‘Kahani’ time for Parents and Children from PPCE (Parents’
Participation in Children’s Education) project
areas
Just the idea of listening to a story brings a sparkle to
the eyes of the old and young! Two interesting and enjoyable story telling
sessions were conducted in October in partnership with ‘Kahani’ to reinforce
the message of regular school attendance and gender equality. The audience was
mainly the parents and children of construction sites in Mohammadwadi and Suraksh
nagar areas. The venues? A big shady tree and an open space near a labor camp!
There were about 40-45 children and 25-30 parents at both
the ‘venues’ who not just listened but actively participated in the story
telling session. Ajay Dasgupta and Sneha of ‘Kahani’ had them enthralled with their
story telling skills. The constant interaction between the story teller and
audience made everybody feel they belonged in the story!
In the first story,
children identified with the character of Aslan and his friends and happily
joined in the refrain when prompted. They learnt how they can play, learn, have
fun and also make a lot of friends in school and how they can help each other
in times of difficulty. ‘So, make sure you go to school every day and take all
the children from your neighborhood along with you!’
The second story was based on Mahashwetadevi’s ‘Moena:the
why-why girl’. Children by nature are curious and love to ask questions. This
is how they learn and very often show adults how something can be done
differently. Unfortunately, adults do not encourage their curiosity and so this
story advised the adults to keep an open mind and not be averse to change. ‘Send
your daughters to school along with your sons!’ Just after this story, Ganga, a
DSS student for the last eight years who is now a student of Std XI was
interviewed. This reinforced the importance of sending girls to school.
The third story was about two friends ‘Budhu’ and Chaalaak’!
The two friends come to each other’s rescue many times and walk hand-in-hand.
No matter what your name, you are capable of thinking and doing a good job of
any given task.
At the end, Ajay also showed photos of Mary Kom and Malala
and talked about these two girls and how they had overcome difficulties to
become world famous personalities.
Contributed by Harishchandra Phadke, Translated by Archana Vyavaharkar
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