“Who says you can have problems and you can’t smile also?”

 

Definitely you can…I saw and learnt this from these small kids who although came from a weak socioeconomic background, often separated families still had a smile on their faces and zeal to learn and change the way their life was.

While they were introducing themselves I noticed that they had family problems, e. g death of a parent or separated families. Most of the mothers worked in other houses doing the household chores to earn a living or fathers worked in factories or buildings as laborers.

It was an urge to teach small children which made me to join Colorss as a volunteer. My task which seemed to be very easy to me initially turned out to be a challenge for me. I was supposed to take a 45 min class, making children of class 6-9 standard write articles on a few topics.

I started with an article on My Ambition, where I had not only to explain the meaning of ambition to children but also had to assist each of them in framing sentences ,making them spell every word properly and translating their thoughts from Hindi to English. This took 30 min for me and there was hardly any time left for any other activity. It was a kind of surprise for me to see children of 8th grade unable to  spell  “will”  “have”  “doctor”  “because”.  I felt the presence of a loop hole in the education system where students of an English medium school were not well versed in spellings and general English.

I thought of doing it another way. Next day I divided them into teams and told them to ask spellings from the opponent team. This sense of competition made some of them to find difficult words from their text books such as “environment” and learn them. This little effort of the children was encouraging for me. I also introduced some games in the class such as “Bring a thing” where students had to bring specific objects from their teammates such as “A black Reynolds pen or a paper boat”. Although I could not work for a long time as my vacations were going to be over, but it was an experience I would cherish forever.Something definitely needs to be done somewhere and Colorss is an attempt to do it. After joining Colorss as a volunteer, with Anand sir’s support I was more than comfortable and enjoyed every bit of work. Anand sir’s briefing of everything about children, their background, talents, general behavorial tendencies were helpful to know children better. I would like to thank Anand Sir for giving me the opportunity and believing in me. It was something very different and satisfying I could have done in 4 years of my college life. I enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it.

Priyanka Trivedi

VIT Vellore

Volunteered with Colorss at Pune

Girl students at Enhance learnt 'Sudoku' along with Martial Arts

Since the children were already burdened with unit tests, I thought of conducting some activity which would be new, fun and beneficial at the same time. I came up with “Sudoku”, which provides an overall exercise for the brain, helping in  keeping it active, focused and sharp.

The girls were very excited at the prospect of learning a new ‘game’. Smriti and I started with first explaining the various terms associated with the game, followed by the concept. Most of the girls, except 2-3 were quick to grasp it, and were able to solve a 4 X 4 grid within minutes.

Neha and Smriti teaching Sudoku at Project Enhance, Pune

Further when I asked them should I increase the difficulty level by giving a 6 X 6 grid to solve, ALL of them answered in the positive.  2 girls who were giggling and not paying attention, I called upon them to solve the grid on the blackboard, and contrary to what was told by Anand, I did not find them to be shy at all, since most of them were literally jumping and asking for a chance to come and solve on the board.

So basically, I found that if the girls have the knowledge, and when they know what to do and how to do, they become confident automatically.



And when around at quarter to four, I asked them if they would like to have a 9X9 grid to solve at their homes, in case they wanted a break from studying, there was a unanimous yes. On the downside, 3 girls told me that they were bored [its positive in the way that they could freely express what they actually felt].


Neha and Smriti
Team Pune

Creative thinking started....students created their own story looking at an image

Create your own story with the help of an image was held at Baroda 'Colors of Life' project, by the Team Baroda. Here the volunteers showed the students the image below. Here the children were asked to look at the image and think what they can perceive.  They were asked to come-up with a story. This unconsious method has helped in creative thinking and opening the children. 

Image used for creating your own story.

The students came up with this story..

'There was a village called Rampur. A fair was held there one day. Everybody from the village went there. Rohit, a four year old boy, also went there with his parents. Rohit was delighted to be at the fair. He wanted to go to the balloon-seller, food-stalls, the magician, toy stall and the snake-charmer. In his excitement, he left his mother’s hand and got lost. When he couldn’t find them after a while he got scared and started crying. He cried so much that he became tired and fell asleep. His parents made an announcement in the fair asking people to find Rohit and bring him to them. A man found Rohit sleeping and brought him to his parents. His parents were very happy and grateful.'

We were delighted to read this and we hope even you would have enjoyed.

Team Baroda

Colorss

Joy on their faces was something we can never forget | Colors of Life ~ Baroda

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”  Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

When we first joint colors we didn’t know what to expect from the children. We didn't know how much they knew, what they would be interested in or how they would interact with us. We weren't even sure how we should interact with them. Therefore, our initial classes were not productive. The children did not stay interested in our classes for long and we began to have problems with the attendance. The boys would refuse to talk to us, preferring to talk among them, the girls were shy and we had difficulty in connecting with all of them.

After three months of fruitless discussions, us pestering them to write and them demanding to go out, we finally decided to change our approach for lack of satisfactory results. We spoke to our teachers and mentors and unanimously came up with the idea of doing more activities with the children. Since then, we have done a variety of activities with them like the ‘hero game’. In this, we asked each child to think of his/her favorite film character and tell us how they would respond to certain given situations.

This helped us to understand what they admire in their heroes and it made them think about what they would do in the same situation. We also conducted a quiz o Indian states and capitals. Though we had asked them to prepare beforehand, most of them didn’t bother. When we gave the teams which won kites as a prize, the joy on their faces was something we can never forget. They were genuinely so happy! Some of the others even came up to us and told us that they would come prepared next time. After months of frustration and disappointment with our work, we felt like we had finally achieved something!

Now, we feel more confident about our plans for the future. Though we had broken the ice some time ago, it is finally getting warmer.

Shreya and Ankita

Team Baroda

www.colorss.org

www.facebook.com/colorssfoundation

www.youtube.com/colorssfoundation

“ENHANCING” LIVES ~ Project Enhance

“ENHANCING” LIVES

Education is the key aspect that helps to build a child’s future. However education confined to the realms of textbooks and notebooks does not make the child ready to face the challenges of the world. Overall development of a child is of utmost importance for survival in the world of cut-throat competition. Thus providing basic elementary education to poor and underprivileged children is not enough to ensure a good future for them.

PROJECT ENHANCE uses sports and creative arts to brighten the world of children and contribute towards their overall development. Reaching out to the girl child is of utmost importance to universalize elementary

The project is currently carried out at Pune Municipality Schools

• Mahadji Shinde High School with 51 girls from 5th to 9th grade.
• Dr. Ambedkar Memorial School with 56 girls from 6th and 9th grade.

Both schools are in Pune Cantonment Board, Pune

Children take part in 30 minutes of martial arts and creative arts twice a week. This helps reduce stress, increase stamina, build confidence, developing a spirit of team work and makes education more interesting. In addition to this, professionals give the children talks on topics including body language, careers, family dynamics, communication skills and more. The result of this project is children who are disciplined, self-confident and perhaps most importantly, happy.

Women are given a secondary status in our society. Education of such a kind would help them let go off the inhabitations that hamper the development and growth of the girl child. After all they have to grow up and become women of substance, and this initiative of the COLORSS FOUNDATION helps them achieve this feat.

This novel idea that goes beyond bookish knowledge and helps improve and empower the girl child. All it needs is your contribution and time to touch new heights and change more lives.

LET US ALL COME TOGETHER AND MAKE LIVES FOR THESE CHILDREN A BETTER PLACE SO THAT ONE DAY THEY CAN MAKE THE NATION PROUD.

Contact- www.colorss.org to keep yourself updated follow us: Facebook Colorss

Tarishi Mishra

Essence of Colorss: “ENHANCING” LIVES ~ Project Enhance

Essence of Colorss: “ENHANCING” LIVES ~ Project Enhance: Education is the key aspect that helps to build a child’s future. However education confined to the realms of textbooks and notebooks does ...

Requirements for creating a 3D anime ambassador

We at Colorss are Creating a 3D anime , which would represent Colorss Foundation all across the world. 


To achieve it we have got few requirements..


~ Requirements ~


1. We have already decided on the 'ambassador' need a volunteer to get a 3D model ready. 
2. Volunteers to write Jingles , that reflect the very essence of the Colorss Foundation.
3. Volunteers to write some stories , comic strips , where in the Mascot and Colorss Foundation are involved.
4. A video clip would work. A presentation which show the work of Colorss and the Mascot. To be posted on Blogs.
5. Searching for an intoxicating 'Voice' for the anime. - 


Share this with your friends and anyone interested pls email: emailcolorss@gmail.com or ping message! 


For more information:
www.colorss.org
www.facebook.com/colorssfoundation
www.youtube.com/colorssfoundation


Thank you,
For Love,
Anand

Happy New Year

Dear Supporters and my dear volunteers/interns,

Year 2011 coming to end and year 2012 about to start. A new year, new month, new week, new day and yes of-course with a new hope, faith, love and all the beautiful colors that will fill the heart of those who would look out for you. 

We are very thankful to you all, who made the journey for Colorss beautiful. Your continued support is required to make us strong. We do hope that this new year 2012 reaches out to a lot more people. 

Everyone from Colorss wishes you and your loved ones a very happy, peaceful, colorful and prosperous new year.

For Love,

Anand

www.colorss.org

www.facebook.com/colorssfoundation

Volunteer Voice : Launch of the 1st E-zine from Baroda, Gujarat

The first Colorss of Life e-magazine of Navprerna students was launched on 26th September 2011. The magazine was launched at the annual prize distribution function. The students, their parents, the Navprerna teachers, trustees and other guests were present for the event.

Ankita (L) – Seema (C) – Shreya (R) Launch of 1st E-zine from Baroda | Gujarat | 26th September 2011

Volunteers of Colorss were present on the stage. While they were briefing the audience about Colorss and the e-magazine, the background screen displayed images of the first issue. Hard copies of the magazine were given to the trustees and other important guests, while everyone received copies of the Colorss’ brochures.

Trustees and guests were impressed by the presentation and some of the guests also showed interest in the project. The children were delighted to see their photographs and articles on the screen. They wanted copies of the magazine so that they could try and read it at home.

We are sure the magazine will find a cherished place in the homes and hearts of the children!

Thank you,

Ankita and Shreya

Volunteers | Colorss Baroda