On a slightly hot Sunday evening - on the terrace of a house in a congested street in tiruvanmiyur - the event of school kit distribution jointly organized by YFS and Sevabharathi Tamilnadu started at 6 pm. Around 150 children studying at the three Sevabharathi's tuition centers were present. The event started with great vigour and enthusiasm. Will there ever be a shortage of enthusiasm when kids are around?
The event was presided over by YFS coordinators Priya and Deepa, Kumar ji of Rotary Club, Rajesh Vivekanandan ji of Sevabharathi Tamilnadu.
After a small prayer, the welcome address was given by Sevabharathi's Thiruvanmiyur area coordinator Radhakrishnan ji. He explained about the Children's Savings Scheme through which the children are taught to make small savings and this year they had saved upto Rs. 22,000. A perfect example of how every long journey starts with a small step.
Sevabharathi's Thiruvanmiyur tuition centre coordinator Ramalingam ji then explained some of the activities organized by them. Their first tuition center was started in 2000 and they have been teaching kids for the past 12 years. Now they have centres spread in areas like Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Besant Nagar, MGR Nagar & Velachery too. Apart from regular tuitions, the children are also involved in 'culture classes', 'mangal deep classes', etc. One of the most important and interesting aspects of the tuition centers was that the children who studied at the tuition centers have graduated and have come back to teach the younger students.
Some children studying in these tuition centres spoke about their experience of studying here. They stressed on the importance of being neatly dressed and being clean in their appearance, being punctual to the class, saying prayers and having a helping attitude.
Next we had a speech by YFS coordinator Deepa. She had been teaching basics of Computer at the Thiruvanmiyur tuition center for the past one year. She talked about how teaching at this centre helped her personally and the joy she experienced in spending time with them. She said she looked forward to teaching there again and this time she will bring more volunteers like her who have a similar desire.
Next we had a speech by our chief guest Kumar ji (Ex President of Rotary Club of Mylapore). He shared his thoughts by beginning with Swami Vivekananda's powerful quote "Give me 100 youngsters and I will change India". He said that it gave him immense pleasure to see so many youths who had come to the event as part of YFS. He stressed the importance of serving our fellow humans.
YFS volunteer Senthil interacted with the children to explain about why YFS was doing the school kit drive. He explained that by serving everyone we are helping ourselves. If we serve today's generation they should, in turn, serve the next generation and this process should continue. This, according to Senthil, is the main goal of this event.
We then had the school kits distributed to the children by the YFS volunteers and the chief guests. The event got over after the 'thank you' address.
Some happy moments
Valliappan
No comments:
Post a Comment