June is the beginning of heavy rainfall in Araria. Thus we decided to construct a brick pathway inside the center. Children constructed this pathway in their morning shramdaan.

Early in the month we had an intense discussion with Nasir bhai a Journalist and an old friend of the Jeevanshala. Nasir bhai started the discussion with ‘What do you want to become in life ?’ Children came up with interesting replies and then the discussion went into introspection of their choice.

Sex education is an integral part of learning at the Jeevanshala. We revisited the earlier discussion about good and bad touch reiterating the safety rule.

We continued learning with nature. There is a forest area nearby and some classes are conducted under its shady trees.

Learning in Jeevanshala is done through lots of hands on activities and ‘learning by doing’. This month included the introduction of a sentence making board game. Also in Mathematics, while learning about measurement, we used a measuring tape to learn the actual or approximate lengths so as to get idea of real measurements in day to day life.

Post the summer break, all of us met and greeted each other with love and hugs. After the initial get together, everyone got into a frenzied cleaning spree – fans, almirahs, carpets were brushed, rooms and floors were scrubbed clean and we got started. This was a great management feat on the part of the children, who assigned and distributed tasks themselves and were fully responsible for the entire cleaning spree.

Next day, all teacher learners (TL) sat down for planning their respective subjects. New Mathematics classes were started at Ambedkar Nagar Center. May also saw a lot of visitors bringing a lot of learning for children. Three interns from the Azim Premji University (APU) visited our center. They discussed with the children about the beauty of regional and cultural diversity around food habits, clothing, language etc. Satyendra, a Dalit Youth activist, associated with CSEI and the national Youth Forum, spent an evening with the children and played a game together where th children had to introduce themselves with an imaginative story. Creating stories at the moment and adding funny imagination to them was fun.

We had an almost 45 day break this summer, in which the Teacher Learners (TL) team along with senior group students visited the Nature camp at jeolikot (Naital, uttarakhand). Our generous host Paras Bhai, made it a most memorable experience for all of us. But before we go into this beautiful story, we must let you know that while we were away in the HImalayas on a learning expedition, our team back in Araria, made infrsatructural advances, to welcome the new students we were planning to bring on campus, in the months of May-June.

The much awaited trip to Nainital …

If u remember, in November 2021 we had told you about Paras and Shurti’s visit to Araria. They invited us to their Nature Camp, Camp Sparrow, in Jeolikot, Nainital. We were all very enthusiastic and excited about the visit. Here is a small photo update on our trip, which ended with a day well spent in Delhi.

Clockwise: Walk to the Arboretum; Starting the day with a healthy drink; With the forester, at the Arboretum; Interaction at the local school and finally a walk through the arboretum with the local school children.

And with the halt in Delhi, our trip came to an end and we boarded seemanchal express to Araria.

While studying about circuits and electricity in our senior class, we looked at ways of connecting this to our day to day life. Around this time, we found out that Adil, a youth volunteer who used to visit the centre, knew how to fix LED bulbs, so we requested him to do a workshop with our children. Adil in action …

Somewhere in the middle of March, the Bihar Government decided that it wanted to do an assessment of all children across classes enrolled in Government schools. In reality what happened was that assessment was conducted like exams, with cheating, tension and pressure 😦 Our children appeared for their exams as well. Here is a glimpse into March on the field and in the class 🙂

One of the most exciting exercises to happen at the centre, for our children, was the mask making workshop. The senior students, were given a small training on making masks, from old newspapers, by cultural activist Jitendra Paswan. Jitendra is a former Sarpanch from Katihar and also Secretary of the JJSS. He is active with social causes. Here is one scene, captured over a few photos…

Given the marginalised background our children come from, most of them are first generation literates, with meagre economic and social resources, they may or may not excel academically, but they are turning out to be fine human beings. This was confirmed when I saw this beautiful act of care. Rani came back from the playing field, where little Shahzad and fallen. She applied first aid and took care of Shahzad. Rani is the senior most student. She is to appear for her eighth standard exams this year and pass out of the Centre 🙂

February, marked the reopening of the centre in full strength. Here are glimpses into the classroom, under the mango tree, or in the four walls that also make classes 🙂

As we can see in the photos above, the “ganitmala” is an integral part of our basic maths classes. Clockwise: shahzad works on the “ganitmala”; the class in the shadow of the “ganitmala”; Siddhi works on the “ganitmala”; Maths assessment being done by TL Priyanka.

The winter is no deterrent to our shramdan, children working along with Arun ji, to protect the peepul tree planted behind the centre.

In our attempts at bringing the infrastructure up to the mark, we made an accidental sand pit, out of our centre. As the workers dug the centre land to make a septic tank, what came out was very sandy soil. We decided to layer the centre with this sandy soil during our “sharmdan”. Children made the sandy soil their free play sand pit 🙂

As we started a Non Formal Education (NFE) centre in the neighbouring mohalla of our centre, the TL team discussed the idea of volunteering at the centre with the five senior students on campus, all students were excited by the idea and what followed was a beautiful give back to the community. Some photos below.

This period was a chance to focus more on the learnings of the senior group. While doing our electricity chapter, we were amazed when our students who were asked to sketch switches, came with 6-8 illustrations of switches. They also were enthused by the idea of making various circuits and trying out what worked and what din’t. Science is doing!

With a septic tank, which had collapsed, and a missing boundary, a lot of January, also went into developing the centre’s basic infrastructure, and getting a proper septic tank with a sokhta in place.

And 2021 closed for a short few days, to celebrate the year end and winter break, but before that we did a little christmas celebration by singing along with rudolf the red nosed reindeer and jingle belwa.

After the festive break in October, the Jeevanshala reconvened in November. The Teacher Learner (TL) team, was excited to try out all the beautiful things we had learned on our trip to Bhopal. Here is a glimpse of November.

Another beautiful thing that happened at the JS in November, was a visit by Manoj, Shruthi and Paras. While Manoj works with a corporation in the USA, and hails from Bihar, Shruti and Paras are young environmentalists. Paras is also an environmental photographer and film maker. One can check out his work at https://www.youtube.com/c/ParasRajBoraFilms Their interaction with the children, really enthused them and Shruthi didi and Paras Bhaiya, said they would have the children over at their place in Nainital (Uttarakhand).

Like every month, sharamdaan, classes in english, hindi, maths and science continued, along with sports and zumba.

Clockwise: a play of light and shade on the children’s books; On the field in their new winter clothes; classroom in the open