ANIKETANA

Responding to the ‘learning loss’ that many children have experienced since the C-19 lockdown and school closure, we initiated a bridge program for teachers and our team members to be trained. Berty Olivera and Ritesh were the resource persons. Based on the ‘LSRW’ (listening, speaking, reading and writing) approach they trained the team to provide child-centric inputs to learning. Since then, the weekly Saturday classes at PUNARCHITH also provide inputs to enable the children to catch up with their school and formal learning needs.

The Saturday children’s program continues with new activities and support provided for the regular children. Summer workshops on art and theatre, and visits to various to Mysore (zoo), to Honnemathi (nature interpretation centre), and a health check were made during 2023-24.

In 2023, H. Suma and Sucheetra Srinivasan initiated ‘Socio-Emotional Learning’ (SEL) activities for the adolescents in the Aniketana program. Thirteen adolescents from Nagavalli and Kullur participate in this program and the impact has been remarkable; the adolescents are more communicative and confident, and their abilities to work in collaboratively, and to undertake various responsibilities has improved. Along with the adolescents from Tumkur, a group of 14 youth have participated in the sports-based leadership training program at Honnemardu. Funds from the Endowments Funds are also used to provide scholarships to six deserving children so as to enable them to continue their high school or college education.

Based on a review of the children’s program and in attempting to cater to the needs of some of the most disadvantaged children in Nagavalli village, we have initiated some additional support activities. While a small group of children meets nearly every evening and engages with Vinay on a variety of topics, the older ones get to go on bird watching and nature awareness walks. 

THE CHILDREN’S PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED BY YUVA LOK FOUNDATION, BENGALURU

The Saturday programme and activities for children has continued over much of the year, except the months of February to April due to the covid situation. Compensating for their absence over these months, we distributed dry rations of pulses, jaggery, and oil to the children so as to supplement their nutrition. In addition, assessing the ‘learning loss’ that many children were experiencing, we requested Berty Olivera and Ratish of Mysuru to develop a teachers’ training programme to help address such learning loss. The training programme included not only PUNARCHITH team members but also15 teachers from various schools. Berty and Ratish drew on activity-based methodologies to enable teachers to assess, engage and encourage children to learn basics. Children from Nagavalli participated in these training sessions and later learning groups were formed to follow up and support their learning levels. We are particularly pleased that eight of the children who attend the Saturday programme are now keen gardeners and have started to cultivate their own small vegetable gardens.

Geetha and Yathish in Tumkuru, and Mahendra in Kullur village have continued to engage in community activities. Geetha and Yathish (who work under the close supervision and support of Chitra and Prashanth) continue to do stellar work. They have motivated 18 children, from ages 8 to 17, to participate in various activities such as tree planting, gardening, clearing garbage etc in their areas. In addition, the children have been taught to make short videos about various issues in their region and they have now started to upload these to YouTube channel – Hakki Pakka Makkala Balaga.