Giving back to specially abled children : The TAPMI way by SEG

Students from Govt. School (Rajeev Nagar), Children from Viswas Mane, Girls from Nittur and members from Spandana participated in the four day festival this year. While the kids were being trained in their domains of interest, a small surprise were planned for them on 19th October. TOM & JERRY were screened at the Canteen in TAPMI. Genuine smiles on the faces of the delighted kids were worth a watch. A group of volunteers for each of the discipline facilitated their learning as their mentors, aiding them throughout the span of four days. On the final day i.e. 20^th Oct, a performance was put up by the children who had been trained in the discipline of their choice, such as singing, dancing, arts, crafts and dramatics.

Close to 60 volunteers schooled the children in various aspects of dance, music and dramatics, and the children responded by putting up an excellent final-day performance in presence of chief guest Mr. Venkataraman – Founder of Education for All. Staff and faculties of TAPMI, which included Prof. Vinod Madhavan, Prof. Raghunath Rudran, Prof. Debmallya Chaterjee and family, graced the occasion to encourage the children.

Simultaneously, a group of volunteers travelled to Childrens’ Home, Nittur to teach various disciplines to the children there. Leaving the college every day after classes at 5.30 pm, they would go to Nittur every evening to spend quality time with the children, and, in the process, teach the children the various disciplines of music, dance, drama, arts and craft.

Children presented group dance and music performances. The children trained in dramatics presented a patriotic skit depicting our Nation’s freedom struggle, and the children associated with the arts and craft put up an exhibition of their work, all of which were highly appreciated.

The role played by the student volunteers who acted as translators cannot be overlooked, as they were facilitators for the close relationship that the children shared with their mentors. The evening concluded with the guests distributing toys to all the children, the toys were obtained from ‘Toy Bank’ an NGO based in Bangalore, the distribution of toys was followed by snacks and tea. The children returned with promises of coming back next year, a promise which we look forward to, with great anticipation.

[caption id="attachment_36060" align="alignnone" width="300"] Joyfest[/caption]