Life Skills Workshop by LFT

Over the years we have felt a strong need to go beyond the classroom education and provide the children with certain “life skills” which can help them in dealing with various physical and mental challenges they encounter as they grow into adults. Some of these challenges include low self esteem, lack of confidence, social discrimination, poor communication skills etc. We believe these life skills would help the children to study well, develop their personality, enjoy a better living and plan well for their future.

With this in mind, we collaborated with LEADERS FOR TOMORROW (LFT), a not-for-profit youth leadership movement established mainly in college campuses. LFT conducts LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT programmes, SKILLS development programmes and SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT programmes to create LEADERS FOR TOMORROW…!! IGNITING YOUNG MINDS (IYM) is a LEADERS FOR TOMORROW initiative in which they train volunteers from colleges to be the trainers for SOFT SKILLS. Every weekend, these volunteers devote 2 hours to impart soft skills lessons for underprivileged children.

LFT started its LIFE SKILLS workshop with Jaagriti in February for a period of 6 weeks. A group of volunteers came every Sunday and spent 2 hours doing interactive games and activities. Other activities included storytelling, drawing, colouring, word association and role plays focused on building communication skills, moral and social skills, etiquettes, personal hygiene and general knowledge. ‎All the children seemed very happy and actively took part in the activities. They worked independently and behaved well with the volunteers. As most of the volunteers were first or second year college students and were having their first volunteer experience, they were quite nervous initially but the children made them feel very comfortable and followed their instruction carefully. One of the volunteers remarked – “Working with Jaagriti children was a great experience. We won’t ever forget this in our life, each day we spend with these children was a new lesson of life. Thank you Jaagriti for this opportunity.”

The results of the workshop have been very encouraging. The children now exchange pleasant greetings with each other, treat their elders with respect, wash their hands properly before and after every meal, have their nails trimmed, know the meaning of the traffic lights and are also aware of many morals and virtues by way of stories. We can proudly say that these children along with many others like them are on their way to become well mannered and responsible young citizens.

- Bhawana Rana