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.
Priyanka teaching the girl students at our Project Enhance - Pune
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 behavioral 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
Internship opportunities are available at Colorss. Students can apply for internship along with their detailed resume. Opportunities for MSW / BSW students to get on-the-job training. It's just not limited to social work students - we are accepting students from media, communication, engineering, management, art-n-craft, fine-arts, NID, NIIT and more... Feel free to drop an email with your resume and make an inquiry. - emailcolorss@gmail.com | www.facebook.com/colorssfoundation | http://colorss.org For Love, Anand
Anand
Koti, founder of Colorss with more than 15 years of martial arts training, a
second-degree black belt, and a passion for using his talent to help others
reach their potential has come up with this project.
Project Enhance uses a combination
of sports (Martial Arts) and creative arts as vehicles to promote both the
physical and mental well-being of underprivileged children in India. Good
mental health is not just the absence of a mental disorder; it is a state of
well-being where an individual feels confident and ready to cope with the
stresses that life sometimes presents.
In India, young girls are viewed as
inconsequential, often ignored, or even harassed and molested. Project Enhance
aims to empower young girls and boost their self-confidence through a blend of karate
and creative arts in hopes that they can one day become educated, productive,
and active members in their communities and society.
Objectives:
-Empower young
girls
-Promote mental and physical health
-Foster a sense
trust, cooperation, confidence, and community
-Encourage values
of discipline and responsibility
Students undergoing self-defense techniques under project enhance.. Demonstrating the techniques with our volunteer/inter Neha Shaw (Symbiosis Law School, Pune)
How Can Martial Arts Help?
The art of karate involves
integrating the mind and body to condition the physique and enhance
self-awareness. When the muscles and brain act in perfect unison, a sense of
discipline, mindfulness, and serenity are set in play. Thus, learning to
control each movement in a fluid and adaptable fashion produces benefits that
outlast practice sessions. Research has shown that karate is associated with
positive changes in mood, as well as reductions in anxiety and depression.
Sensi Pervez Mistry, the father of modern martial arts
in India, noted: “Karate is generally perceived as a destructive sport. This is
a misconception. In fact, the reverse is true. With karate, we can work towards
improving health. A willingness and desire to be a better person is developed
and self-confidence is built while ego is dampened.”
In
fact, martial arts promote both mental and physical health and enforce values
such as respect for others, faithfulness, and tranquility, and sincerity. When
these qualities act in unison, they can induce relaxation and increase
self-confidence. Additionally, many studies have championed the cognitive and
behavioral benefits of martial arts. Improvements in self-esteem (Fuller,
1988), positive receptiveness of physical challenges (Richard and Rehberg,
1986; Trulson, 1986), greater autonomy (Duthie, 1978), emotional stability and
assertiveness (Konzak and Boudreau, 1984) and reductions in anxiety and
depression (Cai, 2000) have all been associated with martial arts training.
To
sum it up, Gichin Funakoshi, the father of modern karate, once said, “The
ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of
the character of its participants.”
Sensi Mistry speaks about Anand
Sensi Pervez Mistry is considered to be the father of
martial arts in India.
He has been the Chief Instructor for the International Okinawa
Goju-RyuKarate-do Federation in India
for the past 46 years and is the founder of Karate-do in India.
“Karate is generally perceived as a destructive sport.
This is a misconception. In fact, the reverse is true. With karate, we can work
towards improving health. A willingness and desire to be a better person is
developed and self-confidence is built while ego is dampened. When Anand met me
a few years ago, he was worried whether or not we would be able to manage the
program. I was confident from day one that he would succeed. He has struggled and faced hurdles, but he
has conquered all of them, in part from the confidence he has gained from
martial arts training.
How Can Creative Arts Help?
Creativity
and art help reinforce elements of martial arts training, further helping
children develop and retain their learned skills. Though its task-based
instruction and demanded attention to detail, art cultivates a sense of
responsibility, hand-eye coordination, and controlled motor skills.
Furthermore, selecting materials and tools, focusing on creating a work of art,
and ultimately finishing a project fosters a sense of achievement as well as
enhances cognitive skills, decision making skills, and discipline. Furthermore,
to maintain and develop awareness of different methods of mind and body
control, games, meditation, and dance are incorporated into each creative arts
session.
Current Status and Project Structure:
Project Enhance currently focuses on
helping 110 girls from two schools
·Fifty five girls
from 5th, 6th, and 7th grade girls from
Mahadji Shinde High School, a municipality school under Pune Cantonment Board.
· Fifty three girls from 6th, 7th,
8th and 9th grade girls from Dr. Ambedkar Memorial
School, a municipality school under Pune Cantonment Board.
It consists of 1 hour sessions, twice a week, with 30
minutes of martial arts training and 30 minutes of creative arts. Each martial
arts session is a mixture of exercise and meditation. These sessions aim to
relax the body muscles and gradually build flexibility and stamina. Each
creative arts session includes various exercises in drawing, sketching,
dancing, music, acting, brain-stimulation games and story-telling.
Based on child progress, the program introduces longer
and higher levels of martial arts and creative arts sessions. Thus, the
contents of each session change along with the children’s progress in order to
keep challenging and encouraging each child to reach his or her full potential.
Finally, a counseling component is integrated into the
program. Professionals work with the children not only to provide a support
system, but also to motivate them to succeed, improve communication skills,
discuss future careers, and teach them about socially acceptable behavior.
Quote from participant:
I feel very peaceful after joining the karate project.
Our teacher is a very cool person and karate benefits us and gives us physical
exercise. Karate also helps us develop a better memory and gives physical
flexibility to our bodies. There are so many benefits of karate.
How can you contribute?
Volunteer:
Volunteers are our greatest asset. You can contribute
by volunteering to conduct workshops in various media of creative and performing
arts, such as drawing, counseling, painting, dance, personality development, brain-stimulation
games and creative writing. Any other forms of creative art are welcomed as
well!
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.
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.
