Making more kids safer

We had a workshop at the Kamraj Tuition Centre, put together by the Madras Esplanade Ladies Circle, for children of ages 5 to 15, and their parents, on Safe, Unsafe and Confusing Touches, staying safe bodily, and identifying and saving oneself from sexual abuse. Read on to know more!

While we recognize that the onus lies on people to NOT harm, rather than to not be harmed, the existence of individuals who perpetrate wrongdoing cannot be ignored. It is therefore imperative that we find ways to stay safe, and to keep a conversation centred around safety going. This inspired our intention to workshop with children and their parents.

Menstru-ally Healthy

We got to work with a bunch of bright young women who are starting out their first year in a Nursing Diploma course at Sarva Vidya / Sarada Vidyalaya, Chennai, on menstrual hygiene. It was an interesting session where we talked about what menstruation means, what our personal understanding and social understanding of menstruation is, and how there are differences between both. We also took a look at menstrual hygiene products and how best they can be disposed to facilitate minimal pollutant impact on the environment. Here are some images from our session.

Building Peace in Class

In the sixth session at Sprouts Montessori, we explored peace building through simple tools of non-violent communication and effective means of using role-playing and body language. We also  looked at group dynamics, leadership skills and team playing skills. We also examined routes to create effective solutions for problems and challenges without allowing differences of opinion to turn into fights.

Pakistan's Newest Peacebuilders

Our first cross-border collaboration for peace education workshops unfolded with a batch of bright young women from Zephaniah Free Education. We worked through a series of identity activities and a cohesive communication game that helped transmit the understanding that peace starts from within, and expands beyond. Here are a few images from our session!

Breaking stereotypes to be the ones we want to be!

In our fourth session at Sprouts Montessori on Gender Equality, we worked on the theme of breaking stereotypes through identifying that a preference - likes or dislikes - and a career choice don't have anything to do with gender. We also got to work with two beautiful stories by Tale Weavers as part of the curriculum today, where we got the kids to read them - The Princess with the Skateboard and The Little Chef, and then engaged with them using our curriculum and games. An interesting and moving session with great participation from all the kids :)

We're all Equal!

In today's session with the kids at Sprouts Montessori, we got them to watch a few videos around gender equality, and it opened up room for an interesting conversation. After our first video, we took home an important discussion on boys and showing emotion, and how we can all work from a place where we respect one another, and that crying is fundamentally human. It was amazing to watch the children themselves conclude that telling a boy not to cry or telling a girl that she didn't smile enough was unfair. In the second video, we watched how stereotypes are built - and then proceeded to talk about how girls and boys are often forced to make certain career choices, certain life choices and the like. It was interesting to watch how many of them centered their conversation around how no career is uniquely / singularly restricted to boys or girls alone. Finally, we watched our last video that talked about violence against women - which led to a difficult discussion where many of the children themselves knew of instances of violence, and wanted to stop it. It was enlightening to watch them come to conclusions of equality on their own.

What made our hearts sink was the mention of "why men kill women" by a girl. She proceeded to say, "Men don't like women. They are scared that if women are alive, more women can be born. So they kill women before they are born, after they are born, when they grow up - but they forget that they cannot be born without women. We should teach men not to hit, hurt or kill."

Building Strong Identities

We hosted the first in a series of workshops centered around Gender Equality at the Sprouts Montessori School. In this workshop, we had the children internalize their own identities through introspective art-based activities, and then follow it up with discussions surrounding perceptions of the self. We also built into the conversation by asking for perceptions beyond the self, and then worked around affirmative ideas of positive self-identities and positive understandings of gender identities. At first, many of the children had negative views to share about genders aside of their own, but by the end of the session, recognizing their equality and oneness that united them despite their diversity made proved a shift in mindset. Special thanks to Khari, for his beautiful Anti-Bullying Song that became the buzzwords by the end of the session!