The session of Sadbhavna on 15^th of September 2007 began at 10:00 a.m. with the literacy activity. Our Sadbhavna volunteers have realized that children need intellectual development, motivation and skills that equip them for successful work and lifelong learning. Sadbhavna has been experimenting on interactive methods to engage children in literacy activities. Children were given assignments to be completed by the next session and previous assignments were reviewed to keep a track of each child’s progress path. Books and stationary items were distributed among the children according to their specific needs.

The next activity for the day was of decorating candles and lamps. Our volunteers including Mrs. Sinha (wife of Mr. Pardeep Sinha), Mrs. Somina Agarwal (wife of Mr. Ajay Agarwal) and Mrs. Vibha Kumar (wife of Mr. Dushyant Kumar) brought out the creative side of each child through this activity. Since the festival of lights, ‘Diwali’, is approaching Sadbhavna plans to sell off these candles and lamps to Newgenites and raise funds.

Sadbhavna bid farewell to Mrs. Neena Dixit (wife of Mr. Max Dixit), an active volunteer, for whom this was the last regular session attended before she leaves for the US. Members spoke warmly of the contribution made by Mrs. Dixit to the Sadbhavna sessions every month. Children also came up to thank her in their own sweet ways. Finally all the children and volunteers sat together to enjoy a splendid lunch prepared by Kannan and his canteen staff.

The volunteers met again to plan out the Fancy dress competition, which was held on the 28^th of September as a part of NEWS week celebrations. Each volunteer took the responsibility of preparing one child for the competition. The activity turned out very well with children enjoying and participating with full enthusiasm. Our tiny tots dressed as newspaper, Mother Teressa, flower, Hanuman, Ram and Sita, Chef, Krishna and Radha etc. received loud applause from the appreciative audience. Kamini, the doctor and Ranjana, our very own Mother Teressa were declared winners. Gifts were given away to all the participants.

A Ray of Hope

When Raveena was five years old, she was sent away to a boarding school in Agra. It was a missionary school and Raveena enjoyed the environment and excelled in her studies. However, after a couple of years the school fees increased and her father could not afford it. A reluctant Raveena, was shifted back to a school in Delhi.

In her new school Raveena faced severe adjustment problems. This was reflected in her grades that went down drastically. Her father Shankar, a part of Newgen’s housekeeping staff, has given his five daughters the best possible upbringing that can ever be expected of an uneducated parent. Shankar failed to understand the reason for Raveena’s deteriorating performance in school.

Sadbhavna volunteers decided to intervene. They interacted with the 12 year-old to identify the cause behind her growing disinterest in studies. They realized it was the medium of instruction. Unfortunately, she had been put in a Hindi medium class while she was used to being taught in English. Sadbhavna volunteers visited her school, Sarvodaya, in Malviya Nagar and spoke to the school administration to shift Raveena to the English medium class.

Raveena has now adjusted well in her new class. An enthusiastic and intelligent student Raveena has shown keen interest in learning the English language. To help her increase her vocabulary, she is encouraged to borrow storybooks from the Sadbhavna Library. And to monitor her progress in school, a volunteer from Sadbhavna would visit her school once an academic term. Sadbhavna also plans to start funding her tuition classes soon.