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Support Children of Kutch Villages

Support Children of Kutch Villages

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/10/2020 - 08/10/2020
12:00 am
Phone No - 09594429959
Owner Name - Shinjini Kotia
Categories

Covid-19 pandemic has affected children across the country, especially those associated with rural schools. With a lack of availability of classroom learning, students are reliant on e-learning mediums. A large number of rural families of Kutch lack access to smartphones and internet services. Those that have access, are unable to provide it to their children for the required time.

Khamir, a craft organisation in Kutch has been working to include a craft based curriculum in the local schools. Since the pandemic hit Kutch, we have been finding better ways for children to continue learning from their homes using craft techniques easily accessible to them. Most of these children belong to homes that practice handicrafts, which is a major livelihood and tradition in the villages of Kutch. Khamir has built a system that engages students to learn, using fun and interactive activities, directly from their homes with the help of crafts.

Taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s footsteps of Nai Talim, this system promotes learning through Mind, Body and Soul. We have developed a curriculum that allows children to learn primary concepts of maths, science, history and so on with the help of handicrafts. This curriculum follows the learning outcomes prescribed by NCERT/GCERT that have the same learning outcomes of different handicrafts such as Hand Spinning, Handloom Weaving, Block Printing, Pottery, etc.

Advantages of this system:

1.Through our learning by doing approach, students not only continue to read and write, but also learn by developing skills of visualisation, deep listening, critical and analytical thinking, etc.
2. In today’s time when the pandemic has not only put physical but also mental stress on children, the engagement of their body, mind and soul in their learning, helps put students minds at ease with the changes happening around them 3. Students learn from the comfort of their village environment
4. Since the parents of these students are artisans themselves, they also take part in their children’s learning. This brings the children closer to the values of their own culture.
While many craft-based villages have been identified to reach out to, due to lack of resources, we have been able to begin implementation with only Awadh Nagar village of Kutch. With insufficient financial aids, we are facing challenges in the running costs of the program and will have to close by the end of November 2020 if we do not meeting the requirements.

We need your support to help continue this program and help more children of villages of Kutch to get access to better education, and become the brighter youth of tomorrow.

Read here to know about our approach of learning-by-doing.