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!

Staying Safe and Being Smart

We had a workshop at the Sprouts Montessori School, for children of Grades 3 to 5, and their parents, on Safe, Unsafe Touch and a 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.

We used our handouts and got the children to interact and share what their idea of safety is, who they designated as their safe adults, and even encouraged them to try out the "NO" from the no-run-tell exercise. Special thanks to Dr. Bhooshan of NoBadTouch and Pattie Fitzgerald for being the inspiration and the resources that informed our research before this session!

We talked to an age group that comprised children aged 5 and 6, The good part was that we were able to connect with them with the curriculum, and interact with them on an equally relevant footing, and send them home with a clear idea of what they should to to stay safe. 

Building Peace and Breaking the Unconscious Bias

We hosted a session via video conference, with the participants at World Merit Bohol, where we spent an hour addressing SDG 16 and talking about ways to build peace, ways to sustain peace and to invest in sustainable futures built on the foundation of peace. By the end of the session, we worked on a fun activity centered around breaking the unconscious bias. Here is what the event looked like!

Safety over a Summer Camp!

As a part of an ongoing summer camp that our volunteer, Vaishnavi Pallapothu conducted with her cousins in Chirala, Andhra Pradesh, the girls and boys sat down for a session to talk about safe and unsafe touches. Although many of the students are in English-medium schools, they find it difficult to converse and communicate fluently in English. Hence, using our resources, we were able to conduct the session in Telugu. Here are some images! 

I am the boss of my body!

We had a workshop at the Sprouts Montessori School, for children of Grades 1 and 2, and their parents, on Safe, Unsafe Touch and a 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.

We used our handouts and got the children to interact and share what their idea of safety is, who they designated as their safe adults, and even encouraged them to try out the "NO" from the no-run-tell exercise. Special thanks to Dr. Bhooshan of NoBadTouch and Pattie Fitzgerald for being the inspiration and the resources that informed our research before this session!

We talked to an age group that comprised children aged 5 and 6, The good part was that we were able to connect with them with the curriculum, and interact with them on an equally relevant footing, and send them home with a clear idea of what they should to to stay safe.