Wednesday, December 23, 2015

वाचन संस्कार रुजविणा-यांबद्दल आत्मीयता : चंदावरकर (दै. सकाळ)

(Click on image to read)

वाचन संस्कार रुजविणा-यांबद्दल आत्मीयता : चंदावरकर
- सकाळ, पुणे
बुधवार, 23 डिसेंबर 2015


"मुलांमध्ये वाचन संस्कृती रुजावी यासाठी पाश्‍चात्त्य देशात नव-नवीन प्रयोग सुरू आहेत. आपल्याकडेही काही प्रयत्न होत आहेत, परंतु तळागाळातील मुलांपर्यंत ते पोचत नाहीत. अशा मुलांपर्यंत वाचन संस्कार पोचविण्यासाठी धडपडणाऱ्या स्वयंसेवी संस्थांविषयी मला आपुलकी आणि आत्मीयता वाटते," असे मत शिक्षणतज्ज्ञ मीना चंदावरकर यांनी येथे व्यक्त केले.

विविध संस्थांनी एकत्र येऊन सुरू केलेल्या "सामाजिक संस्थांचे वाचन संस्कार नेटवर्क‘च्या उपक्रमांतर्गत आयोजिलेल्या "चला, वाचन रंजक बनवूया‘ कार्यक्रमात त्या बोलत होत्या. "डोअर स्टेप‘च्या संस्थापिका रजनी परांजपे, शिक्षण मंडळाच्या उपशिक्षणप्रमुख शुभांगी चव्हाण, "स्वाधार‘च्या अंजली बापट, वनस्थळी ग्रामीण विकास केंद्राच्या सुषमा साठे, स्नेहदीप जनकल्याण फाउंडेशनचे डॉ. प्रकाश भंडारी, क्षितिज संस्थेच्या उमा माने व संजय राऊत या वेळी उपस्थित होते.

मुलांमध्ये वाचनाची गोडी निर्माण करण्यासाठी राबविण्यात येणाऱ्या विविध प्रकल्पांची माहिती या वेळी देण्यात आली. तसेच गप्पा, गोष्टी, गाणी, खेळ, चित्रवाचन, भित्तिपत्रके आणि पुस्तक वाचनातून मुलांमध्ये वाचन संस्कार कसे रुजवावे, याची प्रात्यक्षिक दाखविली.

चंदावरकर म्हणाल्या, "वाचन मुलांना समृद्ध बनवते आणि विचार करण्यास प्रवृत्त करते. मराठी भाषेत आज खुपसे प्रयोग राबविले जात असून, त्यातून मुलांमध्ये वाचनाची आवड रुजत असल्याचे समाधान आहे. पूर्वी मुलांना चांगली शाळा व चांगले शिक्षक मिळायचे. पण काळ बदलल्याने चांगले शिक्षक हरपले. भाषेची व व्याकरणाची जाण आपल्यात उपजतच असते. फक्त त्याला जाणून घेण्याची गरज आहे. दूरचित्रवाणी पाहून ज्ञान मिळत नाही. पुस्तक वाचल्याने मनाला शांती व शारीरिक सुख मिळते."

चव्हाण म्हणाल्या, "लहानपणीच मुलांमध्ये वाचनाची आवड निर्माण व्हायला हवी. अध्यापन आनंददायी करायचे असेल, तर मुलांमध्ये वाचन संस्कृती रुजविण्याची आवश्‍यकता आहे."

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Anti Child Beggary Campaign

Millions of children in India beg and live a miserable life day after day. This journey starts right from their infancy when their mothers carry them around, begging.

By giving these children money, we are not helping them but we perpetuate a cycle of poverty and give children a strong incentive to stay out of school. Keeping this in mind, Door Step School participated in an ‘Anti Child Beggary Campaign’ organised by Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC) on account of International Child Rights day on 20th of November 2015. 12 members of DSS staff and 5 volunteers participated in this campaign to spread awareness among the citizens to not give alms to the children thereby discouraging child begging at 5 signals in PMC and PCMC area, from 10:00AM to 1:30 PM.

Citizens were made aware by word of mouth, by putting up stickers on vehicles, and by distributing pamphlets. A lot of citizens showed interest and were curious to know more about the campaign. They were also enquiring as to how they could contribute further to the cause.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

'लोकमत सखी सन्मान पुरस्कार' रजनी परांजपे यांना जाहीर

(Click on image to read)
विविध क्षेत्रांत आपल्या कष्टाने आणि कर्तृत्वाने उज्ज्वल यश संपादित केलेल्या महिलांना यंदाच्या वर्षी 'लोकमत सखी सन्मान पुरस्कार २०१४-१५'ने सन्मानित करण्यात येणार आहे. 'लोकमत' माध्यम समूहाच्या वतीने आयोजित 'लोकमत वूमन समिट' हा महिलांचा गौरव करणारा व महिलांच्या सक्षमीकरणाच्या अनुषंगाने विविध बाबींवर प्रकाशझोत टाकणारा आगळावेगळा कार्यक्रम आहे. यंदाच्या वर्षी शिक्षण क्षेत्रासाठी 'डोअर स्टेप स्कूल' संस्थेच्या संस्थापिका रजनी परांजपे यांना 'लोकमत सखी सन्मान २०१५' या पुरस्काराने गौरविण्यात येणार आहे. बांधकाम साईट्सवर, झोपडपट्ट्यांत, रस्त्यांवर फिरणार्‍या अशा विविध प्रकारे शाळाबाह्य असणार्‍या मुलांसाठी 'डोअर स्टेप स्कूल' या संकल्पनेतून शिक्षणाच्या प्रवाहात आणण्याचा प्रयत्न त्यांनी केला. पूर्व प्राथमिक शिक्षण, शाळेत जाणार्‍या विद्यार्थ्यांना मदत व इतर प्रकारचे साक्षरता वर्ग राबविण्याचे काम त्या करतात.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Rajanitai's Speech at Vibha Pragati Conference - October 2015



ASSESSING REPORT- GROUND REALITIES
VIBHA PRAGATI -1ST OCT 2015

            Mrs. Rajanitai Paranjape’s speech at VIBHA’s Pragati Conference on 1st October 2015 discussed various issues related to ‘impact’ of a program. Here are a few important points she raised to help us understand the various implications associated with the term ‘impact’.

            The focus here is on the issue of ‘impact’ and looking at it through each stakeholder’s eyes. The main stakeholders are obviously the two partners, the ones who primarily take the responsibility of supporting a project - call them financial donors or attending partners; and the other who sees to it that the project runs as per the plan or the proposal i.e. the NGO or NPO. The third stakeholder is of course the party who is at the receiving end - the beneficiary, or a client, or a client group.

            I am here to talk about the impact our programs make on this beneficiary- an individual or a group.

            The term ‘impact’ has two meanings: one is shock, collision - the action of one object forcibly brought into contact with another; in other words, to strike forcefully. The other is effect; influence; or the result of a particular action.

            Here we are using the word impact as effect or influence and has more to do with the force exerted by a new idea, concept, or ideology.

            The word impact has been used as a verb from 1960. The verbal use of impact is associated with business and commercial writing. It has the unenviable status of jargon which makes it doubly disliked. I came across this interesting information while I was looking for the definitions of the words and was amused to know its connection to business world and its recent origin as a verb.

            In NGO’s vocabulary also, this word has entered relatively recently and mostly via the corporate world. It has given us uneasy feelings while writing reports and we struggle hard to show the effect of our project or the actions on the beneficiaries. Now why is that?

            We start a project with definite goals in mind and we surely want to bring about a change in our beneficiaries. Then why do we find it difficult to show ‘Impact’ when we write our reports?

            I have been thinking of this question since the time I agreed to speak on this topic. And although I cannot claim to have found the answer, I have identified certain factors which are characteristic of our work and the kind of people we think we are. We, as NGO’s, always believe, that we are more emotional than rational - and to a certain extent this belief is justifiable. We are the doers and not just the armchair philosophers; and we get so carried away by the work that needs to get done at the earliest, that a few important factors are ignored without even being aware of it! You may wonder how this happens. For this, let me walk you through ground realities:

Lack of relevant data
            We do feel that keeping records and analysing the data is a luxury we can only partly afford. And to show the impact we require data: the data which shows ‘before and after’ status; the data that will show the difference between two samples - one with the inputs we have given, and the other without (the control).

            For example, if I claim that a Balwadi has brought about some change or desirable change in the children I dealt with, I can show the change only if I have the data about the status of children before we started the Balwadi, to compare with the results after a given period of time. I see now that at many a times, we do not have the ‘before’ data with us and by the time we realise we should have collected it thorough maintaining regular records from day one, it is too late! Alternately, we should have a comparable group of children who has not received inputs that works as a control group to show the results or the impact of our work. This means additional work and time - both of which are not provided for in our sanctioned budget.

            There is yet another problem with the ‘data’ or its availability which is not only about our attitude towards maintaining records but about the set of skills we work with.

Limited skills of grass-root workers
            We work through our field staff, that is not highly educated or the ones who excel academically. For example, at present we have about 700 members of our team out of which not even a third has completed four years of college. Most of them have finished 10 or 12 years of schooling; but let me assure you that they are doing an excellent job.

            They are best suited for the work they are selected for. They work hard; they are comfortable working in the poorest conditions; for example, on construction locations where we work, our teachers work for eight hours a day, all six days of the week. Initially, we did not even have toilet facility for their use. We had to struggle for toilets for our teachers for four to five years in the beginning and I am really ashamed to admit it here that it took us some time to realise that our teachers worked without a toilet facility for eight hours a day; and in order to survive in such conditions they did not drink water during the day! And yet they never complained about it! When we realised this, we did not start negotiating with builders for toilet facility on the site because we knew, like many other things, it would take time! On some locations we did make arrangement ourselves by providing mobile toilets for which I had to get funding from abroad - an individual donor, whom I did not have to convince for the need of toilets on the site, immediately obliged.

Lack of infrastructure
            There are no chairs to sit on and no desk to write on, fans are not even thought about! During summer, it is extremely hot because the classes are held in tin sheds; and in rainy season, they leak. The surroundings are all full of mud and debris and not even safe from children’s point of view. In spite of such challenges, the teachers make each class as safe as possible and conduct various activities to keep the children suitably engaged.

            You may wonder or even ask, why do we agree to work in such conditions?
This happens because we work from a position which has no power. We are powerless first because the nature of work we do is not perceived as ‘required’. Secondly we are not highly educated or qualified, thirdly we do not generate income and we have to depend for our survival on others who are our partners. Our funding partners and we have to depend for our success on the beneficiaries who in turn look at us as somebody who is ‘showing’ kindness or concern for them for his or her own livelihood. To turn them into a friendly welcoming group is the skill we have - in fact, we must have, if we aim at bringing about a change even for an apparently simple thing like motivating a parent to send a child to school. Developing rapport with parents and winning their trust is a difficult and time consuming process. In our work schedule, we hardly count the time that is required for ‘take off’ - the initial time during which we cannot show any ‘impact’ or results of our work.


            This is a picture after completion of three years. But during this time, we showed ‘impact’ after the end of every financial year. In fact, as per the donor’s requirement, we got the assessment done from a reputed institution, an outsider, who barely spent a couple of days on field and assessed the progress.

            I want to highlight two points here - one is our lack of orientation and training in maintaining and analysing data which is partly responsible for our fear of the word ‘impact’ assessment and second is the lack of orientation and training of our funding partners of ground realities which they sometimes fail to see - the difficulties we face and the interim time we need to show real impact of the work we do.

            The lack of orientation of ground realities is a fact for which I can give you two examples which show how the India and Bharat are two different entities who stay side by side but hardly know each other. In our campaign ‘Every Child Counts’, we work with many corporate volunteers. Some of the volunteers are not even aware that public primary education is free for everybody. They are really concerned about who will pay the school fees for the children we enrol in school. At the same time, the same volunteers willingly and many times on their own make arrangements for school transport for these children once they are in contact with them and see the ground realities. They feel like supporting the children’s education and do not hesitate to spend from their own pockets. This change comes through contact and this is also an impact which we have not envisaged and which we forget to count.

            I have many examples and many stories collected over last 25 years or so. For example, a group of students from NICMAR (National Institution for Construction Management and Research) helped us in our survey of construction labourers’ children back in 2003-2004. In a feedback meeting after the survey, all of them said that they had never visited a labour camp before and were not aware of the poor conditions in which the labourers live and in spite of that how very welcoming they are.

            I strongly feel that for both the sides, there is an urgent need to understand each other and develop a real partnership between the financial partners and the NGOs. Let us call them executive partners. They are the partners who work for bringing about desired goals which are decided and agreed upon by mutual consent. I say this because I have experience of the NGO’s ground realities and know the difficulties we face in our routine work  - difficult and unwelcoming conditions, lack of orientation and training for maintaining and analysing the data, lack of appreciation of analysis for improving and innovating field practices, apparent lack of interest in review, analysis objectivity, etc.

            These are our drawbacks. At the same time the funding partners are at a far higher level than us in academic achievements, technical knowledge and orientation to maintain, use, analyse, review and improve the practices. However, they do lack in practical field level experience and first-hand knowledge.

            We work with street children at the university circle. In fact, the work was started by the VAMNCOM Institute, a Government Institute for management training. Their Director is from Civil Services and is interested in working with these children. He started a project along with members of Mohalla Committee and started gathering children every morning, bringing them to the institute, providing facilities for bath, mid-day meal and a room to sit and watch TV. The children did watch TV, ate food, etc., but were not manageable; they were very restless and rowdy at times and the people concerned were not able to manage them. We offered to help and our teachers did wonders. Within a day or two, they could discipline the children, conducted activities with them, and generally brought quiet and peace and order to the group. We have even enrolled them in school. However, all days are not equal. Children do become restless; at times they do not like to sit in school; and during festive season, many of them are on the roads as it is there prime business time.

            This part is not appreciated by authorities as they should really do. If they see less attendance they are upset with our teachers (forgetting the days when they were not able to manage the children). ‘Does Door Step School pay you for bringing four children?’ is a comment our teachers have to hear and bear also.

            This is the lack of understanding I am talking about. We experience it almost every year when the budgets are submitted and discussions are held to get them sanctioned. The programme expense is one part, and in any case, they define programme expense so narrowly that it is always a smaller part of the budget. I remember the time when I even had to argue to get salary of teachers included under programme expense. Other supervisory staff, their salaries and expenses on general administration is always questioned and we are forced to work on a minimal administrative budget.

            I personally think and recommend that we should really sit together and work out the plan, the budget, the human resource needs and outcome goals stage by stage. There are experts - management experts who are debating about the use of the word ‘impact’ and saying that instead of the word ‘impact’, we should use the word ‘Outcome’.  I am not going into that debate because I am not equipped to do so. I think it is not important which word we use, but we should chalk out stage by stage expectations or the expected results of a particular project, the data, human resources and training, etc. required for achieving the goals should be worked out at the time we enter into partnership, and then assess the progress accordingly.

            This will ensure the smooth running of any project. This will remove our uneasy feeling of ‘what can we show them in such a short period of time?’ And even the funding partners will get what they are looking for.

            This suggestion brings in another point which is not exactly in the scope of today’s subject but which is closely related to it. It is about the funding tenure as decided by different corporates at different levels. Majority of them have a policy of supporting an NGO for a period of three years or some such similar time limit. Then they shift to another NGO. I fail to understand the logic behind this. Are you there to support new NGOs every few years and help them grow, or, are you aiming at a cause? And the reality is that there is a need everywhere. So why leave one NGO in the middle - make that NGO work all over again to find a new funding partner for the same program? And if it fails to do so, leave the project and many times even let go of the project staff that is trained to do a good job.

            In any situation, understanding others is always desirable. Discussions, debate, exchange of ideas will only help the executive partners to work towards the desired goals.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Every Child Counts - Ushering in Diwali with parents

Last week, the Every Child Counts Program team organized Diwali celebrations with a difference at several construction sites and temporary dwellings.

The parents were invited to join with their children. Volunteers from Wipro, Sandvik, Infosys and Geometric joined the ECC team and organized the "Diyas" and "Vats". The parents brought "Oil" for the lamps. The parents, volunteers and ECC field staff lit the lamps together and collectively and symbolically pledged to "light the lamp of education in the lives of their children" .





Thursday, October 22, 2015

'पुस्तक परी' घडवतेय अक्षरविश्‍वाची सफर - दै. सकाळ

(Click on image to read)

'पुस्तक परी' घडवतेय अक्षरविश्‍वाची सफर
- सुशांत सांगवे, सकाळ, पुणे
गुरुवार, 22 ऑक्टोबर 2015


शालेय विद्यार्थ्यांनी अवांतर वाचनाकडे वळावे, न अडखळता सलगपणे वाचावे, शब्दांचे उच्चार स्पष्ट करावेत, शब्दसंग्रह वाढवावा... यासाठी प्रयत्न होताना दिसत नाहीत, अशी खंत शिक्षण आणि साहित्य क्षेत्रातील अनेक मान्यवर व्यक्‍त करत आहेत; पण एक "पुस्तक परी‘ अशी आहे, जी की अनेक पऱ्यांना सोबत घेऊन मुलांना अक्षरविश्‍वाची सफर घडवून आणत आहे. मुलांमध्ये अवांतर वाचनाची गोडी वाढवत आहे. त्यामुळे कधी "बोक्‍या सातबंडे‘च्या तर कधी "छोटा भीम‘च्या दुनियेत मुले हरवून जात आहेत.

राजश्री जाधव असे या "पुस्तक परी‘चे नाव आहे. "डोअर स्टेप स्कूल‘च्या माध्यमातून चालविल्या जाणाऱ्या "वाचन संस्कार प्रकल्पा‘च्या त्या प्रमुख आहेत. एक शिक्षिका म्हणून त्या काही वर्षांपूर्वी शाळेच्या उपक्रमात सहभागी झाल्या होत्या. कामाप्रती निष्ठा पाहून त्यांना वारंवार पदोन्नती मिळत गेली अन्‌ आज त्या उपसंचालक म्हणून संस्थेत कार्यरत आहेत. शिवाय, या प्रकल्पाच्या प्रमुखही आहेत. लग्नानंतर विभक्त राहणे, अशा स्थितीत मुलाला स्वत: सांभाळणे, घरच्या परिस्थितीला तोंड देत स्वत: शिकत-शिकत मुलालाही उच्च शिक्षणापर्यंत पोचविणे... या कौटुंबिक वादळांना अन्‌ आव्हानांना राजश्रीताईंनी तोंड दिले. तर दुसरीकडे, वाचन संस्कार प्रकल्पाला गती दिली. त्यामुळे अनेक मुलांमध्ये वाचनाचे संस्कार रुजण्यास मदत झाली. हे समजून घेताना स्त्री-शक्तीचे एक वेगळे दर्शन येथे आपल्याला पाहायला मिळते.

पुणे आणि पिंपरी-चिंचवड महापालिकेच्या आणि जिल्हा परिषदेच्या शाळेतील मुलांसाठी "वाचन संस्कार प्रकल्प‘ राबविला जातो. पंधरा वर्षांपूर्वी हा उपक्रम दहा शाळांत सुरू झाला. आता 232 शाळांमध्ये सुरू आहे. वाड्या-वस्त्यांवरील शेकडो मुले-मुली आनंदाने यात सहभागी होतात. वाचन कसे करावे, जोडाक्षरे कशी म्हणावीत इथपासून अडखळायला लावणाऱ्या शब्दांचे अर्थ काय? हेही या वेळी मुलांना शिकवले जाते. त्यासाठी आता 320 शिक्षिका संस्थेशी जोडल्या गेल्या आहेत. या शिक्षिकांना "पुस्तक परी‘ असे म्हटले जाते, असे राजश्रीताई सांगत होत्या.

वेगवेगळ्या साहित्य प्रकारांवरील जवळपास दीड लाख पुस्तके संस्थेकडे आहेत. पहिली ते चौथी आणि पुढे सातवीपर्यंतच्या मुलांना ही पुस्तके दिली जातात. पाचवीच्या पुढच्या मुलांना पुस्तके घरी नेऊन वाचण्यास सांगितले जाते. मुलांकडून-पालकांकडून कुठलाही मोबदला न घेता हा शब्दांचा पसारा मांडला जातो. यामुळे मुलांना वाचनाची गोडी वाढते. वाड्या-वस्त्यांवरील बहुतांश मुलांचे शिक्षण अर्धवट राहते. असे होऊ नये, ते वाईट मार्गाला लागू नयेत हाही यामागचा एक विचार आहे, असे त्यांनी सांगितले. राजश्रीताईंना संस्थेच्या या प्रकल्पाची माहिती इजिप्तमध्ये जाऊन देण्याची संधी मिळाली होती. मुळात राजश्रीताई या कार्यात आल्या त्या रजनीताई परांजपे यांच्यामुळे. त्या "डोअर स्टेप स्कूल‘च्या प्रमुख आहेत. त्यांच्याबद्दलही राजश्रीताई आदराने, भरभरून बोलत होत्या. त्यांनी माझ्यावर विश्‍वास ठेवला, जबाबदारी टाकली म्हणूनच मी धडपड करू शकले, अशा भावना त्या व्यक्त करत होत्या.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Training of PMC Education Associates

Parivartan Training Center of Door Step School had organised a special training programme for teachers from Pune Municipal Corporation schools. As a part of this training conducted on 5th and 7th of November 2014, the PMC teachers were trained to prepare and use some innovative teaching aids. Also, all of the teaching aids prepared at DSS Training Center were displayed for the teachers to see. The teachers were impressed with these teaching aids and requested to teach making and using them. However, it was not possible to cover all teaching aids in one day. The teachers told that they would approach their seniors to extend the scope of this training.

The Shikshan Mandal has launched a new project - Shikshak Sahayogi (Education Associates) - with help of Pune Municipal Corporation, Corporates and NGO’s in Pune. The objectives are to improve quality of education and to achieve goals of cleanliness and digital literacy. These Education Associates are supposed to be responsible for improving teaching methods of teachers. They are supposed to conduct training workshops for 2,500 school teachers and to develop teaching methods in the classrooms to support each teacher. In accordance with these objectives, the Education Associates are undergoing trainings at various organisations.

As a part of this project, the Shikshan Mandal approached Parivartan Training Center of Door Step School for training all these Education Associates. Accordingly, a training session was organised for 80 Education Associates on 22nd of September, 2015. The trainers from Parivartan Training Center conducted this training in three groups.

The First Steps Forward Programme, which is run by Door Step School in PMC and PCMC schools with an objective to improve reading abilities of 1st Standard students, was explained in detail during this training. The Education Associates were trained on using innovative learning resources to make reading a fun activity, eventually growing the children’s interest in it and improving their reading skills. Some of the activities and games covered under this training were -
  • Butterfly tool for alphabets and Heads-and-Tails tool for composite letters;
  • Cross and Circle Game;
  • Musical Chair Game;
  • The Lost Letter Game;
  • The Mango Game;
  • Passing The Parcel Game;
  • Talyat-Malyat (Water-and-Land) Game;
  • Sasaa-Sasaana (Rabbit-and-Falcon) Game;
  • The Bangle Game;
  • Tikli Maarun Jaave Game, etc.


All of the Education Associates were involved in making these teaching aids and playing above-mentioned games. Even corresponding notes were distributed for their future reference. These notes will be helpful during training of school teachers.

Trainers’ Remarks -
  • Providing proper guidance to teachers is the key to improve existing education system. Parivartan Training Center of Door Step School is happy to be part of this initiative by Shikshan Mandal.
  • The trainers are hoping that the trainees will use the knowledge and skills learnt during this training, for the benefit of school teachers and eventually the students.
  • The trainees asked for help in making teaching aids for Urdu. Since Door Step School does not teach this language, this request could not be worked upon. However, it highlights the need of such innovative tools in teaching any language.

Training Feedback from Education Associates -
  • The trainees felt that this training would be useful for developing reading skills in students from 1st to 4th Standard.
  • Since the training was interactive and was based on activities and games, the trainees never felt it boring, rather they enjoyed every moment of it.
  • The trainees felt that use of teaching aids and learning through games would help students understand and remember what they have learnt.
  • The trainees insisted upon making all the teaching aids that were put on display during the training.
  • The Education Associates mentioned that it would take long for them to reach every teacher in the concerned schools, hence organizing a direct DSS-to-Teacher training would be more helpful. That would help more efficient and immediate implementation of innovative teaching methods developed by DSS.
  • The trainees asked for guidance upon using teaching aids for students from 5th to 7th Standard.
  • The trainees requested for help in teaching Urdu.
  • The Education Associates also suggested to prepare games for teaching Maths.

- Contributed by Chaitrali, Parivartan Training Center of Door Step School

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Book Fair for Children

A Book Fair was organized by Door Step School on 26th of August at a Pune Municipal Corporation’s School in Kothrud area. We are very happy to say that it was a success. The children enjoyed the fair. It had 8 stalls showcasing various reading materials like around 50 different newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines published for children, numerous books, rare books lent by Pune Marathi Granthalaya, etc. There were interactive stalls where students tried their hands at art and craft, and also used few Maths learning tools. Small scientific experiments were also demonstrated to the children. There was a stall where stories were told using puppets.

Highlights of the Event:

* Students from nearby schools also visited the book fair. Similarly, teachers from Warje, Dhayarigaon, Karvenagar and Ramnagar PMC schools attended the fair. Some students had brought their parents along. More than 1,400 students, 78 parents, 17 teachers from various schools, and all the teachers of Digambarwadi PMC School visited the book fair.

* We would like to appreciate the children from our CG’s who helped us in organizing the fair. CG from Ramnagar PMC School had come to visit the fair. After going back to their school, they convinced their class teacher to send the entire 7th standard for the fair. They themselves brought these children.

* A physically challenged girl from Karvenagar PMC School, who moves around in a wheelchair and cannot speak properly, was so determined to visit the book fair that her father took leave from his work and brought her to the fair along with the mother and two other girls from neighbouring house.

* Teachers from Digambarwadi PMC School walked down around 122 children to visit the book fair.

Children trying their hand at paper folding

Stall displaying variety of books

Children trying to solve questionnaire based on calendar

Children trying a hand at Maths kit



Friday, September 25, 2015

DSS Children at Pune Festival 2015


Twenty children from Door Step School participated in "Pune Festival" this year. These children are from Educational Activity Centers at various construction sites from Sus Road area.

The Pune Festival is jointly organized by the people of Pune, Pune Festival Committee, Department of Tourism (Government of India) & Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). On the occasion of Ganeshotsav, Pune Festival provides a good platform for artists and performers to showcase their talents before larger audience.

"Ugavate Taare" (Rising Stars) is a part of Pune Festival, which brings out hidden potential of children from various sections of the society. This year, DSS children performed "Lezim" - a folk dance form from Maharashtra - in Ugavate Taare at Balgandharva Rangamandir on 20th of September 2015. Their performance was excellent and the level of their confidence while moving on the stage was commendable, considering very little time they had to practice for their performance.

Door Step School Coordinator, Swati Shende took special efforts in making this platform available for these children.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Art Session for DSS Children - Vibha Volunteers' Initiative

Vibha, Pune​ volunteers conducted a session with Door Step School​ Site at Balewadi to introduce kids with Warli painting. Most of the kids used brush and colors first time and the results were magical!

Thanks to the awesome team Khushboo Bali, Shraddha Trivedi​ Gajbar, Mangal Pandey, Nav Kush, Ankita, and Swati.

Thanks to Kanika Gupta for the beautiful photographs.

Contributed by - Anjeli Singh​, Vibha Volunteer

Let's begin




Volunteer Khushboo giving Warli lessons to kids

Classroom




Shraddha Trivedi giving art lessons to kids





The teacher and the student



First day at school.



Volunteers









Volunteer Mangal playing with kids