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Roopal Mehta, a Kidlink volunteer, helped at Visamo
relief camp, soon after the earthquake. Here is a
report by her:
Reports
fom the Visamo Earthquake Relief Camp India, February
2001
Today,
Kidlink was
introduced to the children and I think they all liked
the idea of `talking' to the kids of the other countries
and exchange.
Well
I am not an experienced teacher, but whatever came
to mind, I tried to apply.
This
is how I began - I formed a circle of kids and asked
how would one kid of the circle join hands with the
opposite kid. And then how would all the kids join
hands with all the other kids. I stood in the middle
of circle, and told them to join hands with me, and
thus forming a `link'. This is how I introduced Kidlink, - the
link which will join hands with the kids of the rest
of the countries.
Most
of them are/may not be aware of computer and Internet,
so I had to explain them the `link' part and then
moved on to `penfriendship' - the concept is known
by almost everybody. I noticed one or two boys did
know about `chatting' on the internet, so they grasped
it well. For others I made it simpler, by explaining
the telephone chatting and computer chatting.
Suddenly
I felt they were excited. `But how will we be able
to chat from here' - I said, I'll be more or less
like a postman to them! By the time little girls came
to me, held my hands and I hugged them.
Whew...
:-)
Then I asked them individually their names and they
replied. At end, I told them `Hey, none of you asked
why my name was!' ..To my surprise, all of them said
`Roopal -it is on your volunteer badge!' Whoops...I
guess we underestimate the kids sometime :-)
My
next move was - taking out a big chart paper, which
I had prepared in advance with colorful writing of
`Kidlink' and
`Who-Am-I? ' program. All writing was in crayons so as
to attract them. I gave them the paper, and told them
to write their names on it, so that we can pin it
up at the camp, along with their paintings, etc.
Suddenly
all of them jumped on to grab crayons and the chart...oh
I was so inexperienced to handle the situation. Anyway,
a teacher came to my rescue, and lined up everybody
and we finished the thing.
All
the while two bright little boys were showing more
interest and asked me questions like `how soon they
could get response to their mails' etc. I explained
the Four questions to all kids -and told them to write
replies in any language of their choice. (English/
Gujarati/ Hindi) Since the camp has a schedule of
time, I had to leave the papers and the questions
(are pinned up on the wall too).
I
told those bright boys that `they are `in-charge'
of the papers and the writings of the other kids.
And whenever in spare time, make sure everyone finishes
them up -cuz without the answers, we will not be linked'.
Hope
I am doing okay so far... this is the first time I'm
handling Kidlink.
Apologies
if I've goofed up somewhere!
The
problem
This
will be a slightly different project than approaching
to the school /classroom kids. The problem is - this
is not a school but a rehabilitation camp. Meaning
the kids will go away as soon as they find the homes.
The camp is there for two months as such. I noticed
that before two days, there were 1000 people in the
camp, and today there were hardly 150 families.
Some
of the kids come at night time only, and leave in
the morning, with their family for the repair work
of their damaged homes or shifting to a new place.
The totally orphaned kids are sent to the orphanage
homes/ or adopted by good people. Yes a lot of people
have come forward to adopt the children -that's a
very nice gesture of this society, I believe.
Suggestions?
Comments?
Roops
Roopal Mehta, Ahmedabad, India.
webmaster@gujaratonline.com
Gujarat Online http://gujaratonline.com/
Process
Reporting
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