AWARD INDIA | Year 19 - Issue 2 - September 2015 |
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AWARD INDIA | Year 19 - Issue 2 - September 2015 | THE INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE From the Editor’s Desk Dear Readers, We have been trying to cover a wide base of stories from across all Award Units in India to get a glimpse of the amazing work being undertaken by our Award Participants. In this issue, we have some life changing stories written by the Award Participants and also collectively by the Award Units. For young people, the Adventurous Journey is thrilling. In most instances, while narrating incidences related to the International Award for Young People, we tend to recollect experiences that we have had in one of our camps. But in perfect balance lies experiences that are enlightening. The Award Programme gives us a scope to venture out into society. In this issue, you will get an idea of the experiences that our young participants gather while performing the other sections of the Award Programme. We are happy to be a part of their journey towards being Young Adults who will be equipped to take up all challenges in life. We are also thankful to all of them for being enthusiastic in sharing their experiences for the Award India magazine Anwesha Ghosh IGE Representative Gold Award Presentation Ceremony Thank you Note The National Award Authority wishes to thank all Gold Award Holders, Award Leaders, Volunteers, parents and other stakeholders for the success of the Gold Award Presentation Ceremony 2015. We are thankful to our chief guest Randhir Singh for gracing this ceremony and his inspiring words to the audience. Our thanks to Gold Award holder Vicky Roy for sharing his life experience after his Gold and some of his photographs. Thank you to the participants from DLF Public School, Sahibabad for their entertaining dance presentation. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" ~ Mahatma Gandhi Praniti Ganjoo, Gold Award holder from Delhi Public School, Gurgaon is sharing her experience during her Bronze to Gold Award Journey I became a part of the IAYP programme four years ago, and the Gold Award Ceremony held on the 16th of July took me down memory lane, to the past four years of my journey of getting the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. I remember the 14 year old girl, who had just entered into high school and was excited about the adventure camps that she would get to be a part of and enrolled for the Award. Little did I know that this would become such an important part of who I am today. I was in the 9th grade when I received my Bronze Award. I took up dancing as a Physical Recreation, where I learnt dance forms like jazz and freestyle. For the Skills section, I took up baking, another passion of mine. However, undoubtedly, the most interesting and fun sections were the Service and the Adventurous Journey sections. I got involved with Shiksha Kendra, an initiative to teach the underprivileged children of our society subjects like English, maths and the social sciences. For the Adventurous Journey, I went to Mori, Uttarakhand, where I took part in white water river rafting, rappelling, trekking and cliff diving. Getting the Bronze Award after months of involvement in various activities, the exhilaration, and the ability to learn, filled me with a newfound thirst to learn more and become more, and I knew one thing for sure, there was no going back! For the Silver and Gold award, I pursued dancing and swimming under Skills and Physical Recreation respectively, with the same vigour and zest and learnt new things under the guidance of my proficient instructors. I also got a tremendous opportunity to work with Teach India -- an initiative by the Times of India and the British Council, which aimed at spreading awareness about the importance of the English language and facilitated its learning for people, in order to improve their quality of life by providing better employment opportunities. I was actively involved with this endeavour by Times of India, and got an award for Excellent Contribution and Best Volunteer. The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Programme made me recognize the significance of giving back to society. This inspired me to also volunteer for an organisation which dealt with children fighting with cancer and I collected funds at carnivals and also conducted bake sales. Finally, the Residential Project under the Gold Award, gave me an insight into the life of the villagers. I went to the village Ghamroj, near Sohna Road, Gurgaon, Haryana, where we saw factories where bricks were made, went to a cowshed and organic farms and also met the village head, who enlightened us about the improvement of education and sanitation facilities in the village. The Award gave me an opportunity to engage and acquire a new set of skills. I got the liberty to design my own programme and set my own goals by challenging my boundaries. Thank you IAYP! Award India Saffron City School, Distt. Fatehgarh Sahib Social service and skill based activities facilitate in the development of various domains of mind and personality such as intellectual, social, moral and aesthetic development. These activities are the components of non- academic curriculum that help to develop various facets of the personality. For all round development, there is a need of emotional, physical, spiritual and moral development that is complemented & supplemented by social science and skill based activities. So being a part of IAYP we have done lot of activities under Service & Skill that help young people unlock their potential and build a brighter future. Here comes the list of activities:- Leprosy centre Award participants took the initiative to visit a leprosy centre in Sirhind as a part of their social responsibilities. Students went around the centre and met all the patients. They interacted with the leprosy patients, listened to their grievances and shared their pain. The students made an effort to make them smile and forget that they had been ostracized. They distributed food items and clothes to the patients and discovered feelings of compassion in themselves. Visit to a slum area The participants visited slum areas a number of times. They went around the whole area and took the initiative to start 'Safai Abhyan' by cleaning roads and streets and motivated people all around to keep their area clean and green. They also visited the slum school and distributed stationery items and books to the children. They taught them the values of good hygiene and good practices such as keeping their habitat clean and green. They planted saplings there and taught students that it is through our own actions that we make these saplings grow: taking care of them would make them healthy, while neglecting them would stunt their growth, just like a small child. Learning Skills Participants took part in various group activities. One of the activities was learning pottery. The students made pots of different shapes and decorated and painted them. Another activity was learning the art of making envelopes of different shapes and decorating them. They shared various ideas among themselves. In another activity they learnt how to wrap gifts and make them look attractive. The items made by the students were displayed at the school exhibition, and the money collected was used for charity. Award India A lesson to remember....forever... (Karaumbiah Academy of Learning, Gonikappal, Karnataka) The KALians of Grade X were buzzing with excitement on a bright Friday morning, eager to get away from the monotonous ritual of classroom study. They were all set to learn a bit of the ways of Nature through the IAYP camp as part of their Silver Award. The sky was blue, the air fresh and the surroundings a lush green, as the young KALians reached their destination to start their two-day trek up the Brahmagiri Hill, one of the highest hills of Kodagu. Guided by Mr. Ramesh Belegare and Mr. Krishna Murthy, two experienced nature conservationists, the team set out into the untouched wilderness, among leeches and wild elephants. The eight-kilometer trek winded up stony paths crisscrossed with small streams which were refreshingly cold. Misty clouds blanketed the hills, keeping it fresh. The forest guides also kept us informed about the various life forms and trees of this magnificent belt of wildlife. The journey provided valuable information to the observant crowd about the various species of butterflies that are the jewels of the ecosystem. After almost six hours of climbing, we reached the "Narimale Resthouse" which would serve as our base camp. The place, constructed in the remote area shows the confidence of the workers and their hard work, yet the partial destruction caused by the pachyderms is a grim reminder of how they still dominate the area. The participants gathered firewoods themselves and drew water from a nearby stream and divided the work- girls do the cooking, the boys collect firewood and draw water. After a tiring day, the young participants sat by a campfire and were given a presentation on the importance of nature. After a sumptuous meal, the leech bites and thorn pricks did not hamper the enthusiasm of the participants. The next day, the participants were divided into teams and were assigned various duties mainly to observe and report what they saw. Armed with pens, notebooks and cameras, the trekkers soon set forward to conquer the hill. On the way, various elephant signs were reported and deciphered with some help from Mr. Belegare. It just showed the importance of elephant conservation. The participants understood it and were aware that Elephants=forest=water=life=Us.