Help a child stay in school by Empowering Minds Society for Research and Development

Celebrations for the Children's Cultural Festival

Empowering Minds and it's Education Centre completed 10 Anniversary and it was decided to celebrate this by organising a first ever Children’s Cultural Festival, “Panchhi’ in Ghaziabad.The theme of the festival was Inclusive Education -ensuring that no child, however different from expectations and general norms, feels alienated and excluded. The festival had many sessions on Laughter Yoga, life skills, storytelling, Emotional Expressions through Creative Movement, Happiness Workshop, Good Touch - Bad Touch, Panel on Child Abuse poems, essay and slogan writing competitions, drwaing competitions for smaller children and Flower making workshop. It was a great platform to interact and mingle among children from the community and the public school children. The children enjoyed every moment and had lot of fun with learning.

Program Update

Help a Child Stay in School is non-formal education program for out of school children. The children are provided all the facilities of a formal school during their stay at the centre. The major activities includes a well planned curriculum delivered by the trained teachers coming from the community itself. All national and religious festivals are celebrated, during the last quarter children celebrated Dusshera, Diwali, Christmas, Childrens Day at the event name Kilkari where they did lots of activities like flower making, puppet show and music therapy workshops. A life skill workshop was conducted at the centre to give the children a space to express themselves freely. They also participated in the International Children's Film festival and enjoyed Films from various countries with lot of play things and picture opportunities. In this quarter they also gave their first term exams and most of them did well. The children had gone for the exposure visit to various places. This gives a holistic experience of education to the children studying at the centre.

Story from the field

Amna's father expired when she was 5yrs old since then she has been living with her maternal grandmother who has a petty shop at home. And now this shop is also shut down by the Nagar Nigam. They are hand to mouth. Her mother was ousted from her grandparents’ house after her father died. She came to live with her mother and three children. Coming from the orthodox religious background, her mother was not allowed to go out and earn a living. She does odd jobs like bindi sticking, Bed cover stitching etc. Amna is a strong girl. She actively take participation in all the school activities like cultural, sports, and etc. She is good in studies so scores nice grades in tests and exams. She desires to become a teacher.

In December, Christmas was celebrated with Santa Claus who visited the school and distributed gifts, chocolates and cake to the children. The children also sang carols and reveled in the spirit of Christmas.

In November, Children’s day was celebrated with sweets and food distribution, after which the children visited the Indira Priyadarshani Park where they spent some recreational time. The children also visited the Doll Museum and the Stupa for an exposure visit

In October, the children celebrated Diwali by decorating their classes, making colorful Rangoli, and singing and dancing to various melodies

On the occasion of Eid, a special assembly was held and the children were explained the significance of this festival. The whole school was repainted with different colors to make the classrooms more vibrant and interesting for learning. A computer room was added to the center with glass doors and windows.