Thanks to the untiring effort of Pratham, more than 3500 kids from the slums and
surrounding areas, for whom summer meant working as child labourers to support the family till the school
reopened, this summer was different. They had the pleasure of spending more than a month (April 15 - May 27)
in summer camps organised across 152 centres in the city, learning new things, new concepts and above all being
recognised as kids who have abundant talent and the yearning to do something more.
Pratham, has been doing commendable service to the society by bringing thousands of
under-privileged children below 6 years under its educational programmes, as also focusing on school drop-outs
and older children. The concept of summer camps was mooted by the members of Pratham three years ago.Then it
was a small beginning, followed by a little improvement last year. But this summer saw their efforts paying off,
with the attendance of more than 3000 kids from 6-14 years of age attending the camps held at various centres.
Pratham believes in imparting education to children in the most economical way, in
any place it can. No wonder that this year's summer camps were held in Government schools, houses of teachers,
pavements of choultries and in the smallest mud huts in interior slums of Ghousia-nagar, Shanthinagar,
Raghavendranagar and other areas.
Though the camp was organised for children between 6-14 years of age, there were quite
a few little ones too! Many of the parents, mostly daily wagers want their older ones to look after the younger
siblings during the day. If the older ones want to go to a summer camp, they have to tag along the little ones too
or it is 'stay at home'! So the organisers who understood the dilemma of these kids, decided to take in the younger
lot too and keep them engaged with simple activities! The environment doesn't deter the kids at all. Shooing off the
flies that sit pretty on their running noses, they put their hands together to sing along with the teachers or do a
simple science experiment.
The curriculum of the summer camp, held from 10 am to 1 pm everyday, included lots
of learning activities and crafts that kids enjoyed.
Dr. T. Padmini, Retd. Professor of Education, Mysore University, has devised very simple
and effective reading material in Kan-nada for these children. The first hour of the camp was devoted to Kannada
Vachana or Kannada reading where the children were taught the alphabets and pronunciations using the most
innovative concepts. The same inno-vative and easy-to-learn ideas are used to teach simple maths. Stress is laid on
pronunciation problems that most of these children face and some with genuine problems have been identified and
referred to AIISH.
It's not just science and maths for the kids. You will be surprised at the creative genius
in some of the kids. Given the situation they live in, the shape their imagination takes is astounding. The clay model
that they have created is ample proof to this. Volunteers from Poornapragna Training Institute in Alanahalli,
headed by Tara Gopinath taught the kids to make lamps, idols and wall plates using mud clay. The volunteers
were perplexed at the dexterity of some of the kids, like one Gangadhar, the son of a mason, who has crafted some
very beautiful idols from clay.
The summer camp had a series of workshops in the areas of environment, bio-diversity,
waste management, etc. The kids learnt the art of making paper bags, which is perfect vocational training as they
could use this talent to make and sell paper bags to provison stores and earn some money for the family or for
their studies. Members of Rangayana also trained the children in drama and scripted a special play for them.
A series of science experiments with low cost materials to foster the scientific attitude
among these kids and help them learn basic science concepts were designed specially for the camp by Dr. Krishnan,
a retired scientist of BARC.
It is not just the artistic inclination of the kids that came into fore during the camp.
Literary and cultural talent too was found in many kids. Vidyashree, daughter of a security guard, is a star in the
camp. She not only croons popular songs in her mellifluous voice, but composes songs and loves to put in a lot of
humour into them.
L&T, along with the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan, is one of the sponsors of the camp. It has
bought several greeting cards made by these children on the occasion of Mother's Day.
"We have noticed the special talents in some of the children and we sincerely want to
foster it in every possible way," says Sheshadri, Chief Co-ordinator of Pratham.
Another unique feature of this camp, is the recruitment of teachers, most of whom come
from economically backward section.
As a tribute to the interest shown by the kids, an exhibition of the crafts created by the
kids at different centers was held at Savithri Convent premises in Shanthinagar. A designer choker made using
only small tailoring hooks was the centre of attraction.
"We always hear and see about these summer camps. We cannot even dream of all this,
as our parents cannot afford to send us. But this free camp organised by Pratham, is a real boon to all of us and
we hope they will continue to do this", wishes Nataraj, a participant whose mother works as a domestic servant.
This genuine effort by Pratham needs to be lauded and if more sponsors come forward
in the coming years, may be much more can be done for these underprivileged children in such camps.
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