Text by Regional Coordinator Truptimayee Das, FHI Bhubaneswar
The Vadodara event took place on 18th August 2019 at Friends Colony, Fatehganj. The theme for the month of August was ‘Seeking Solutions’. The emphasis was on the process of identifying and understanding a problem, analysing the situation, evaluating different solutions for it, choosing the most apt one, and finally implementing it in an efficient and effective manner.
Contrary to the common belief that learning and fun don’t mix, FHI never fails to make learning life skills absolutely entertaining. The first of the decided activities was the Solution Bee; here, a problem is read out to all the teams of children after which they brainstorm and write down all possible solutions on paper. Each team then starts discussing their solutions with the others till one best decision is decided upon. This activity triggered the troubleshooting ability among the children to come up with multiple solutions for one problem.
The next activity conducted was Wounded Webs. One child from each team was blindfolded and had to untangle the human web by that their team members were in by following verbal instructions from them. What made this challenging was that the human web was to be made as per the directions given by an opposing team.
This activity helped the children understand the power of team effort in solving problems and the importance of articulation.
The third activity was the Problem Charade where the teams were given topics relating to general problems that young children face at school. They had to work with their respective team members and volunteers to help us spread awareness about the issue and suggest ways to handle the same. The topics covered by the teams included bullying and teasing, academic pressure, materialism, education disparity, child labour, learning disabilities, language barriers, etc., Many children and volunteers shared their personal experiences on how to overcome these problems which were highly motivational. The other activities included a Scavenger Hunt and Rakhi Making from waste materials.
In today’s world, problems come in our way on a day to day basis and it is important to develop the skills to tackle such problems. Our theme ‘Seeking Solutions’ taught the underprivileged children, who often lack adult guidance and support how to solve problems on their own. Such life skills are most essential as they turn them into confident, independent, and successful individuals.
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