 children at Hilsa. This will help our students and their families in combating the hardships of lockdown. Most of our students mentioned that their parents had lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The campaign will provide 1 months supplies of essential items that are required to sustain a family.
In the future we want to build a digital library for our students in Patna and Hilsa. This would help us in combating the difficulties we experienced during the lockdown. Most of the students mentioned that they could not access online classes as they did not have a smartphone. We are hoping that a digital library at Diksha’s Learning Centres would help in conducting classes online if the situations do not improve or we face a similar situation in the future.
We are happy to have you with us on our journey. It is important for us to share our updates with you so that we could have partnerships in building a safe and innovative society for our children to grow up in.
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