Community Outreach by class 12

On 21 March, 2014, a group of students of class XII accompanied by Dr. Anu Singh got an opportunity to visit Palna, an NGO, which is the best known and internationally acclaimed programme run by The Delhi Council for Child Welfare.

Palna, which literally means cradle is a home for abandoned, homeless and destitute children. Infact during our visit, we humbly realised how it is a haven of peace, security and stability for the children who come here. Every effort is made at Palna to move away from an institutional environment to a homely one, to create an atmosphere of caring and calm and to bring a smile onto the face of every child.

The students visited to spend time with the older children at Palna and also to hand over the schools contribution to the NGO, ably collected by the children themselves through their Shramdaan activities.

Dr. Sandhya Bhalla, Director, Palna, gave us an overview of the primary objective of this programme as a belief that a child does not belong to an institution, but a family. She also focused on the fact that it is secondary why parents give up a child and what stands primary is to change the mindsets of people share in regard to those we call orphans. No parent, except from extreme compulsion can give up a child and the severance of the bond must be agonising.

The children welcomed us with bright and smiling faces. Just looking at them, we felt a deep sense of responsibility of how society must offer each one of them an opportunity to realise his/ her potential.

Giving children a childhood, is the mission at Palna, which also conducts informal reading, writing, number- skills, story- telling, dancing, singing, etc for the little ones and we all were delighted to briefly be a part of this programme. We chatted with the children, breaking the ice with introducing ourselves and asked each one what he/she liked doing the best and what they wanted to become. A teacher, pilot, actor, doctor, singer, dancer etc. were their prompt responses which we are sure all children aspire to become at early ages. Indeed these children are just the same as we are, yet with so much strength. We felt overwhelmed. The children were happy and animated and it was a treat for us to play games with them!

We involved them in a fun-enactment of the childrens favourite cartoon, Chota Bheem which was much enjoyed by them. The dancers amongst us did a little jig to their great amusement! A story session followed and we ended with singing aloud rhymes that the children were familiar with.

We stepped outdoors in the play area. Each child was free to roam and run, climb the jungle gym, ride the merry go round and glide down the play-slide!

We handed over our Shramdaan collection in our humility. We had not realised earlier what a bundle of benefit it meant in these little lives. We pledged we would only work more.

We said our byes in reluctance as it was time to go. We suddenly felt we had a grown- up a little bit! The usually macho amongst us, too, fell quiet as we drove back to School. Perhaps we had begun to introspect on how hugely privileged we had been born?

Luvditya Khurana, XII - A.