Weekend I Opener

This is the story of Hire high school...

A small primary and secondary school run by a trust with limited funds at hand for the kids from the poor families residing in a slum belt called "Janata vasahat" near the Parvati hills in Pune... Two years ago, the student drop out rates at the school were pretty high and most of the students passed either by implementing a method called "copy" during the exams, or were pushed in the next standards to prevent the classes form closing down!

Enter the volunteers of the Art of Living... it all started when Mrs Kavita Jagtap, one of the school teachers did the Art of Living Part 1 course at near her residence at Bibwewadi Pune upon her daughter's recommendation. Since then Kavitaji has never looked back. She Started by organizing a Bal Chetana Shibir - a free workshop for the students of age between 8-15 years at the school. Soon more workshops followed and even some of the school teachers including the principal attended the Art of Living courses.









I was first introduced to the school on 26th January last year, when Kavitaji had invited me to engage in a dialogue with the students at the republican day celebrations of the school...



After the event, I had a discussion with the principal and the senior staff wherein they invited me to take another Bal Chetana Shivir for the students in 8th & 9th standard...
Since I was on a 1 month sabbatical between changing the employer, I happily complied and thus got an opportunity to witness a transformation in those 250 odd students. The drawing competition conducted on the last day showed us how much hiden talents these kids possessed that needed nothing else but a bit of kindling from our side...



Above: Mrs Kavita Jagtap, Principal Sir, and Rao uncle, industrialist and our mentor for the school project.

The workshops were followed by projects such as Mission Green Earth, wherein each student was given 10 seeds to grow them into healthy saplings before these were planted in the school surroundings! The project was an instant hit with the kids as they were asked to treat these saplings as their own babies - the kids gave names to their babies and maintained a chart of how their babies grew over the months :-)









Our volunteered did not stop at just imparting the knowledge and instilling the right attitude in the students. They also took care of the students needs... many students came to the school barefoot and without a uniform. All such needy students were identified and provided with uniforms, backpacks, and shoes. This was possible through the generous donations form the strong AOL community in Pune. Also this year, sweater were distributed to these kids to combat the chilly winter mornings around the Parvati hills!





Overall the feedback we received from the staff so far is quite positive and we are sure the students will go ahead to become the pillars of strength for the nation!!!

JAI GURU DEV!
Sandesh Sawant
Social Transformation Evangelist,
Volunteer/Facilitator, Art of Living / WAYE / IAHV.