Education is an important aspect in one’s life which illuminates a person’s mind and thinking. It helps children think, feel and behave in a way that contributes to their success.
In order to achieve this, Parahitam took an initiative at an orphanage “Balya” to teach children basic education and help them to connect with people comfortably.
A Prayer
Prayer is a way to teach children to turn to God for wisdom and guidance. Hence Parahitam volunteers started their every event at Balya with recitation of Guru Ashtakam. Composed by the legendary Adi Shankaracharya, the Guru Ashtakam a devotional song beseeches the spiritual seeker to bow down to the Lotus Feet of the Guru.
The children at Balya are given a copy of Guru Ashtakam. Whenever we visit them, we start our day with praying. Together we sing Guru Ashtakam. Below is the glimpse of children reciting the shlokam.
A Quick Introduction in English
It’s easy to see just how important English is nowadays. However, our objective was not to teach them English because it is quite a difficult task for them to grasp them all of a sudden. Therefore, we planned a quick introduction session with kids that is how to greet a person when we meet, how to interact with the people, how to discuss in a group in English. We taught them very few lines like -“Hello!”, “How are you?”, “What are you doing?” and we also taught them how to reply to these questions in response. The children genuinely tried.
Unsung Heroes of India
Freedom Fighters has to be told to children because they inspire and motivate to fight injustice . The children at Balya was not aware of our Unsung Heroes of India who fought for freedom and justice. We narrated a life story of Indian socialist Revolutionary fighter Batukeshwar Dutt who played a major role during the British rule .
Few Other Stories
In one of our event at Balya ,we narrated stories of Baji Prabhu Deshpande who was a commander of Shivaji of Maratha Empire. The commander Prabhu was the hero who sacrificed his life for his king escape from fort .
Besides we also narrated the story of The Great Ashoka who was an Indian Emperor .He spread Buddhism and treated his subjects humanely after conquest of thousands of killings. The children learnt the lessons of bravery and sacrifice which inspired them a lot.
Group Discussion
It is very important to teach children about speaking in Public . They overcome fear and gain confidence when they can easily talk with people .We planned a group discussion in one of our event . The children were made into groups . Topics were given to kids .We helped them with framing the sentences for their discussion .They were able to discuss more conveniently in their well know language . Hence we did not impose them to use English .Our main aim was to build confidence while they speak and to enhance their thinking abilities . They totally enjoyed this !
