Health Checkup – Janathepada & Toplepada Anganwadi – Sep 16
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Having conducted camps at Dadade Ashram Shala and for the students of 11 schools, we decided to have a mini health checkup for the anganwadi kids. We have 25 kids in two anganwadis (3 to 6 years age range) at Janathepada and Toplepada respectively. The kids are under good care! Apart from conducting the health checkup, we also supplied them Protein powder. As per anganwadi in-charge, the regular protein supplement has resulted into growth in their weight when measured on regular basis. However, we noticed some kids with iron deficiency and also needed deworming. Additional medicines were provided for both.
Almost all the kids in this area come from tribal background. Their language is still quite different than the language “Marathi” used as medium in the schools. Our teachers have to extra effort to make them learn Marathi. The students are also expected to have more exposure to English and Hindi. Suhrid foundation had decided to help teachers address these challenges. As a first step, we arranged for teachers’ training in Phonics (a method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system), which helped teachers train the kids in getting started with English. While the kids become familiar with Marathi, their vocabulary and knowledge in general is restricted to only the books, which are made available by the government to them. Based on our discussions with the teachers, we identified a set of 65 books and 15 charts, which we decided to contribute to the library of these schools. We connected with publishers for the same and managed to get the relevant books (Mahabharat, Ramayan, Krishnaleela, Hitopadesh, Tenaliram, Pari Katha etc in Marathi and Hindi) and charts (Fruits, Animals, Numbers, Vehicles, vegetables etc). We distributed these to Janathepada and Nandelpada School. Teachers would run a small library with the help of senior students! The kids would not only develop habit of reading in Marathi and Hindi, they would get good exposure to history, geography and other interesting knowledge areas. We expect these kids to tell the stories in the class or in front of visitors and recite poems.
We are taking several projects for the welfare of the kids. We have already started with a project, wherein we would be providing them bicycles (small and Medium size). For most of the kids, it is for learning and enjoying the ride. At the same time, we would also help a few kids, who walk long distance to go to their schools.
We provide sports items to each school on regular basis. Some of the items (Lego set, Mechano etc) make the kids learn also when they play with these games. We would like to take another step to develop and maintain their creative side. We would be distributing Origami (the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures) books and papers to the kids as well.
