Christmas and New Year Celebrations

Folks! We celebrated Christmas on a bright and sunny afternoon at Jaagriti where we had a variety of fun-filled and happy activities. With the help of our cheerful and ever smiling volunteers we gathered the sparsely dressed little children who came braving the chilly weather of Delhi. We decorated the premises with Christmas trees, festoons and colourful balloons. Cold cream and snacks were also distributed amongst kids. The children, who were the most active participants in the occasion, cheered and jived on various bollywood numbers.

And it would be incomplete and unfair if I don’t mention about the show stealer i.e. our very lovable and adorable Santa Claus who came, played, sang and doled out chocolates to the largely restive but enthusiastic crowd. At the end of the day we cherished several innocent smiles and came back with hearts filled with satisfaction. We are determined to keep these smiles alive and to fulfill the promises that we have made to these angels. I am sure that posterity will be proud of us!

- Piyali

Origami Classes

“A chilly Sunday morning…lots of used A4 sheets in one hand…color-boxes in the other…where the hell are you going ??”…that’s what an acquaintance in my society asked me when we met at the society gate. I just smiled back. The mission was to revive the arts and craft classes at Project Jaagriti.

So we reached there at Open Skies site and found the class going on as expected. The attendance was good and the excitement quite evident when the kids spotted us. A hearty ‘Good Morning’ welcomed us and erased all my doubts about whether the kids will be excited about this class or not. We quickly made the kids sit in circles and assigned one volunteer to each group to help them. One of the kids took the paper and got his pencils ready as he thought we are going to paint something. He was puzzled when he was told that we are going to make something using only paper.

Origami, the art of paper-folding, has been on our mind for some time for the project. What can be more interesting than witness a useless-looking paper turn into a bird or a frog or just about anything under the sun? So for our first class we chose a simple yet interesting shape … a jaw-snapping dinosaur (http://www.origami-club.com/en/fun/wiggle/index.htm). As the dinosaur took shape fold-by-fold, the kids’ excitement was a treat to watch. Even the coloring part was fun, with someone drawing as many as two pairs of eyes on his dinosaur!!

As we continue to dig the internet for more interesting origami, a word of caution to others who plan to conduct such sessions with kids: The number of pages missing from kids’ notebooks is directly proportional to the quality of Origami classes!!

Happy Volunteering!!

Ankit