CovaiCare

The Second Summer Magic Camp 2018

by

The second Summer Magic Camp 2018 for S3 staff’s children of Covai S3 Senior Care Centre, Coimbatore

–A page from diary of Mrs.Raji Subbarayan, Resident of Covai S3 Senior Care Centre.

The first  Summer Magic  Camp 2017 conducted, from the initiative taken by Colonel Sridharan, was short yet very rewarding and encouraging. The Highlights were:

  1. CovaiCare management and staff’s full support,
  2. Opening of Bank accounts for all children and Market Place earnings deposited in individual accounts.
  3. All the camp children, got enrolment in the India Poverty solution program initiated by Shanthi Ashram
  4. Remarkable change in children’s enthusiasm. Mentors also identified the individuals who need a lot more of mentoring and guidance. Mentors feeling happy that their time was well spent.
  5. Participation from the residents. The total group effect was like a ‘magic spell’.
  6. Dental checkup and blood grouping for the entire group was done.
  7. The Felicitation and closure program saw many of the children making a very sincere attempt to narrate in English their experience and learnings.

At the review meeting last year, it was recommended that we need to have a more sustainable and structured program to maximum the benefits for the children. With this as the main requirement, and that the seniors found it very difficult to cope with the summer heat, I took the initiative to discuss with Dr. Kezvinoo Aram, and her team members at Shanthi Ashram, about including our children in their programs. The initial meetings were done last year and I followed up with them in March 2018. They responded favorably and sent us their program for this summer.

I had to take a very quick decision on the first program as the kids were called for a selection interview. Both the kids and the mentors were excited and could see the benefits from it.

The mentors of last year felt that it will be a great learning with greater exposure to interacting with resource people and children from other schools. The strategy of taking them to different centers to learn would make them internalize the learnings. They  were willing to consider sparing their time to support the proposals.

Program details of Summer Camp 2018

  1. May 7thto May 15th – Two of our children have been selected for a scholarship program to be trained in a technology aided Spoken English module. At this meeting, they accepted my appeal of adding two more children of S3 Staff. The 4 children selected for this are:
  • Harish Sivakumar
  • Suhitha  Shanmugam
  • Athikarsudalai Thangatandi
  • Ponmani Thangatandi
  1. Sponsor my spelling skills – Children get Rs 15 for every 50 words spelt correctly by the sponsor. Money earned will go into their bank account. Word list is compiled and the training by mentors has started.
  2. May 17th – 9.30 am to 4.30 pm.Programme on ‘High Risk behaviour problems in adolescent’s’ will be conducted in The Gandhi Museum. They will visit de-addiction and rehabilitation centres. They will also learn about preventive strategies.
  3. May 18th – Shramdaan at Perur. This is to inculcate the pride of our heritage. In partnership with the priests they will be taken through a program of history and importance. They will participate in the cleaning of the temple. They will also be taken to the premises where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are kept.
  4. Learning to live together – Understanding self and others, and       transforming the world together. Since our group is very small we will take the 8 of them to Shanthi Ashram  at a time convenient to both, so that they benefit from a larger group  interaction.
  5. Clean Neighborhood – A public rally around Pachapalayam, by CovaiCare and Residents of Covai S3 Senior Care Centre, staff and their children.

Spoken English Training – Graduation ceremony at Gandhi Ashram

[wonderplugin_carousel id=”42″]

Leave a Comment