Monika interned with Wishes and Blessings in the first month of 2020. As part of her internship, she organized multiple workshops with our underprivileged children. If you have ever wanted to hold a workshop for an NGO, but do not know what it takes, read on for Monika’s experience of organizing a workshop at one of the Wishes and Blessings daycare centres!
Organizing a workshop is not an easy job; that takes lots of creativity. If planned well, they can be incredibly valuable for everyone involved. Workshops are great for brainstorming, interactive learning, building relationships, and problem-solving. However, pre-planning is essential to ensure that the workshop is a success.
I decided that the first workshop that I organize will be on the occasion of the auspicious festivals of Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal. I chose to do a workshop on art and craft and took some help from my seniors to think of different ideas.
Before teaching the children about the activity, I did a trial for all the tasks to make it easy for the kids. I decided to make slides of important points and to make 3 groups and each group would focus on one festival. As the children belonged to different age groups, each group had two older kids with them and one teacher to ensure that the groups could complete the activities smoothly.
Key points for organizing a workshop:
1. To make slides with the details of the activities in each section.
2. To discuss with your seniors to figure out new ideas.
3. To practice in advance to ensure that you know the activity properly.
4. To decide dates and times in advance and inform the concerned person. There is a need to coordinate with employees in the
5. To develop a follow-up plan.
6. To determine the goal. What should be the outcome of the workshop?
Due to the right planning and guidance, I successfully managed to hold this workshop and the outcome was fruitful. The kids loved the workshop!
——————————————————————————————————————–
The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.
The New Year brings happiness, prosperity in everyone’s lives and also lots of reasons to celebrate! These give us reasons to be happy and enjoy life.
This harvest and prosperity festival (Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal) we celebrated with the children of the Modi Mills Day Care Centre. These kids are always very enthusiastic about new things and their million-dollar smiles are enough to turn a bad day into a good one. This time they did 3 different activities. They created art based on 3 different festivals and learnt about the significance of our farming culture about our field. Through the workshop, they also grasped how diverse our culture is.
The first group made a decorative banner on Makar Sankranti. They wrote a beautiful message on it–“Let’s rise together with happiness in the air!”
The second group “tiny tots” participated in the Lohri group. They drew the chart with their tiny handprints and used ice-cream sticks. They spread awareness about disposing of our bad habits in the bonfire and from that day onwards to bring a change in society
The last group drew on images based on Pongal. They painted all items of worship on a chart and wrote a message on crops and the significance of harvest.
If you would like to join Wishes and Blessings for our next volunteer workshop, please send an email to office@wishesandblessings.net or message us on 9625535026.
Monika loves to read in her spare time, and her favourite author is Marks Manson. If you don’t catch her reading, you might see her gorging on street food or napping!