Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

“It would have otherwise been a holiday and I had my plans. Then, I am informed that I have to make it to the school. I was in for a surprise and most definitely a pleasant one! Working on holidays was never such fun!”

…Arti, VI, RJRN Deepalaya School

Second Saturdays do make a certain difference to any regular school-goer. They mean meetings, and meetings mean discussion over one’s performance and how it can be improved. In other words, one more of the usual dreary meetings! But here was one with a difference. Students of Ramditti J R Narang Deepalaya School did not know that a fun filled day was coming their way, when they were called to attend the school on a holiday.

The occasion was CITI Group’s II India Community Day, which is a regular feature of their Corporate Social Responsibility activity. A group of 30 volunteers from Mumbai and Delhi branches of various CITI divisions visited the school and undertook some novel activities. The students thoroughly enjoyed the innovative approach which combined entertainment with learning.

“It’s like revisiting my own childhood”, said Faaroqui from CITIBANK, who was visiting Deepalaya for the first time. Displaying the beautiful chart he had painted for the children, he delighted in having struck a chord with the children. “It makes me feel like I’ve made a contribution to the society, added Arunima, who along with Faaroqui had written a poem called ‘Let’s Sing and Dance’ beckoning the world to live with peace and harmony. The theme for the paint brushes revolved around national integrity, equality of religions universal brotherhood and respect for the National Flag and the Anthem.

Students were involved in a variety of activities. While some made pictorial and textual charts which were to be used as learning material, others were involved in either cataloguing the library books or in the decoration of the classrooms. Vinod from CITI Advocacy and Quality team while talking of their efforts to organize the books so that any one can easily access them, said, “When I last visited the school, I saw books lying here and there and understood that was one reason why not many children read them. I felt the need was to properly catalogue and arrange the books. The Principal also readily accepted our proposal to catalogue the books and systematically arrange them on the shelves. We are happy to be involved in such a useful activity” The volunteers from CITI tirelessly catalogued and labeled over 200 books according to the subject, language etc.

Three things especially delighted the children. The first was the magic show where despite the magician’s best efforts, the children managed to unravel the “trick”. Said a delighted Kajal of class V, “I could very easily make out that the ribbons were there in his sleeves and all this is just hath ki safai, but I didn’t understand the pigeon act. May be the next time…”.The second was a puppet show, which was the story of a bad lion called as SRK (unlike the popular actor!) which would gobble up the small animals after cheating them with sweet words. The cute puppets and the well modulated voices used to present the show was a big hit among the children. The third and possibly what the children found as the best was the huge Mickey mouse balloon on which boys and girls rode with hoops of delight.

Happy with the way things were going Ms Gitanjali, Principal of the School, said, “It is a real pleasure to have CITI volunteers working with our children and contributing so whole heartedly. For us space is a constraint but we do conduct these events regularly and to see the children so happy is a reward in itself”. She was particularly happy that children were learning quite a few things while they thought it was all entertainment. What added to the delight of the children were the tasty food items the CITI volunteers distributed at the end.

Over the years, CITI’s association with Deepalaya has matured. We have regular visits from them. In April, two groups from CITI had come, one at Gole Kuan and the other at Swagat Kendra. The CITI volunteers are enjoying every minute they spend with our children. This was well expressed by Jaidishan, who said “Working with these children, I did not have the slightest clue that they are mostly first generation learners. I am impressed with the work of Deepalaya”. He expressed his desire to spend more time with our children and promised to come back in November and take the children out for some fun.