Balika Bhavan Project -2018
Balika Bhavan is an orphanage run by the Mar Thoma Syrian Church in the southern state of Kerala India. Our program debuted at this orphanage with 26 girl students in 2017. All of the girls at this orphanage are coming from underprivileged or broken families.
2017 program lifted up the students and showed them a world outside the 4 walls of an orphanage through a number sessions we had with students.
In a nutshell we showed them to dream about a better future.
This year we structured our curriculum and we will focus on 3 elements
- Awareness about vocational careers & assess each student on their potential future career based on talent and interest and drive them to pursue the career
- Focus on English language
- Focus on essential life skills
The program started on 8th September 2018 and spans across several months. Program sessions are primarily on weekends and other holidays when the students are free from their regular school activities.
Location
Activity Report
Topic: Career Planning
Resource Person: Shammas Abdul Khader
The first session about career planning was about understanding personal strengths and its impact on choosing a career. Tried to make the session active and interesting by adding games and activities and gave an overview about personality, aptitude and interest.
The students were active and alert, and were interested on the subject. It has been understood that all children are aware about the importance of having a career and have a desire to get a job after their studies to make a living. All students are above average and could not find anybody below average. That indicates all students have the potential to reach a career suits them.
The next sessions will be about career exploration, personal counselling and suitable courses for each career which are easily accessible from Pathanamthitta. And also follow up with the students and Balika Bhavan authority till they reach to a career.
Topic: Communicative English
Resource Person: Sameena K C, Spoken English Teacher.
Today’s session was to asses the understanding of students about the English Language.
The session focused on the relevance of English as a massive means of communication. The students were capable of understanding the important tips for self-introduction in English and it was one of the main highlights. Activities and small games were included in this session that made the session more interactive. The class was more helpful to acquire the linguistic competence required in various life situations.
The students participation were enchanting and more appreciative. The class concluded with a serious discussion based on the topic ” Impact of T.V programmes”
Topic: Career Planning
Resource Person: Shammas Abdul Khader
The session was on Career Information, i.e. introducing different career opportunities available and entry routes to those careers. The trainer was able to present around 80 careers under 12 career clusters. Which includes Allied Medical courses, Government services, Accounts & Finance jobs, Beauty & Wellness industry etc.
It has been observed that students were able to understand about new career fields and some has found out a better suitable career for them. The courses and colleges suggested are based on the location, which are near to their place. In some cases colleges available in neighboring districts are also suggested.
The major outcome of the session was some students were able to plan for professional careers such as banking jobs and also some students expressed their interest towards teaching jobs. A detailed guidance and counselling will be provided in upcoming sessions to each student to plan their career.
Topic: External evaluation of session
Resource Person: Hari, Social Evangelist
OBJECTIVES OF THE VISIT
- To visit Bhalika bhavan
- To meet Fr. John, the Principal of Balika Bhavan
- To coordinate the career counseling class
- To observe and evaluate the training session
Training Methodology
The training is focused career planning for children. In the hall total of 16 children gathered. The training included ppt presentation, group discussions, games, review sessions and individual analysis .
- Presentation
The trainer used power point presentation in this training. He show the ppt in a projector screen and explained one by one.
- Group Discussions
In the session children gathered as a different group and discussed the career planning and presented what they discussed.
- Games
Small games were added when the children were tired in the session
- Individual Analysis
In the training session, trainer conducted individual analysis for each children . He call the children separately and discussed their individual opinion and interests
EVALUATION
- Overall performance of the trainer is good.
- Need to add free time, because the continues class is little boring in children
- Everyone has good opinion about this class
Topic: Communicative English
Resource Person: Sameena, Spoken English Teacher
Today’s session was about Introducing self , conversational techniques and tips. In the tough competitive world today , much of the success depends up on the communicative competence of the students . A part from technical skills, communication skills carry on equal importance.
The session started with a friendly conversation among students. The students were able to understand the uses of ‘relative pronouns’. During this session , provided some important conversational techniques such as how to ask permission how to deny something etc. After that students enjoyed word guessing game. The session concluded with a serious talk about fashionable trends in people.
Topic: Communicative English
Resource Person: Sameena, Spoken English Teacher.
Today’s session focused on Basic Grammar and Spoken English.
The session gave more priority for general English and basic grammar. The concept of tenses is very important in establishing effective communication. Students gained a concrete abstract knowledge about the main verb forms and its subdivisions. Discussed some topics related to general English such as collective nouns, proper nouns animals and young one’s that was enrich their vocabulary.
The session concluded with a debate based on the topic ‘villages are better than town’.
Topic: Career Planning
Resource Person: Shammas Abdul Khader
In Today’s session, the trainer met with students individually. Learned about their family background, drilled into your their career interests, explored their personal traits.
16 girl students from 9th grade to 12th grade were assessed with a bit more emphasis on 11th-grade and 12th-grade students. Students were very enthusiastic to go thru such planned career planning.
Next step is to come up with a report where a primary and secondary career would be suggested for those who went through this systematic process. In addition, colleges or training centers where these students can pursue their chosen career path would also be recommended.
The report would be shared with the orphanage director and any subsequent help would be duly provided for the students to pursue a gainful employment. In addition, potential scholarship for their chosen career will also be provided.
Our mission is ” No child is deserved to be left behind”.
Topic: Communicative English
Resource Person: Sameena KC , Spoken English Teacher.
Today’s session was to give awareness on Public Speaking Skills
The priority was given for functional grammar
and awareness about public speaking. The grammatical structures
presented in natural contexts and supported by interesting
practice tasks that helped the students to understand the meaning and
usage. Different topics were carefully selected for public speaking such as
school, friendship, health, sports, arts, music, adventure, fun,
travel etc.
Real-life listening and speaking tasks in English with
pair and group activities enhanced the self-confidence of
the students. At the end of the session we discussed variety list of
‘Gender Form’, ‘Vocabulary’ etc.
Topic: Communicative English, Role Play , Conclusion and Evaluation
Resource Person: Sameena KC , Spoken English Teacher.
Today’s session was filled with practical application of communicative English with role plays, skits, and debates. It was an unprecedented experience for students and a very satisfying feeling for the trainer. Students were able to apply the knowledge they garnered in the past couple of weeks on communicative English.
This concluding session focused on essential English grammatical structures includes question tags, auxiliary verbs etc. Discussed main rules with simple examples and followed by exercises which help the students speaking skill. Students performed ‘English skit’ based on the topic of ‘demerits of mobile phones’. Student’s performances were enchanting. It helped to stimulate the imagination and creativity of students.
The sessions were not only a complementary to their language exposure at school, but it also rooted out the fear of communication in English. Lack of knowledge in spoken English is a major detrimental factor in getting good educational opportunities for a better career. We address this deficiency through these sessions.
Topic: Evaluation, Life Skills & Conclusion
Resource Person: Sreejesh, Founder of PaeaceHub.
Today’s session was the last session of this year’s program. It included a 1-hour summary session with the Director of Balika Bhavan and evaluated the effectiveness of the program and its impact on the students.
There was an interactive session with students to get feedback directly from students. Looks like the program expanded the visual horizon of students as to what they can achieve in life. Students are now talking about pursuing careers just like any other students in an urban city. Students who want to pursue careers in Law and company secretary as opposed to their traditional selection of beautician course and nursing are the results of our eye-opening sessions in the last few months with our career counselor and big a salute to our career counselor for making this happen.
Their confidence in language has been improved multifold and thanks to our English trainer.
The most valuable contribution of our program was the impact that made on students who were literally shy to make eye contact previously now making brisk conversation with direct eye contact.
Although this was the last session we ended the program with imparting a few life skills. In the morning a fully experiential session on mindfulness was given.
Afternoon, students were reminded of their Strength and weaknesses and how to manage these optimally to be successful.
A role play was performed on the skill called Assertiveness.
“How to manage stress” was well received by students as they are going to write their annual exams in a few weeks.
And the session was concluded with peer learning through group work.
We are so glad to see visible changes in these students.
A big thanks to all the students for their participation, to all trainers for their selfless dedication, to the Balika Bhvana management for having given us an opportunity to touch the lives of others.
