Rejoice and shine

Children’s day programme.

Children’s Day in India which celebrates every 14 November, the birthday of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. To give tribute, India celebrates this festival with great enthusiasm every year. Happy birthday to Jawaharnal Nehru ji

                                                                 special day! 

How great is our God that put us in places to glory his name and serve him.

Playing and celebrating  with slum kids makes me delight in the Lord for giving me this opportunity.

The main event of the day were

1.       50 meter race age   4 to 6 girls and boys

2.       Candy race age 3 to 6

3.       Burst the balloons for all the younger kids.

Purpose

Each child is a gift of God with special abilities and talents.  We strive to provide the environment in which these unique qualities may be developed to their fullest potential.

 It was such fun to do all the activities with the kids at the slums but it really makes me think about their environment. Most of them were out in garbage dumps and sorting out things to sell before coming along to participate in some fun. An example of what some children have to do:

One boy was burning something so he could sort out metal and iron. I am not sure what it was but I felt sad to see him doing this as black smoke was all around him.

Well I started the programme. I saw kids were ready to run the races and participate in the events but most of them were barefoot and without proper dress, most were just in shorts and its getting cold now.

I am sure God is keeping them safe in this environment.

The most encouraging thing today for me was to see kids parents coming and watching their kids play and shout for them as they started to run the race.

So as quite a few parents had gathered I asked them if I should have a race for them too so they also got a chance to run the race.

At the end of the day we had small gifts to give them as 1,2,3 prizes ( thanks to my dear uncle and aunty  for blessing us).

So our kids really enjoyed clapping and shouting when prize distribution was done.

As a teacher yesterday I was busy with the students out on a picnic so I had to postpone my plans for today.

I know most of the kids don’t go to school on functions because they don’t have appropriate dress and  shoes so they are left out of the school programs.

So I tried to do something for the kids who miss school and for the one who don’t go to school.

Draw what you like and Jungle Book part 2

Wednesday:

Sorry I missed last week because I was busy with school work as it’s exam time. Missed being in the slum.

As soon as I got there the children were complaining, ‘why didn’t you come last week?’, but I was not able to explain everything to them.

With in 15 minutes we had got around 30 kids around but then we had to wait because Shanker had left the sheets at the shop where we get photocopies made. Shanker went to get the sheets which gave me time to talk with the kids.

It was so nice to talk with the kids and let them share about their lives, what they did all day and most important why they don’t go to school?

( I am praying for the kids to go to school.)

Mean while Shanker came and distributed the sheets and asked them to draw what they like.

The things I observed:

Shubhas had finished his sheet earlier so he was talking with me. I asked him to show me his house so went with him to his house which was locked. He didn’t have keys with him.I guess most of the time kids don’t know where their parents are and parents don’t know where their kids are, what they are doing etc.

Merga, a girl who is very different in her ways in talking with me. She is the one who said, ‘ I will not come to study today’. She does not go to school in the day time and in the evening she goes to pick up trash etc. I asked her if she would like to study regularly. She was so happy, I could see it in her face I. don’t know where this idea came from in my mind, but I asked her if there was any shop nearby where she could get a  copy (notebook) and pencil .She said yes so I went with her to the shop and we got her copy and pencil. I asked her to write in hindi all the alphabet that she knows.

Seenkeys mother said hello to me and she asked me,’ bhiya (brother) ji please give her a beating or spanking, she does not go to school’.  I asked her mother why she does not go? She said she tries to send her but her teacher beats her that’s why she doesn’t go to school in day time. She helps her mother and also goes picking trash with Merga.

 The most difficult part was when I was talking with Beguns mother (the deaf and dumb little boy). She was worried because her elder daughter had not come home from picking up trash with one of the neighbours’ girls. I told herI would look after Begun and she should go and look for her daughter. She went to Sailaqui to the shop where they sell all the trash they collect.

In the end the kids asked me to pay kho-kho with them so I started the game and left them playing.I went and asked Beguns aunty to look after him till his mother came back.   

Thursday :

Jungle Book part 2

Its was the time to show them a movie. I thought would be a good time to see how much they are interested in watching movies. It was not easy to find a place where I could show them movie but thanks to one of the kids parents  were able to use his house even though it was not enough space there, and most hard, they all don’t have electricity.

I think we were around 30 to 35 kids watching Jungle book in the small house and they all enjoyed it.

After this I went with my little friends Shubhash and Minto to the place where they sell their trash which they collect all day .They both don’t go to school. It was so interesting to see them separating iron, plastic, paper etc and them measuring the weight and getting paid. Now the next task is to guide them how to use the money correctly. I did have to tell them to give money to their parents but as I was talking with the shopkeeper who buys things from them, he was telling me that they never give money to their parents but they just misuse it in tobacco or eat what ever they feel like.I am going back tomorrow to show them this movie again as they were not there today..Went to talk with Beguns mother she told me her daughter went to her relatives in the other slum yesterday and came late from there.

Please keep us in your prayers

 

When movie time was over I gave some home work to write alphabets in hindi   and English. I wrote a few alphabets for them and they have to copy it merga, pinkey, preeti and other kids got  their copies.I had asked them to get themselves a copy which they have to show me and do work when they come to me. I was so happy to see how they want to learn more and more.

( TOBACCO KILLS.) Math Worksheet, Guvava man, Ice cream seller.

As I was on my way to the slum I saw Rajan riding his cycle. He stopped and I asked where he was heading to?

Rajan had told me before that he is persuing a basic computer course. He was going for his computer class and I was so glad to see him going. I asked him if I could come and see which place he goes to. I went with hi but I didn’t stay very long because I had to be in the slum on time to do the math activity today.

While coming back I met Shinknader and few other kids from the slum walking back after rag picking in the afternoon. Yesterday I had seen Shikander  the market. I wanted to say hello to him but he just ran away and ignored me like he disn’t know me, I felt bad. So it was good that I met him so I could tell him this.

 Math Worksheet – put appropriate sign ( >, < or =) between the numbers. To do this I told them a story like a hungry crocodile opens his mouth and closes his mouth with actions.

Hun it was very hard to explain this to them as they only like to do more coloring but then they had to make a sign too, but some of them got it.

 Guvava man:  ---Worksheet activity keeps them busy but today this man road vendor was around again selling guavas. I though that he always gave away left overs to these slum kids but the fact is that he asked them to bring rags or anything that can be recycled or sold.  He would trade them for guavas. He always doing  business.

Girls off collecting rags- when I was coming back I met a few of the kids who had not come to me but were going back for rag picking .They also were trying to hide from me. I asked them why they didn’t come she answered that they  were late. So I took a sheet out  of my bag and said tomorrow I want them back coloured.

Ice cream seller:--- one of the oldest boys who lives in the slum was near an ice cream stand, he shouted, ‘ bhiya’ (brother)  and I was like what are you doing here? He told me he is selling ice creams. Mean while he was eating Gutkah the mouth tobacco so I told him not to eat this DIlbag and said it was not good for him. He told me he eats like 12-15 pouches daily. I asked him if he knew any thing about cancer?  I asked him to pick one packet from the ground and read what it says. ( TOBACCO KILLS. Tobacco causes cancer) .

I asked him if it was just for time pass he eat it. He said, ‘no my throat gets dry so I keep eating this which helps me and my mind stops working if I don’t eat it’.

 I told him he should leave it other wise he would end up having mouth cancer.I explained he  would not see the effects right now but soon he would if he disn’tt stop eating it. He said he would try.

Then I went to see Rajan in his computer class and talked with his computer class. Got more information about him like what is the fee, what will you teach in this course etc.

Thank you very much for  reading and taking interest in this work, please do keep us in your prayers.

Prodigal son.

 Wednesday

Last week it was fun time. I told them the story about a prodigal son from the bible in Hindi. All the kids were in a small circle. The story was explained to them and I gave examples. It was so nice to hear one child shout ‘sugar’ when I was telling them that he was feeding the pigs. In Hindi it is called suver but this young  boy was saying sugar .lol 

After the story time I got all the kids in a line and distributed them in two teams to play foot ball match for last 20 mins. It was so hard to control them especially when the big trucks were coming around.

Both the teams had fun.

Then on Thursday I took some worksheets based on the prodigal son for colouring, I did a very shot summary of the story before they started colouring the sheet in groups.

Today I went  with waste paper  with which we made  around  50 airplanes and asked them to colour it as they wanted .After this they  had a race to see whose plane would fly  the longest. Over all it was such fun with all the kids. Please keep these kids in you prayers..

The things I observed. Subhash a 12 year old boy came to me said, ‘bhiya I have won 200 rupies today’. I asked him how he won them. No other way but by playing juva ( gambling) with other boys.

I asked him what he would do with it? He told me he would give it to his mother.

I sat down with him and suggested that he should think about admission to a school and explained to him that what he is doing is not good for him. I had a good talk with him. I pray that he takes my advice and makes changes in his life.

Today Subhash and two other boys were a great help to me in making airplanes.