Being disarmingly honest is one of the new traits that Umesh has acquired in the past one week. The other one is replying in English, even if he is asked something in Malayalam, unmindful of whether he is making any grammatical errors.
“Let me be honest. I never used to wake up in time for school and on some days, used to miss it. But for this summer camp, I regularly wake up at 5 a.m.,” the Class VI student from Abraham Memorial HSS says.
He is one of the 40 select students at ‘Punarjani,’ the 40-day summer camp organised by the State Child Welfare Council (CWC) and the State Council Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The students are from Rajaji Nagar, Pound Colony, Karimadom Colony, and other economically backward regions in the city.
Umesh and his friends Anjali T. and Rakhi R.S. are sporting new watches, which they won for coming on top at an essay-writing contest on a trip to Neyyar dam as part of the camp. They say in one voice that they love coming to the camp, since the learning is not textbook-based.
Abhiram, a Class V student from Model BHSS, is restless and prefers to walk out of the class to sketch random people. On Tuesday, when District Collector Biju Prabhakar, who is also the head of the CWC, visited, he sketched his face in five minutes.
C. Bindu, the camp director and Research Officer at SCERT, says that the camp aims at transforming the students into complete citizens. “The daily sessions start in the morning with yoga. They are also trained in arts and crafts. In the second phase, we will give them training in musical instruments of their choice and in other arts. All of them are from economically backward families, but are doing well academically. They have been responding well to the classes,” she says.
A team of volunteers led by the council’s administrative officer P. Sasidharan anchors the background work. The students are picked up from their homes early in the morning and meals through the day are provided at the camp by Kudumbasree. Initially, each of the students was given a coupon worth Rs.2,000 each to buy clothes. A school kit was also given.
A doctor from the National Rural Health Mission conducted health check-ups and gave them classes on personal hygiene. The camp also celebrates the birthdays of children which fall in the 40-day period. On Tuesday, the camp members gave a surprise to the Collector, for his birthday. A small library is also set up, with books contributed by the Collector and others. There are plans to hold meetings of the group once in a month, to ensure continuity of the programme even after the camp gets over at the end of summer.
