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