Okhrey-Barsey Expedition by the Participants of DPS Megacity

The Award participants of DPS Megacity, Kolkata visited the Okhrey village in Sikkim for their Adventurous Journey section of the Award Programme. Mr. Atanu Chatterjee shares insights on the journey of the participants and narrates how it enlightened them.

The Award participants of DPS Megacity, Kolkata set off for Okhrey village in West Sikkim for a 5-day long expedition from 11th to 16th March 2019. Considered to be the base camp for one who is keen to visit the wonderful Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, Okhrey is situated at about 7200 feet and offers a great opportunity to witness the splendid diversity of nature.

We boarded the NJP Shatabdi Express from Howrah station and reached Siliguri on 11th March. After a night’s stay at Siliguri, we started for our destination and reached Okhrey via Jorethang by lunch time. After an hour's rest, we started the first day’s acclimatization trek to Okhrey Government School, and the trek became more strenuous with increasing altitude. The next morning saw the participants waking up at 6 a.m. for a warm up session and then being taken to Hiley - the entry point of Barsey Wildlife Sanctuary. The journey to Guras Kunj, which was 5 km away, started with a briefing session where the instructors explained the concept and importance of safety and helped the participants comprehend different equipment. The students saw different varieties of rhododendron and numerous chirping birds during the trek through the thick jungle trail and finally reached Guras Kunj. The temperature was around 2 degree Centigrade and everyone was enraptured by the breathtaking view of Kanchenjunga. Having had lunch in Guras Kunj, the participants headed towards Hiley, where they engaged in a session, learning about rope knots and camp craft in the evening. Next morning, after warm up and early breakfast, the participants began their third day’s trek to a very old monastery in Okhrey. They also visited the Okhrey Government School for a cultural exchange programme, where they put up some lovely performances. The participants also experienced a thoroughly challenging yet blissful session of rappelling and had a lot of fun during the campfire in the evening. Next day after breakfast, we began our retreat journey to Siliguri and boarded the Howrah Shatabdi Express.

This Adventurous Journey was a thrilling experience for the participants; one that helped them build their confidence by exposing them to a different environment altogether. It helped them mould themselves according to the needs of the environment and then push themselves to excel in that very environment. Through intense and mild activities, the participants tested themselves, building themselves into stronger and more self-assured individuals.

“THE GOLD IS NOT THE END”

Sulagna Sarkar is a Gold Award participant of Sri Sri Academy, who sees her Award journey as a metamorphosis. Having gathered life-changing experiences, she recalls her journey, sharing insights on how personal growth came about for her.

The concept of the Award Programme is essentially that of individual challenge; giving young people a balanced, non-competitive programme of voluntary activities which encourage personal discovery and growth, self-reliance, perseverance, responsibility to themselves and service to their community. In this almost magical process of self-discovery, you encounter failures numerous times. The story of my Gold Award, too, is strewn with failures. However, it is through these failures that I have emerged successful. My failures attempted to hold me at the Bronze level but my desire to achieve the Gold Award kept me pushing through.

As part of the Adventurous Journey section of the Bronze level of the Award, I undertook an adventure trek with Juniper Wings to Panchalingeshwar, Odisha. Back then, the scorching heat and the barren lands made the trek to ShikharMinar seemed as harrowing as crossing the Sahara. While rappelling, I faced a crucial challenge when my shoes came off and socks tore midway up the rock but nonetheless, I managed to climb to the top barefoot. For my Service that year, we visited an old age home and interacted with its residents. Through my interaction with them in Bangla, my mother tongue, which I happen to be proficient in, I felt some latent treasures inside me being unearthed.

Signing up for the Silver level, even though most of my contemporaries were not, was challenging but totally worth the ride. So there I was, in Tumling, Nepal, with Juniper Wings again. The trek this time was actually much tougher than we could ever have envisaged. It was 12 kilometers from Manebhanjang and was situated at an altitude of 12000 ft. This time, we had some luck while bird watching in the Singalila National Park and on our trek to Tonglu. As part of the Service section that year, I took part in various cleanliness drives, anti-plastic campaigns, visited old age homes, taught underprivileged children near my community and helped spread awareness about waste segregation on a domestic level.

Making it to the Gold level of the Award Programme was like a far-fetched dream that miraculously came true. I had to undertake harder challenges and engage in doing service activities for a longer time while keeping track of my skills and activities. The final trip was to Uttarakhand with Trailblazers and was undebatably the best trip that I have ever had. Fifteen participants accompanied by two teachers were left to venture out in the wilderness of the Devbhumi. The activities that we engaged in like valley crossing, jummaring, rappelling, bridge slithering, stream walking, free floating, body surfing and kayaking were, simply put, spine-chilling. Our trainers took immense care of our safety when we were engrossed in having fun. For the Service part, we visited a local primary school in Jayalgarh and a village where we interacted with young brimming minds about their education and the residents about the hardships of their lives. However, the unique aspect of undertaking a residential project in the Gold level of the Award made me experience the true essence of the Award through living a controlled life in an unfamiliar environment.

The journey of my Award, which lasted for four years, has given me great experiences to recall and beautiful memories to cherish. I learnt to face my fears, push my limits and strengthen my will. Not only have I grown into a compassionate yet fearless human being, I have also felt the need to undertake challenges and move out of my comfort zone to achieve what I previously felt was unachievable. There is no mountain too high or a valley too deep or a river too wide or a storm too dark - it is just a matter of time and struggle that we emerge victorious. Gold is not the end for me; I have way more miles to walk. But it gives me immense pleasure to say that I am a component of the Award Programme who has had her teachers, parents, peers, juniors and the IAYP family walking that extra mile with her.

IAYP Conducts Training Workshop at the Award Training Centre, New Delhi

On April 5 and 6, 2019, a training workshop was conducted at the Award Training Centre, International Award for Young People, New Delhi. Among the team members of IAYP who were part of the workshop were Mr. Kapil Bhalla - the National Director, Mr. Bivujit Mukhoty - the Programme Manager, and Ms. Pallavi Gill - the Programme Officer. The workshop aimed to highlight the philosophy, structure and benefits of the Award, strengthening the knowledge base of the Award Leaders about the ideology of the Award.

IAYP congratulates the following Award Leaders on attending and successfully completing the their Award Leader Training:

The Galaxy School, Wadi- Girishkumar Seshadri Rao, Vishal Vijaybhai Doshi, Patel Heta Harsh, Mayuri Mahendrabhai Pandya and Bharmal Sakina Jainuddin

Indus International School, Pune- Rohit Jude Pingfu and Rajiv Bali

Sreenidhi International School, Hyderabad - Sai Mounika Murarisetti

KC International School, Jammu- Poonam Bhagat and Radhu Gupta

Birla Public School, Pilani- Kapil Marhetta, Piyush Kumar and Preeti Sharma

GD Goenka International School, Naukuchiatal- Puneet Bisht

KD Ambani Vidyamandir, Jamnagar- Suhas Kohale and Vaishali Ingle.

JBCN International School, Mumbai- Prameela Satish and Marx Francis Gomes

Nahar International School, Mumbai- Nikita Bhan

Chatrabhuj Narsee School, Mumbai- Gowda Lata Jagdish and Kateshiya Rajesh Ramniklal

Such workshops are stepping stones in IAYP’s stride to build aware and able young people, who can make productive use of their capabilities. In its stride to be an all-inclusive platform that provides opportunities for individual as well as growth of a community and to charge young minds with passion, such workshops take the Award Leaders through the Award’s framework, guiding them towards becoming approachable and committed mentors to young people.

The Trail of an Insightful Journey

The Silver Award participants of Sri Sri Academy, Kolkata, together with their Award Leaders, visited Jayalgarh for their Adventurous Journey. By falling and getting up again, they gained not just experiences but the true essence of life.

On 1st October, 2018, 15 Silver Award participants accompanied by two Award Leaders ventured into the wilderness of Devbhumi, Uttarakhand, as part of their Adventurous Journey section.

We commenced the journey by departing from Kolkata and reaching Delhi, from where we boarded the Nandadevi Express to reach Jayalgarh, our campsite. When we reached Haridwar at the crack of dawn, we boarded the bus to Jayalgarh, located at a distance of about 110 kms from Haridwar. On reaching Jayalgarh, we were allocated our tents. With heightened anticipation, we undertook our first adventure activity called ‘valley crossing’ in which we had to slide on a zipline with proper safety equipment. What followed next was ‘stream walking’ that required us to walk against the stream in our floater sandals. We then went to Malitha village on foot for ‘rappelling’. Rappelling is a descending technique widely used in mountaineering, which involves the use of ropes, helmets, harnesses, figure of eight descender and other equipment. After acing this, we came back to our campsite and had a fun-filled self cooking session, which was followed by a plethora of team games. We had some time to ourselves for reflecting on the activities done on that day, where we recorded the details of the activities done.

On the next day, the fog had encompassed the camp and the peaks of the snow clad mountains looked like some ethereal world untouched by man. Our day started with morning exercise, which was followed by ‘free floating’ and ‘body surfing’. We were then taught ‘kayaking’ by the authorised mountaineers and dive masters who have been in this profession for a decade and more. Post lunch we went to a local primary school for service. We spent around two hours interacting, teaching, playing and singing with the young students there. We also interacted with the villagers and learnt about their challenges. This was followed by a jumaring session which is another widely used technique for ascending a mountain. It mainly involves the use of a jumar and other equipment such as ropes, harnesses and helmets.

We then trekked up the hill to a sunset point through the wild outgrowths where we did some bird watching and observed the diversity of flora there. We walked back to our campsite and engaged ourselves in team games like volleyball and a diary writing session. After dinner, we had the much awaited part of our tour, the bonfire night, coupled with ghost stories. The following day saw us engaging in a meditation session. Then, we proceeded to the Malitha Bridge for bridge slithering, which was yet another spine-chilling activity and the last one of our journey. The day concluded with a prize distribution ceremony, followed by a vote of thanks for the organisers. The next day, with sad hearts and a plethora of memories to cherish, we boarded our bus, which took us to Dehradun from where our retreat to Kolkata began.

Orientation at Coimbatore

Pallavi Gill, Programme Officer visited Coimbatore from the 31st of March to the 2nd of April 2019. The three-day visit to Coimbatore began with an ORB Orientation with Aldin Anthony Montaut, Award Leader, Global Pathways School (GPS), Coimbatore on the 31st of March. The Orientation commenced with discussions on how to Register as an Award Leader and Participant, followed by discussions on how participants can choose their activities and fill in their logs. The session ended with an overview of the Award Leaders ORB responsibilities, the ways of assessing and tracking a participant’s progress in the ORB.

The second day, the 1st of April 2019, began with an inspection of Diaries of the young Award participants of GPS and a discussion on how to fill in logs in each of the sections. During the afternoon Pallavi Gill and Mr. Montaut went on a Community visit to the student’s villages to view the social environment and the impact the young participants have made in their community. The second day concluded with an Award Orientation for the participants of GPS. The orientations commenced with a Q&A session where Award Participants shared their views, experiences and any queries that they had regarding the Award. The orientation then began with an introduction to the Award Programme, the philosophy of the Award and its framework. The orientation elaborated on the Voluntary Service, Skills, Physical Recreation, Adventurous Journey and the Gold Residential Project. The session concluded with discussions on the benefits of the Award Programme and its power to bring about a difference in the lives of young people.

The 2nd of April began with an Award Orientation for the mentors at GPS in the morning. The Orientation introduced the Award Programme, the framework and the philosophy of the Award. Followed by an in dept discussion on, the Voluntary Service, Skills, Physical Recreation, Adventurous Journey and the Gold Residential Project. The session concluded with discussions on the benefits of the Award and responsibilities of a mentor.

During the afternoon, Pallavi Gill visited CS Academy, Coimbatore where the young participants resolved their queries regarding the Award. The discussion was concluded with discussions on the benefits of the Award, ideas for Service projects and the experiences of the Award Participants, on their recently concluded their Adventurous Journey. (Report next week, stay tuned!)