#Ride4ChildRights

 Ujjawal Chauhan, IIT-Kharagpur student and ardent CRY Volunteer is        embarking on what his friends are calling the 'Madness Project' but   we at CRY and Ujjawal see it as a unique #Ride4ChildRights. Join Ujjawal, his cycle and camera as they travel across 4 states and 2500 kms to capture the reality of children in #India to raise awareness and funds to end child labour. Stay tuned for more photos and pledge your support for Ujjawal here : http://bit.ly/1tJUrUo

Ujjawal Tumblr: http://ujjawal-ride4childrights.tumblr.com/  Here you will find Ujjawal’s updates and Photos along his journey being documented on a  daily  basis

Ujjawal bitgiving: http://bitgi.co/stopchildlabour  This is Ujjawal’s bitgiving page where he will be raising funds for CRY through his journey.

CRY Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRYINDIA

The link where you can collect the badge for Ujjawal. http://www.picbadges.com/badge/3651545/

(SUMMER CAMP FUN) ³

“My experience at the Summer Camp was awesome. With the kids I forget myself and enjoy being a kid .It feels good if you know that someone is waiting to meet you so eagerly and same situation is there in your mind..Every day I wait for Saturday to come whenever I think of camp just a thought brings smile to my face..”- Cry Volunteer, Suman

Day 2 of Summer camp left us wanting for more.  We had to wait an entire week for Day 3 of Summer camp. But behold! 24^th, Day 3 of Summer Camp was finally here. The kids were going to in for a shock today, we had new friends from Philips who packed quite a surprise from them.Its always nice to start our day with music, why not do the same here? Modern Melody kick started Day 3 of Summer Camp. 

  To the mild strums of guitar, the students passionately sang Aashayein and Mera bhi toh adhikaar hai. They clapped and snapped their fingers and waved rhythmically to the tunes of the song, with infectious enthusiasm.Much to their disappointment, singing hour got over, but in store for them was another one of their favourite activities.

 It was craft time! Volunteer Rasika handed out sheets and scissors and instructed the students methodically to make the kandils. The students deftly handled the sheets and made them. Those who managed to finish it quickly flaunted their kandils for the shutterbugs. It was wonderful to see all the kids so focused in making their kandils, as they squinted and made their “scissor faces”.  All in a matter of one hour there were bright, beautifully made kandils in every child’s hand, all of them grinning with pride!

After a short break it was time to let loose and do the ‘CHICKEN DANCE’! The volunteers , the kids, our friends from Philips all quacked and flapped to the tunes of the Chicken dance! Everyone burst out laughing looking at one another.

Wouldn’t it be great if your birthday coincided with the Summer Camp? One of our little girls, Sushma, celebrated her birthday with us, Philips got her a beautiful and yummy chocolate cake which she shared with her 57 new friends. What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday!

Following that we had a presentation on our former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by our volunteer Mohit. He gave the students the inspirational story of how hard work and perseverance made an ordinary boy from Rameshwaram rise to the ranks of President and a Bharat Ratna awardee.  Don’t we all have something to learn from that? Mohit himself had a few words to share ““It was such an overwhelming experience. The first day I visited, I saw those innocent faces coming in by the dozen. The activities started, and the response from the children motivated us. We had a schedule for every Saturday, but we never had to carry a script, it was the children who scripted the fun for themselves and we just acted according to it. Those smiling, dancing, artistic, enthusiastic faces will be the best moments of the Summer Camp and will be cherished forever. I have learned a lot in these 3 days. Initially I had stage fright so much so that if I had to speak with a mic in my hand, I would get really nervous. But when I had to present a motivational story to the children, I managed to do so with ease, because the relation between me and the children took away my fear.

If we eliminate the stress of competition among children, and the fear of losing, then the school lectures will turn into camps! Children will learn with fun. Education will become edutainment.
No child is incapable of learning, but the way to teach each of them is different. I believe there's always a fun way to teach, and that's what children need.I thank each and every single person associated with the camp for all the EDUTAINMENT they provided me. Thanks a lot!”

As the day moved on, Philips read every child’s mind when brought out a canvas and platters filled with different coloured paints. Every kid loves getting their hands dirty and that s exactly what they did! Hand painting! The dream activity for every child. 

Sagar too had his own share of wonderful experiences “Initially, when we thought of being a part of Summer Camp in Airoli, I was wondering how it would go as we were new to the school, new to the children but as the first day of summer camp progressed, I found myself in a very comfortable zone with the children. Art, theatre and singing brought confidence in children to speak, helped them to develop team work quality and creativity. It also gave the volunteers an opportunity to work with children.

Personally speaking summer camp has given me a great platform to show my leadership qualities, handling the events and coordinating with volunteers, school staff, CRY staff. Looking forward to more events like this. Thank you very much”

As we see, this had been a learning and fun experience for both, the volunteers and the children.

Can’t wait for  Day 4 of Summer Camp!

Click Right 2014

Photovoices of Children 

18 May 2014: The whole idea behind the event held on Sunday morning for the Jogeshwari Community kids was to introduce something new to them- an instrument which captures their family, friends, their likes & dislikes, that being a camera. All the kids were fascinated by the cameras. They had all seen a camera before but this time there was something different.  This time nobody was clicking pictures of them, instead they were allowed to hold this magical instrument and click pictures of their world. As we say, pictures are the way we see the world, each one of us has a completely different outlook towards the world. This outlook can be best exhibited with a photograph.

The day started with a purpose for all volunteers. The Jogeshwari Community kids were gathered together by Aakar at their office. Was it really that easy task for them to gather kids in their office room with discipline & pin-drop silence? We wondered how all the kids in one room managed to sit without making any noise. Normally, when we, CRY Volunteers, do the weekly Sunday activity with them, we need a lot of convincing strategies to engage them. But pin-drop silence. WOW! Well must say that the Aakar team is a master in this art. When the Click Rights & CRY volunteers entered Aakar office,  the kids were seated in rows and were watching their favourite cartoon, ‘Chotta Bheem’ on Pogo. Does this recall your childhood Sunday morning fantasy? It definitely did for us.Christine and Ravindra from CRY helped us divide the children into 5 groups with one CRY volunteer and one Click Rights volunteer handling each group. The execution plan for this campaign was to have the Click Rights volunteer teach kids how to operate a camera and to have the CRY volunteer understand and analyse the kid’s thought process behind everything picture he or she clicked. To divert their focus from their favorite Cartoon Superhero the kids were then introduced to the camera.

Each Volunteer group initiated their take. We first got familiar with the kids, introduced ourselves, and got to know about their family background and schooling. The Click Rights volunteers then explained to them how to hold a camera and operate it. The kids took us to their locality. Their parents had been informed in advance about the Photo Voices event. They did show enthusiasm and encouraged their children to take on the tour with their magical instruments. The kids had fun and were unstoppable. They were quick to learn and in no time managed to operate the camera with ease. This event has helped create an interest in the minds of the other children in the community and has helped encourage more children to join the weekend workshop organised by the CRY volunteers in North Mumbai. This event was a success with all the volunteers working together for a cause. It has helped us better understand our community kids with a new perspective.

Volunteers involved : Kaustub , Kavita More  , Kavita Gosh, Tarun , Prashant, Avanish  Hitakshi, siddarth , Rahul  

                       Edutainment = summer camp

17^th May 2014, Saturday

To prep up the day with not just a healthy body, but also a healthy mind, the second session of summer camp by CRY started with a Yoga session for the eager 56 students at Chattarpati Rajayshree Shahu Maharaj Vidyalaya. CRY volunteers Kiran and Suraj taught them exciting vocal exercises to get them started with some focused energy.

Yoga session was followed by a session on theatre. The hands-on practical training started with chanting of a couple of prayers. The students were taught the intrinsic difference between acting and over-acting. They were split into groups and were given 5 minutes to practice and 2 minutes to enact a realistic situation. The children were tickled to come up with their own ideas and stage it in front of everyone. The applauses and cheers kept them thoroughly encouraged!

Next up was the singing session. Modern Melody band taught the children the theme song of CRY, Mera bhi toh adhikaar hai. The touching song moved the children as they closed their eyes and sang without any inhibitions.

The art session that continued from the previous session saw Rasika (CRY’s volunteer) teach the children the art of making paper quilled greeting cards. The children had fun rolling the colourful strips of paper and carefully giving it shape, creating beautiful designs for the 3D cards they made last week.

A ten minute break was given to the students. That was followed by a small movie, Meena, the educating cartoon that taught the students about ablution, sanitation and personal hygiene.  

The session ended with Roshini and Sumit, coordinators, teaching the students to shake their legs. The students immensely enjoyed dancing to the tunes of Bollywood. 

Summer Camp 2014

 Who said Summer Camp can’t be cool?

On Saturday 10^th May 2014 , 61 kids poured into the gates of Chattarpati Rajayshree Shahu Maharaj Vidyalaya at 9 in the morning with eager, smiling faces. Our CRY volunteers, who were already there beforehand, welcomed them.

Amey and Kiran CRY volunteers conducting theater and yoga class 

The kids had absolutely no idea about the fun that was in store for them!

The summer camp started off with an encouraging speech by the Mr.  Sudhakar  S Sonawane , Chairman Education Committee  following which all the volunteers introduced  themselves to the children.

We started the day with a yoga session headed by our enthusiastic volunteer Amy, who made them get in touch with their inner self by making the child within them scream out loud. Amused to see this rendition of yoga, the kids joined in whole-heartedly.

Modern Melody Team 

Once the kids were all pumped up we had a volunteer group called Modern Melody come in and surprise them with a music session. Putting themselves in the children’s shoes, the group managed to pick the perfect songs to teach the children. They started off with Aashayein from the movie Iqbal. The children were more than thrilled to see a guitarist accompany them. The singer also gave a small speech explaining the meaning of the lyrics of the song and gave them reason to believe and hope for a better future. Following this, the kids screamed and laughed while singing Bum Bum Bole from the movie Taare Zameen Par. Sadly, this session couldn’t go on forever but the children weren’t disappointed for too long since the next session was equally fun.

Rasika conducting Art and Craft Workshop 

Our very own CRY volunteer, Rasika headed the art and craft session where the children learnt to make 3D Greeting Cards. The children were divided into groups and material was provided to them. Rasika taught them how to make the card step by step and in half an hour each of them was proudly holding up their very own greeting card.

With that we ended the art and craft session and began the introductory theatre session where the volunteers displayed a series of comical acts which the kids found highly amusing.

After the theatre session, Hersh from Kodak conducted a photography workshop where he spoke about the history of photography, the science behind the camera and how cameras help us capture different moments of our life.

Hersh Lulla conducting phtoworkshop with children 

After the brief on photography the kids were given some snacks. Then they were sent out with volunteers to click pictures of their surroundings. This was a part of Photo Voices. The children had a gala time clicking pictures in the school playground and garden. With this we concluded Day 1 of Summer camp.

A Big thank you to all our CRY volunteers for all the help and support!

Sagar, Suman, Rasika, Pooja, Mohit, Kiran, Prakhar, Rohan, Yash, Yashashree, Apoorva, Karan, Raakesh, Amey, Rajdeep, Rahul, Kush, Volunteers from Modern Melody , Hersh Lulla , Cynthia Dias, Radhika and Anuja Kothari  


Press Coverage got for the summer camp 

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=64335&boxid=9583&ed_date=2014-5-15&ed_code=820015&ed_page=3