Taking Action

Basic rights and fundamental freedom is inherent to all human beings and equally applicable to everyone irrespective of nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. Hence, human rights, especially the rights of children, are universal to all. Students of Grade 5 conducted their inquiry into these issues through the unit under the Transdisciplinary Theme, ‘How we organise ourselves’ with the  

Central Idea:  Organisations can help protect and promote human rights.

Through this unit, students not only inquired into different kinds of organisations but also how they work towards protecting and promoting human rights. They also reflected on the possible ways in which they can help and support these organisations. They were able to empathise with these issues and also realize their responsibility in supporting these organisations . Towards the end of the unit, students came up with their individual action plans and many of them took the initiative to implement these plans. We hereby, share these genuine instances of student led action with all of you! 

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Please find below some of the evidences for action taken by individual students. 

My trip to a NGO by Abhinav Jain

A visit  to Khushboo society by Harsh Jain

I went to Khushboo welfare society .I introduced myself to them and asked them their name but they spoke very less because they thought I was going to  harm them .I sat with them and made a art piece . I asked them how do they work and do their activities. I donated Rs.5000 to Khushboo welfare society.

A NOBLE GESTURE BY ASHLIN BANSAL

Last year in November, during the vacations I and three of my other friends, Sofia, Ayushi and Junko the CHARITY GIRLZ had a Charity Sale. In that we sold our books, CDs, and other useful things. We even made cookies, cupcakes and everyone really enjoyed eating them.

We did this Charity sale in Vatika City and many people came to our sale and bought things, ate and had a great time. Our sale was successful and the total sale amount was Rs.7,000. This money was donated to the NGO CRY (child rights and you). From that NGO we got a certificate to acknowledge the action we took.

After the charity sale we had many books, CDs and other things left. We decided to donate them to a NGO. The name of the NGO was Ashish Centre. This is a school which gives an opportunity for the autistic children to learn and enjoy their lives like us. Autism is a disease where people face difficulty to express their feelings. They feel scared when someone unknown touches them or even looks at them. We went to this school and tried to interact with the children. We prepared small performance for them to make them feel special and that there is no difference between us and them. We sang Christmas carols and a song composed by Ayushi to cheer them up, Junko and me made a chart and wrote a short poem to make them feel equal.

Me and my brother made a brochure on eye donation, blood donation and donation for old things that people don’t use anymore but are in good condition. Then I distributed it amongst the society and some of my relatives. All of them agreed to donate at least one of the things (blood, eyes and old things).

Charity Sale by Ayushi Bhanja

Junko, Ashlin, Sofia, and I held a charity sale in Vatika City. We sold our old books dvds and cd roms as well as cookies and cupcakes.All proceeds went to a foundation CRY (Child Rights and You). Afterwards there were a lot of remaining things that had not been sold, so we went to a school for autistic and disabled kids, where we donated the rest of the things and also spent some time with them. 

Visit to Happy School  by Vansh Shrivastav

I went to Happy School on Saturday and I gave my old Hindi and English books which I have already read, also, I gave my old clothes too,I gave it to the caretaker of the school. I am determined that I will visit the  Happy School to give my old books and old clothes to needy children, I felt really nice when I gavc my  clothes and old books to  the students of Happy School.

SHARING  HAPPINESS  BY VANSH BALI

I distributed sweets to the children for my action plan because they don’t have anything, but we have many things that we can share so that’s why I had shared a little bit of my happiness with them to give them a little bit of happiness. 

PARYN'S  BAKE SALE

In the morning, I  and my mother baked chocolate flavoured muffins . After the baking was over, we went to my friend Rianna's house. It was a hot afternoon and we decided to set up our stall a little late in the day. It was about 5:00pm that we started setting up the stall and started selling half an hour later. There were two sized muffins. The smaller one was priced at Rs.10 and the bigger one at Rs.30.

The response to the stall was encouraging. People of all ages started coming to see the stall out of curiosity. Some of them bought the muffins there and then and some asked for the muffins to be delivered to their apartments. We also tried to increase our sales by going up to some people and informing them about the charitable cause behind the project.

Almost everyone liked the muffins and appreciated the effort. We were able to sell all the 80 muffins within 2 hours and collected Rs.1,500. We gave the money to 'Happy School'. It was a very interesting experience.

NANDINI SINHA'S INITIATIVE

 VISIT TO DARBARIPUR  BY ARYAN SHARMA

I went to the shelter - Progetto India which is in Darbaripur. The shelter was created to give homeless children a proper life with a better understanding of the world. I donated clothes and food to this NGO. I played cricket with them and also found out what their daily schedule is.

VISIT TO UDAY FOUNDATION BY ADHIRAJ PRUTHI

For my action plan I went to the ‘Uday Foundation’. Over there I donated my clothes and toys. In the Uday Foundation they treat children who suffer from various kinds of diseases.

Sharing knowledge by Anjali Bhardwaj

I taught my neighbors (who are not that much educated) simple vocabulary. For this, I read them out a story from an English book and then explained it all in Hindi. I even taught them the basic manners one should have.I donated them a box of pencils which contained 12 pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. You could  see how happy they were when I gave it to them. I even put posters around the village which said ‘Donate’. These posters asked for different types of donations for example- clothes, money and even blood, eyes etc. 

An Email exchange between Tanvi Jha- 5W and

 Mrs. Kamal Capoor from Happy school

From: Tanvi Jha <tanvijha101@gmail.com>

To: kamalcapoor@yahoo.com

Cc: Shalini Ranjan (Faculty Aravali) <shalini.ranjan@pathways.in>

Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2013 5:00 PM

Subject: Would like to contribute to the Happy school

Dear Ma'am,

I am a student of Pathways World School of grade 5. I had visited your school a few days back with my class. I have some money (Rs 2200) which I have collected by making some cards and Scooby strings and selling them. I would like to give that money to the children at Happy School. I am hoping I can do that, also would you prefer me to buy some stationery or give the money directly?

With warm regards

Tanvi Jha 

From: kamal capoor <kamalcapoor@yahoo.com>

Date: April 15, 2013 7:31:39 PM GMT+05:30

To: Tanvi Jha <tanvijha101@gmail.com>

Cc: "shalini.ranjan@pathways.in" <shalini.ranjan@pathways.in>

Subject: Re: Would like to contribute to the Happy school

Reply-To: kamal capoor <kamalcapoor@yahoo.com>

Dear Tanvi,

Thank you for your mail. I am delighted to hear that you have collected some money by making and selling cards and scooby strings and would like to donate the money to The Happy School.  

I have told your mother that you can probably get some drawing books for them. They would love that, especially after they hear how you bought them. Do bring a few of the cards you made. It will be an inspiration for them. Someone has said "You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." The children can only repay you with their smiles and thank you from the bottom of their hearts.

We look forward to seeing you on the 27th April at school between 9-12.

Love & Peace

Kamal Capoor

An Email exchange between Shweta Nanda – 5Y and

 CRY Foundation

Ma'am... I decided to donate every year around 5000 rupees for the cause to stop Child Labour so that the parents are employed and the kids can leave a normal and happy life. The donation goes by my name and is donated by me. Every year I get my allowance for chores I do so I will set aside 5000 rupees that will go to the foundation. This is the first mail from the NGO.

--------- Forwarded message ----------

 From: Child Rights and You <webinfo@crymail.org>

 Date: Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 7:41 PM

 Subject: Thank you for your donation

 To: nandashweta325@gmail.com

Dear Shweta Nanda,

Welcome to CRY's movement for the rights of India's children. A movement that, thanks almost entirely to individuals like you, has ensured that over 1.5 million children across India enjoy their basic rights to survival, development, protection and participation - in a word to a 'childhood'.

This is an 'Acknowledgement Statement' towards your donation online CRY's payment gateway.

Your Donation no. is 78446 and Order Trace No: is 378343

Total amount donated by you is Rs. 4800

We are yet to receive the payment advice from your bank. We will debit your account upon receipt of the same.

An email with a receipt for your contribution will be delivered to your email address within 15 working days

For further assistance, do write to Webinfo@crymail.org or visit www.cry.org to find more avenues to participate in this movement for child rights.

With faith and goodwill

 The CRY Team

An intiative to teach underprivileged  children by  Sahil Gudhaiya- 5Y 

Spreading smiles across children’s faces at 

Asha Bhawan Girl's House Rusheen Bansal-5X

 I first went around in my neighborhood, asking for money to donate. I gathered money around 280 rupees. I then collected some of my own old clothes, toys, bag and storybooks. Everything was in good condition. I went to Asha Bhawan girls’ house to donate my things. It is a small orphanage for girls. There is a separate house for boys. I donated my things happily and I was delighted to see a smile spread across the children’s face. Now I have decided to go and donate my clothes or toys there occasionally.

A step towards the protection of child rights by Rishita Baruah- 5Y

During my Holi break, I visited the TEEKLI village with my parents. I wanted to do something to contribute towards the protection of child rights. I spoke to a few villagers and offered to teach their children. I collected five children from the village. Then I got them home and taught them addition and subtraction. Some of the children didn’t know how to read or write. I taught them and also played games with them. I spent almost two hours with them. I enjoyed teaching them and would love to do it again.

Education for all - by Nandini Sood- 5Y

Kalpana is my cook’s 6 year old daughter. I helped her as a friend. I made her feel comfortable with me.  I had already taught her numbers from 1-50. I revised with her and then taught her addition and subtraction. I also helped her to learn alphabets .

‘Just donating money is not enough; they need love’

by Mahika – 5Z

Hi, I’m Mahika Goel from 5-Z and I’m going to tell you about my visit to Deep Ashram. I had kept a stall for 2 days selling stationery, tattoos, and water guns. My profit was 225/-. I decided to donate the money to Deep Ashram- an orphanage for mentally retarded boys. Mentally retarded means that a person behaves like a small baby is a bit clueless and develops self-care skills later than a normal child. This disability can be determined by IQ.
When I saw the boys I was so scared, especially of those in the cage. Those who were in the cage were in there not because they were aggressive but because they didn’t know what they were doing. We also met a boy named Shibu who as well as having mental retardation was handicapped also. His arms though present did not work or grip anything properly or not at all but on top of that entire he knew 3 digit sums after years of practice and also drew beautiful drawings and colored well. Can you guess how he used his pen? He drew and wrote with his feet. I got a chance to look at his handwriting and comparing it with mine I found that it was almost better than mine and he wrote with his feet too.  Isn’t that amazing!!

One more thing, the Deep Ashram was founded by Mother Teresa and one of her quotes was on the wall. It was something like this “Just donating money is not enough, they need love, so open your heart and love them with all of your heart” and that is exactly what my family and I did.

Putting my plan into action- Ananya Agarwalla-5Y

I believe every human has a right to education. A key factor for the lack of education is poverty/shortage of funds.

My plan is to help educate people. The cost of eating one family meal outside is Rs 3500. If we save that much money we can educate one child for a year. I thought why can’t I do some good work and just educate my driver for 2 days for 45 minutes each day during my holidays and that's 

what I did. I had lots of free time, so I sat down and taught him.

Taking steps  to put my plan into action – Alia Mahajan -5X

Community service done by Agresh Kedia -5W in a home called Asha Niketan in Asansol

In my Holi break, I went to my hometown Asansol and visited an organisation called Asha Niketan to execute my action plan with regards to Human Rights Organisation. It was the time of Holi so I decided to celebrate the festival with the inmates of Asha Niketan and share joy and festivities with them. I distributed Holi colours and ‘Pichkaari’ to them which made them very happy. I played Holi with them and felt very good to see them happy. This organisation has been founded by four people including my mother Mrs. Namita Kedia.

Fundraiser For Charity

Alia Mahajan of Grade 5X and her friends decided to do something meaningful in the summer break and organised a fundraiser for charity by making cookies and lemonade and selling them. They were able to collect Rs. 3250 and donated some amount to the organisation working for the protection of Tigers and some to a an organisation working for the children.

Independence Day Celebrations with the community

Pathways World School has adopted a number of government-run village schools in its local community and works actively with them and for them, by providing support, resources and training. The students of Grade 5 celebrated the 66^th Independence Day in a unique way on Monday, 13^th August, 2012 by visiting two of these schools. The programme was a joint celebration of the Independence Day by students from both schools. The Grade 5 students from Pathways were divided into two groups and one went to a school at Hariaheda and the other to a school at Raiseena, both villages in the Sohna area.

The students from Pathways had prepared a poem recitation and a patriotic song, both in Hindi. The flag was hoisted by our School Director, Dr. Sarvesh Naidu, at both schools. This was followed by the singing of the national anthem in a unique unison that blurred all divisions between the students from the two schools. The cultural programme ensued in which students from both schools took part. We also provided the students from the village schools with special snacks, which they thoroughly relished.

The teachers escorting our students too got to interact with the teachers from the village schools and it was a humbling experience to note the challenges these teachers face and how they overcome them. As it was time to say good bye, we left with the hope of having made a difference in the lives of the children who interacted, in more ways than one. Above all, it was a meaningful celebration that was aimed at instilling values of humility, tolerance and cooperation in the youth of tomorrow, hoping that the experience will be both humbling and empowering, thus, contributing to a brighter and better future for the nation.