Recently my college - IMT Ghaziabad has introduced a mandatory three credit course on Sustainability and Social Responsibility (SSR), aimed at action-based learning on efficiently catering to the needs of the society. So when our batch was assigned this course, I was naturally wary of it. Firstly, because I had my own apprehensions and notions regarding social work. I consider social initiatives are a work of great responsibility and compassion which might get diluted by grades and assessments. And secondly, I sometimes don't like to do things that I am simply forced to do. So my main objective while choosing the project was that I really wanted to do something in which I would not worry about marks and academics, but in turn try to do something that would make an impact, however small it may seem in the lives of the innocent children, with whom my team: ‘Being Social’, and I would be associated.
Previously I had been a part of an NGO, called Ashirwad from July 2009 till June 2013. It helps children with cerebral palsy. My little journey there, contributed enormously in evolving me into the person that I am today. So naturally, my expectations were similar from Project KHEL, which is a Lucknow based social welfare organisation and the partner organisation of our SSR group.
KHEL basically stands for Kids Holistic Education & Life-skills and with their program ‘Made in Maidaan’ in which we are working towards educating children outside the conventional classroom by harnessing the ‘Power of Play’. This concept helps in development through a series of modules designed to impart crucial Life Skills Education (LSE) through experiential learning and activity-based learning models.
Over the past few months, as a part of this beautiful program, we have weekly group visits where we try to help children who do not have the privilege of being a part of such an ingenious and holistic child development program. We have tried to teach them about the need of basic hygiene and we tried to promote gender equality and inclusion. We have also taken up other things like making them understand traffic rules and its basic guidelines.
Over a course of few visits, what was presumed to be a one way learning from our team to the children, completely changed into a healthy two-way sharing of knowledge. The amount of learning that they might have received from me is nothing compared to what I have learnt from them. I have learnt to be simple and modest. I have learnt to find happiness in the little things around us.
What we are trying to do is a slow and eventful process. Week after week, activity after activity, we have tried to impart a life skill/lesson in each student. We really hope that we are able to touch the lives of the young souls of Ingraham Primary School (where we go for our visits) and when they venture out in the outside world, they are no way restrained in their thoughts.
We would achieve our purpose if these students are eventually able to distinguish right over wrong and also educate their friends on the same.
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About the Author:
Archit Kacker is a student of Marketing, of the two-year full-time AICTE approved and AACSB accredited residential PGDM programme at Insititute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. He is a member of the Public Relations, Information and Social Media (IMTeam PRISM) committee at IMT Ghaziabad. He is a Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering from SRM University, Chennai. His areas of interest include mythology, politics, social causes, sports, current affairs and general issues etc. He is an avid follower of the question-and-answer site Quora. He has over 5,00,600 views on his answers. He loves to express himself as a public speaker and is a prolific writer. He is well known for his ability to express situations and characters in the most animated way possible. He loves to travel and has travelled throughout the length and breadth of our country.
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