Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats

As POPE invests a lot of time in the education and awareness, and in order to not loose all the knowledge during the holidays, POPE organises every years since 2000 summer camps and trainings at Suvasam and Thallakulam centers. 

Le Souffle du Sud 

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The children will be getting intensive coaching on the tough subjects like English, Science and Maths for 15 days. To use the peace and relax time of holidays is completely useful and efficient to build up the educational skills and exhibit talents of Dalit children.

The objectives of this camp are:

• To motivate and to encourage Dalit students towards better education, their external talents for their brightful carrier,

• To provide them educational tools for their studies,

• To enable them to gain self-confident and to prevent child labourism and bonded labourism.

The beneficiaries are 40 students who are passing from 9th standard to 10th standard (14-15 years)

The priority is given to the orphans, semi orphans and very poor who don’t have proper person at home to guide their education and who are liable to become drop outs and child labourers.

By the experience gained through ‘POPE’s work among the Dalits, it has taken up children oriented programmes for the past few years. POPE gives special concern to the formal school education for it decides the lives of the children and also the Development and liberation of the Dalit society. Since our target area, Dalit children live in the rural villages and they don’t have standard school. They have to depend only on the Government school, which are functioning only for namesake. Moreover our children face caste discrimination in the schools also.

They have been neglected and given less attention by the teachers. They have no chances also to pay for special coaching classes, due to poverty. Some how our children managed to pass in the subjects which are in their mother tongue. But they feel difficulty in learning English and Mathematics without proper teaching. Due to this reason, most of our children fail in school final examination and become uneligible for higher studies and profession. With this, they go for unskilled works and agricultural labourers and become child labourers and bonded labourers. One side, POPE is engaged in the work of releasing the child labourers and guiding them to schools, skill promotion centres and other relevant income source, the other side it is very much keen in preventing children becoming labourers.

So this is the main aim of our concentration on school going children and specially this special coaching camp.

So planned for it and conducted a camp for 50 students last year. POPE arranged for special teachers who are experts in the subjects and taught the students English and Mathematics. They got the idea of what they have to learn, and gained self-confident to enter into new class and subjects threatening them.

Apart from that POPE taught them discipline and techniques of concentration by meditations, yoga, physical exercises and games.

POPE got good feed back on that and expects good marks from the former students since this kind of camp give good results to these children, POPE has decided to continue that this year also, with increased number of students.

This residential programme was well designed by the experts. The various resource persons were drawn from Tiruvannamalai and Vellore area. During these 2 weeks time, the dalit children get an opportunity to revisit their life goal and critically review the same. The children have full freedom to stick on the original life goal or modified goal statement. We encouraged them to dream for their better future.

Dalit children are not aware of various educational, training, scholarship and vocational trade details. Since they lack in vocational guidance/career guidance, they easily become unsuccessful in their career and join with the petty coolie work. Vocational guidance is to choose an occupation, prepare for it, enter upon and progress in it. In order to provide various information related to their career, POPE organizes 2 days career guidance camp.

The beneficiaries are 75 students who are finishing 10th standard and 12th standard school education.

POPE’s objectives are:

• To provide various information related to the World of work and support them to take a decision.

• To find out the entry qualification, skills required, scholarships availability, coaching details etc., for the Dalit children.

• To create eye openings of various training, higher studies, job possibilities after their school education.

Activities

• Posters Exhibition

• Literature on various courses / scholarship facilities, job opportunities after the courses etc.

• Vocational guidance and counseling

• Educational guidance and counseling

• Personal guidance and counseling

• Model interview

• Self assessment process

Resource person

• Career guidance officers from Government

• Masters from coaching centre

• Experts in career development centres

POPE has organized Dalit Children’s Kingdom in 30 villages. Dalit children should develop various special skills so that the children communicate various liberative ideas to the community through various channels. The various channels of communication were identified and on such communication channels, the young Dalits should proclaim revolutionary, liberative ideas.

• Children to Parents and Parents to community
• Children to children and to the community
• Children to Society at large
• Children to the Government and policy planners.

Logistic Arrangements

35 Dalit children from Dalit Children’s Kingdom, including 15 Boys and 20 Girls were given food and accommodation at Somasipadi. SUVASAM Centre from 22.5.09 to 26.5.09 for 5 days. Children’s night security was also arranged at POPE Centre.

Skills Training

Following skills training were given to the children as to ensure the skill competency among the Dalit children:

• Street Play
• Awareness Song
• Drawing / Painting
• Dance / Song
• Paraiyattam, Oilattam, Silampattam, Thappattam, Kummiyattam,
• Skit, Role play, Mono Act
• Drama preparation.

Street play is one of the most acceptable folk media, very popular among NGOs to communicate health messages and development messages to the audience. Basic training was given to the children like:

• Removing the stone on the way
• Drinking water from the water tape from the well and from the river, from the earthen pot.
• Acting like animals.
• Acting like patients (HIV / AIDS, T.B. Patients, Pregnant Lady)
• Acting like a dead man
• Acting like a member in the dead man’s family

After the preliminary training, the children were divided into five groups and developed the following:

• Theme setting
• Scene setting
• Message development
• Message dissemination.

By the end of the street play training, the children developed the street play on the following themes:

• Alcoholism
• Tuberculosis is curable
• Dalit untouchability as an offence
• Prevention of child labour
• Prevention of child marriage
• Prevention of illiteracy etc.

Awareness Song

The children were trained in singing awareness songs. The awareness includes health, development, family planning, Dalits exploitation, child labour, poverty, unemployment health problems like communicable diseases and life style diseases. The song composed by POPE called “Dalit Era” was also practiced to the children.

Drawing / Painting

The children were given training on drawing / painting. This training was useful for them to do good work in drawing at their Schools.

Dance / Song

Dalits are blessed by music talents. Dalit Cine Artists have good expertise on Dance / Song. This training has helped them to expose their hidden talents on Dance / Song practice.

Paraiyattam, Oilattam etc.,

Paraiyattam, Thappattam, Karagattam, Silampattam, Oilattam etc., were the original Dalit Arts, which were faded away gradually. There is a need to reinforce the familiarities on the above once again. So, these items were included.

Skit, Role play, Mono Act

The children were given training to develop issue based / problem based one Act play, Role play and skits with few Actors. The children were given opportunities to develop theme for skit, role play and mono Act.

Drama preparation

The village community likes to watch drama on social theme. Drama was used as a powerful weapon to capture political power in Tamil Nadu in 1960’s. Since then, drama and films were used to propagate the various social ideas.

List of Resource persons

• Mr. R.L. Rosario
• Sr. Punitha
• Mr. Subramani
• Mr. Charles
• Ms. Sagayaraj
• Mrs. Vijaya
• Ms. Jansi

Follow up plan

The talented children came forward to be the volunteers to perform street play and other folk media to communicate new ideas, social thoughts and for information dissemination on social liberation of Dalit community. We wish to the following plan.

POPE Contribution

• Advanced training for the selected children on folk media, including street theatre.
• Providing uniform to the selected 20 persons
• Providing POPE vehicle to visit all 30 villages at least once in 2 weeks to perform the programme.
• Evening snacks and Dinner to the Actors (Children) by POPE.
• Night stay at POPE Centre.
• Transportation

Children’s Contribution

• Donating one of their holiday’s earnings on once in 2 weeks.

• Visiting the villages and perform the programmes to the general public during one of their meetings of DCK.

Community Contribution

• Logistic arrangements like evening snacks.
• Arrangement at the common place.
• Lighting arrangements.

Conclusion

Children’s role in the meaningful social change among Dalits is well accepted. In order to form new Dalit Children’s Kingdom at the villages and to strengthen the existing DCK in 40 villages, there is a need for street play and other folk Medias. The present potential children should be utilized in future for children’s revival and social transformation.