We are thrilled to inform that we had a scintillating 3 days at our Sandalpur (MP) Residential Institution, during the last week of November. This camp (Learning Beyond) was organized by a unique group that is truly extraordinary – “Our Children” (https://www.ourchildrenindia.org/), which is a more than 50 years old organization from Mumbai, constituted of experts from fields like magic, jugglery,, puppetry, mime, skating and what not. It was a full-fledged vaudeville that we witnessed for 3 days.
A group of 30 experts and volunteers travelled from Mumbai and reached our campus on 26th November, and trained 142 children girls and boys in 8 different skills as listed below. The group consisted of experts like Mr. Uday Deshpande, world renowned Mallakhamb trainer from Mumbai ; Mr. Carlos Lopez, a juggler from Colombia and Mr. Christopher Yerling, a Mime artist from the USA, along with others.
Each child chose 3 out of 8 skills of his/her choice and participated in about 9 sessions of 1.5 hours each spread over these days, where they tried to learn the skill in a fun-filled atmosphere. In addition to these sessions with these selected children, they also performed shows of magic, juggling etc for all the children of the campus during post-lunch hours.
The high point was on the last day, when these 142 children performed befire all Sevavratees and other children and everyone was simply bamboozled at how fast they learned these skills. Besides learning new skills that usually do not come one’s way that easily, this camp also helped children gain stage performance confidence and set a trigger in them to explore newer vistas, showing them a glimpse of what all they could achieve should the effort be earnest and are right guidance available.
This experience, we are doubtless convinced, will have an enduring impress on the minds of these children. Further, people such as Shri Uday Deshpande, the Mallakhamb expert, offered to train some of these children in his Mumbai academy. We remain very grateful to ‘Our Children’ for organizing such a fun-filled camp for our resident children.
The 8 skills which children learnt are :
1. Mallakhamb (मलखम्ब ) : Rope Mallakhamb & Pole Mallakhamb
2. Magic
3. Puppetry
4. Skating
5. Juggling
6. Mime
7. Slacklining
8. Science & Fun
Parivaar @ 20 : Twenty Years of dedicated and rigorous humanitarian service
