RSIS (SA & Gulf) 2014-15

12 December 2014

The Scindia School, Fort, Gwalior hosted five Schools for the Regional (SA & Gulf) Round Square Service Project from the 11th- 16th Dec 2014. A total of 45 students from Millennium School, Dubai; Maharani Gayatri Devi School, Jaipur; Sanskaar Valley, Bhopal; Scindia KanyaVidyalaya, Gwalior along with the boys of The Scindia School, Gwalior participated in this project. The Project was undertaken in a nearby Village named NathonKaPura. The Scindia School has, in fact, adopted this Village for community service projects. This was the fifth consecutive project in the last three years in this Village. It used to be a Village of Snake charmers, hence the name NathonKaPura. After the government ban on snake charming particularly on the public display of snakes on the festival of Nag Panchami to protect the Pythons and Cobras and other wild life, the Villagers lost their main source of income. Now the onus of day to day earning has fallen on women who collect the wood from the forest to sell it in the nearby market. It’s a small, neglected, poverty stricken backward Village with meager educational facilities, Kuccha houses, no electricity, community hand pumps for water and no toilets! There were mainly three objectives of this project; first, was to empower the Village women by educating them in market savvy skills to become financially self-reliant. Eventually fifteen women learned how to make Jute bags; mobile covers; tab covers; cushion covers; multi-purpose decorative bags; stitch blouses and the art of tie and dye. They were able to make 6 Jute bags, 6 Cushion covers, 6 Tab covers, 5 Dupattas, and 10 multi-purpose covers out of which a few were bought on the eve of closing ceremony! The second objective was to construct a 125 meter long and 1.5 meter wide road that would connect the Village to the main road which too was accomplished. The third objective was to conduct a socio-economic study via a questionnaire to be answered by the villagers in order to get down to the brass tacks of Village life; get the students to interact with locals to engage them and last but not the least to expose students to realities which they perhaps would have only heard or read about! At the end of the fifth day the project was completed with exceptionally illuminating eyes of all the participants. They did something which perhaps they may not have even dreamed of before. Such service projects are extremely significant for the Private Boarding School students as the outcomes, listed below, are very significant.

• Children need a variety of experiences in their lives to help them grow into healthy adults.
• Children need to develop positive behavior – which such experiences evoke.
• It develops a sense of industry and competence. They develop skills and learn to work for what is important to others.
• They experience a sublime pleasure when they see the results of their efforts.
• It develops a stable identity; they learn what their skills are. They feel the meaningfulness of life when they receive positive feedbacks about themselves.
• Children will learn that it is not charity but empowering people by service which evolves society.

The achievement of the objectives of the project was explicit in the concluding remarks of Mr. D’souza from the Millennium School, Dubai. He wished that he could come back to the Village and could stay there for a month to relive the experience and last but not the least; it was an emotional moment when tears of happiness and satisfaction rolled down the cheeks of Narayana, a Village lady at the sale of a Dupatta with tie and dye print. She said that now she would not have to go the forest to collect firewood for a few days having sold a couple of items on the last day!! Click here to see day-wise report.