Workshops at G.E.B School, Baroda

Someone has rightly said, “Sharing is Caring”. It is our pleasure to inform you that we have come up with few workshops in our very own Vadodara city, in G.E.B (Gujarat Electricity Board) School, specifically to work with children [6th grade and 7th grade] and with their parents as well. We will be conducting workshops on daily life values viz. self-esteem, life-skills, value education and self-defense. Because we believe, Children with healthy self-esteem are more likely to be happy, can make and keep positive friends. We also believe that they can see challenging situations as opportunities to try something new, even if they're not completely successful. A combination of Life-skills and value education would embed the child with all the needful required to take care of them physically and emotionally, and can persist in difficult and effortful pursuits such as completing their education or mastering an occupation.

Gaffar our volunteer addressing the students at GEB School, Baroda, Gujarat

Today 30th January’13, we implemented our foremost milestone into the minds of G.E.B. School children, Vadodara. Volunteers/spoke-persons from Colorss Foundation had addressed the children of 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Grade who gathered on ground for the morning prayers followed by warm up exercises. We started up with a prayer and Indian pledge, then we switched-on to our introductory part. Joyous atmosphere prevailed onto the ground while addressing it, children were enjoying the speech and got excited when announced our projects to carry-on with them in their school. In the end, the school principal acknowledged our volunteers and provided us with the yearlong plan. Every week i.e. Wednesday (8am-9am) and Saturday (11am-12pm), we would be carrying out activities with 6th and 7th grade students. It could vary from class room to outdoor tasks including presentations and demonstrations. 

So we are initiating this fully fledged project in G.E.B. School, Vadodara with 6th and 7th grade students, right from Feb 2013. We believe we can achieve our desired results with flying colors, leaving behind a gentle smile and unforgettable intellectual moments in each student and their parents as well. We would be generous to welcome any other school in Vadodara if they are interested to join hands with us, and lets us stimulate such lifetime values in their children at this learning stage. If you are interested to be a part of our team to work with children.. get back to us with your resume and why you wish to join – contact@colorss.org

For Love,

Founder

Anand Koti

“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

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

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

Calling Volunteers for Project 'Colors of Life' at Navprerna - a care club of Navrachana School, Baroda - Gujarat

Project 'Colors of Life' provides an answer to one of our nation's most troubling problems. Although more children are staying in school than in previous years, there are still too many students dropping out, even at the very earliest levels. This problem is especially prevalent among the poor and the disabled. Some studies estimate that as many as 50% of children will drop out before finishing the higher secondary stage. More than half of all children leave school before ninth grade. To reduce these rates, we have to figure out why so many children aren't finishing their studies.

Project 'Colors of Life' is going to start for the students of Navprerna a care-club of Navrachana School, Vadodara Gujarat. `NAVPRERNA`a programme to educate Less Privileged - a care-club of Navrachana School. The children come from slums of Sama Village. The women particiapnts of 'Project Urja - igniting the fire' our first vocational training program started in Baroda, Gujarat also belong to the slums of Sama Village. 

Students of 6th and 7th grade would be the part of our Project 'Colors of Life' and we aim to launch the first E-zine of Baroda chapter on 15th August. 

We are requesting volunteers to join us at Navrachana School. The timings are 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on weekdays (twice a week - days would be confirmed soon) and on weekends i.e Saturday (1st and 3rd - 4:00pm to 5:30 pm)

Psychology students/ Psychologist/Students and any one who can contribute to this project are most welcome. Send us your resume at contact@colorss.org . Deadline 10th July 2011 latest by 6:00 pm

Thank you

For Love

Anand 

Colorss Foundation and its projects in detail

Colorss Foundation is a registered trust in India working towards the well-being of underprivileged children by integrating arts and technology. Some of the programs conducted by Colorss are 'One of its kinds'. They help in making these children self-confident and esteemed individuals. Our volunteers come from different corners of the globe; they work with a single motto making Colorss a NGO which is true to its name and deeds. At Colorss we all have a common belief; small steps lead to big changes. Therefore the activities that we perform have a long lasting impression in an individual's life.

A presentation that talk's about its projects.. please have a look.

Project Enhance uses sport and the arts as tools to promote physical well-being while improving mental health. Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder; rather, it is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

In India, even today girl child is considered as a liability and is often ignored; even harassed and molested. Project Enhance is targeted at empowering the girl child through a blend of martial arts and creative arts resulting into increased self-confidence and improved academic performance as a result.

Objectives:

• To empower girl child
• Develop discipline to achieve mutual respect and understanding
• Develop trust ,confidence, cooperation and togetherness
• Increase attention span

Please watch this presentation for more information on this project and feedback of our student.

Project 'Colors of Life' provides an answer to one of our nation's most troubling problems. Although more children are staying in school than in previous years, there are still too many students dropping out, even at the very earliest levels. This problem is especially prevalent among the poor and the disabled. Some studies estimate that as many as 70% of children will drop out before finishing the higher secondary stage. More than half of all children leave school before ninth grade. To reduce these rates, we have to figure out why so many children aren't finishing their studies.

For the most part, children drop out, or are taken out of school by their parents, because they think that school is irrelevant. Many families see school as a bad investment — they'd rather have their children earning money or caring for younger siblings. But by leaving school early, children often fail to realize
their full potential; innate skills and abilities are lost by neglect or by failure to explore and foster talents and interests.


If children and their families could see how education will bring much greater economic benefit than might otherwise be gained in the short term, without proper schooling, they would almost invariably prefer to complete their studies.


Objectives:

• Motivating children to pursue further education
• Reducing the number of school dropouts
• Empowering children, developing pride and responsibility in work
• Enhancing leadership quality

Please watch this presentation for more information on this project and feedback of our student.

Kindly email us or comment for your feedbacks.

For Love

Anand

emailcolorss@gmail.com

On-going Projects : Project Enhance and Project Iris

Colorss Foundation : Volunteer Opportunity

At the end of the day it's a smile that matters to all and of course to 'self'. We are looking forward for young enthusiastic volunteers who love to fill different colours of life making others feel complete. Do you love Children? Do you like to play with them, teach them and give them a smile. If yes, the Colorss Foundation is waiting for you.

On-going Projects : Project Enhance and Project Iris

Project Enhance : Martial Arts for Better Mental Health

Project Enhance to empower people with disabilities and make inclusion into mainstream life – with the help of karate training.

Mental health : Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

Mental Disorder : Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning. This notion of a continuum sees mental health on one end as 'successful mental functioning' compared to mental illness on the other end as 'impaired functioning.'

Disability : Disability as defined by the World Health Organization

• A disability (resulting from an impairment) is a restriction or
• Lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or
• Within the range considered normal for a human being

The United Nations
Impairment : Any loss of abnormality of psychological, or anatomical structure or function.

It’s important to include people with disability into mainstream life. Project Enhance identify the skills. Try to develop them and henceforth organize vocational training for them. Because of stigma and discrimination we don’t want erosion and loss of innate skills.

Customized curriculum is designed in such a way that inclusion is possible and both the groups (able-bodied as well disabled) are able to understand each other.

Project Iris : CURRENCY DENOMINATOR Empowering the Visually Challenged Person

Developed and designed at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT G)

Colorss Foundation is behind the national launch of the developed device to empower visually impaired people, better known as 'Project Iris'. Project Iris is a device - a currency denomination identifier - that will empower visually impaired to identify different Indian currency.

It's simple, easy, cheap and mechanical device that will help them identify Indian Currency

Developed and designed at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT G) this device has won many awards;

• Best engineering project nationwide
• Awarded gold medal at Dec 2006 Intel IRIS competition – a national level event by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
• Among top 5 in IDEAZ IIT Bombay, Pan IIT Alumni Business Idea competition
• Owing to the simplicity and social impact of the product, the interview was aired in third week of October 2007 by NDTV India’s Premier news channel in the program The Next Big Thing

We want volunteers who can help us with these two projects. Do email us asking for specific volunteer roles that you would like to lead based on your expertise. We value your expertise, hard work and time given. Volunteers who have the expertise in web site and graphic designing are required. Please email me at anand.koti@gmail.com