"The Keyboard Sir"

Abhijay Malviya, Bronze Award holder from The British School, New Delhi is sharing his transforming experience. My name is Abhijay and I’m from the British School, New Delhi. The Award Programme has dramatically changed my personality in many ways. During my Bronze Award journey I continued learning the piano and passed with a merit in my Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exam. I played basketball three times a week and participated in the academy level tournament. Moreover, I went on an Adventurous Journey to Southern India, where I cycled long distances and participated in many activities, such as rappelling to name a few. However, the most transforming experience was at a school for the underprivileged children at Saksham Bal Vikas, an NGO in Gurgaon. The parents of the students in the school are mostly workers and street stall owners, who don’t have the money to send their wards to school. I believe that the under privileged in the country need to be educated so that India can grow as a modern nation, and institutions like this should be set up everywhere. What I learnt from interacting with these children is that they are extremely optimistic with big ideas, but did not have the available opportunities to follow their ideas before joining school. Since this school was already teaching academics, I decided to show them another side to the coin, the side they had great desire for and where they could really express their creativity: Music. On the first day, they were very excited to see my keyboard. To cope with the excitement I taught them the basics of composition, a move which would not have been the best at an early stage but I couldn't take the risk of boring them with some theoretical knowledge! They even started calling me ‘Keyboard Sir’. Overall their happiness along with the driving determination for success really made me reflect on my own life, and if I have to take away one learning experience from this, it would be to appreciate what’s given and stay focused to capitalize on opportunities. Click for pictures

Everyone deserves help - Residential Project report

Coming from the busy bustling life of Mumbai, my visit to the Navjyoti India Foundation and India Vision Foundation was an eye opener and a surreal experience. Both these organizations founded by Ms. Kiran Bedi focus on educating rural folk and prison inmates respectively.

Located on the outskirts of New Delhi, Bawana is a small rural village that houses the Navjyoti India Foundation.  On the first day of the International Award for Young People, we had a healthy discussion with Mr. Sunny Nagpal and Mrs. Vaishali about the aim and vision of the trust. We made a schedule of the next ten days and divided ourselves into groups of two. The Navjyoti India Foundation had adopted certain centres in the village to promote academic learning.   We taught science, math, English, Hindi and various sports to the children. 

During my time there, I was amazed by the enthusiasm of the children. Our lectures included math -- Roman numerals, tables , even and odd numbers; science -- recognition of basic animals, pollution, gravity; English and Hindi -- the alphabet, words and sentence construction; sports -- making a rulebook for cricket. I was astounded when I asked a girl what she does at home, and she replied, "I go to other people's houses and teach them what I learn during the day." Through this medium, the children spread knowledge across the village. We also understood that some of them had problems with the basic concepts and so gave them some extra time and taught these concepts again.

The main highlight was a cricket tournament that was organized by us. We divided both boys and girls in four teams, with each team having two SIS students. We first taught our teammates the proper batting stances, bowling techniques and catching practice. Everyone was very excited and gave their best and Palash's and Rohan's team won the tournament. After so much interaction with the kids we had formed a special bond with them.

And the icing on the cake was our last day visit to the Bhondsi Jail, Gurgaon. It was here that we saw how India Vision Foundation works. They teach arts and crafts to the children of the women inmates who are too young and stay with their mothers. For men, they have computers too. The men inmates performed a dance for us and then we also joined them later for a few steps. This is done so that they don't remain idle and once they are released, their minds aren't distracted. I was very impressed by their methods of teaching and their approach for achieving their aims. This Residential Project under International Award for Young People made me appreciate the privileges I enjoy. The NIF and IVF model is revolutionary, something that can be replicated easily. The children I came across were curious to learn and eager to imbibe knowledge. The process of upliftment is slow; it would take generations for rural children to overcome their circumstances. My time at NIF and IVF also taught me a lot about myself and will always stay with me for life!

- ROHAN MEHTA, (Gold Aspirant, Singapore International School, Mumbai), GRADE 12 

Making learning fun

Community service has been an integral part of the various activities done at Uttam School for Girls, Ghaziabad. Serving the community also has a positive effect on the personal development of the students. It provides opportunities for students to become active & positive contributors to society. 

Under the “International Award for Young People” programme the students were actively involved in community service during summer vacations during which they taught English, communication skills, computer skills and basic etiquettes to the children from Sewa Samarpan.

The students of the school have displayed exemplary leadership qualities by planning, organising and executing all the programmes effectively. Their sincerity and dedication to provide knowledge to the children has been commendable. They used visual aids like videos and books to give grammar knowledge & help the children in spoken English. There were a number of counselling and interaction sessions that made the children comfortable and that facilitated them to speak confidently.  

Learning was also made an enjoyable experience for the children by showing movies and biopics giving self motivating messages. They were also involved in learning music and dance. Children enjoyed the sports activities like relay race, athletics and other ball games. There was a quiz session on social issues and the children also spoke about the importance of educating girls. Assessments were designed to evaluate and adopt other strategies that could make the programme more effective for the next lot of IAYP participants.

The helpers from Uttam School for Girls also had an active participation in the programme. They diligently took part in all the activities and put in efforts to improve their own communication skills. Overall a friendly and open atmosphere was created for the children that made learning a memorable experience for them.

Bringing the Shine Back to the Shrine

One of the biggest impact of that global climate change has been on historical monuments in India, in last fourteen years (from 1998 to 2012) Indian army has spent around 450 crores rupees in Kashmir under their ‘Sadbhavna’ project, which includes money spent on restoration of shrines and local places of worship.

From the fact mentioned above it is clear, Indian government spends lot of the tax money on restoration and renovation projects. So to contribute this cause GEMS NPS International School’s Bronze Award participants decided to pick up the task of renovating, cleaning and painting a 600-year-old shrine Shri Shri Damodar Dev Satra located in the village Patbausi in Assam. 

The shrine was destroyed in 1964 earthquake and was repaired by then Chief Minister of Assam and since then the shrine was left without any care. As part of the service activity of the IAYP Award programme, the students have volunteered to render their service to bring the shrine back to its glory.