Thursday, September 1, 2016

NUTRITION AND EDUCATION THROUGH THE PROMOTION OF ECOLOGICAL FARMING IN 20 UNDERPRIVILEGED (ST/SC) CHILDRENS’ HOSTELS IN WEST MEDINIPUR DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

GOAL:

Improving Child Nutrition as well as Education and ensuring their future livelihood through the Promotion of Home Garden Programmes through ecological farming.

MISSION:

To assist a visible number of residential homes for rural children from poor and vulnerable families to become high quality institutions for imparting holistic education. Guide them to gradually move towards a need-based, much more diversified curriculum catering to all kinds of children; and to see that these centres play an active role in enriching rural life in many ways. In a way this is an attempt to interpret Gandhi’s & Tagore’s ideas in today’s context.  


Seva Kendra Calcutta(SKC) and its friend organisation, Swanirvar (jointly working in 22 tribal Hostels of West Medinipore. Swanirvar is working in Education intervention programme and trying to ensure the quality education in these child care centre. 

1st Workshop: 
Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKC) started its new initiative to develop 22 youth hostels(2500 inmates and the residents are tribal boys and girls) running by the catholic priests and sisters in remote areas of West Medinipore district, West Bengal. The objectives of this initiative were 1. To ensure nutrition security for the marginal tribal families through sustainable agriculture. 2. To ensure quality education at the primary level for the underprivileged children.  
SKC   organized three days training cum workshop for the teachers, Boarding masters and gardeners of 22 hostels at Kharagpore. The workshop was held on 20-22 January, 2016 at the SKC Extension campus- Kharagpore unit, Hijli, West Medinipore. Details of the trainings are given below. 
Day-1: Training on livelihood :
The programme was started with morning prayer and with the blessing by Fr. Basil Mandi. Resource person, Nilangshu Gain, director of Swanirvar( www.swanirvar.in) explained the two fold objectives of the SKC Initiative in 22hostels of West Medinipore district. After that, the training on livelihood started. The gardeners and boarding masters got both theoretical and practical orientations on - basic concept of organic agriculture- soil development techniques like bio composting, amrit pani etc, water conservation techniques like pitcher irrigation, mulching, different bed making etc, seed collection- preservation and propagation, techniques of biological pest controlling, etc. They make few beds and did other hands on activities under the guidance of Mr. Gain and Mr. Nishambhu Sarkar. 
Day 2: Training on Nutrition security
This is new concept, previously we were more kin on organic farming but presently SKC campaigned for this holistic idea - sustainable nutrition security for all the families living under poverty line. Dr. Jit Sarkar, a young medical graduate and Mr. Nilangshu Gain had developed this concept by which the marginal communities would be aware of low cost nutritious food, diet plan based on available foods, mother and child care, care for common diseases, etc. 
The participants got ideas on basic classifications of their daily food, role of nutrients and vitamins in body building, common seasonal diseases, etc. They also got ideas on mal-nutrition and techniques to identify the undernourished children in their hostels. They also made two months action plan.
Day 3: Training of teachers:
The primary teachers and boarding masters participated in this programme. They never had any training but they were doing hard works with the children. Govt Teacher and Expert trainer, M/s Rehana Sultana, M/s S. Parveen and renowned artist, Mr. Sojuy Mondal were the resource persons for this programme. They describe the process of child development and the learning process. The participants made 14 different types of Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs) for the children of Class-I. In the second half they participants got ideas of joyful learning, class room management and creative drawing & painting. 
At the end of the workshop, the participants shared their learning and displayed the materials made by them in the workshop. 
2nd Workshop:
Report on the Training of teachers for Class-I & II  on 6-7th march, 2016 : 
Seva Kendra Calcutta organized two days training cum workshop with teachers and boarding masters from 22 Hostels of West Medinipore District. On 6th March, 2016 twelve teachers from 12 Hostels joined in the training and on 7th March 6 more joined in the session. They were given orientations on class management, teaching methodologies and pedagogies based on the new syllabus. Most of the Hostels are for the primary level children (5-14yrs age) and the Govt have introduced new books from 2015. The teachers and boarding masters had not received any training so they were in crisis to complete the new syllabus. They were also given trainings on development of Teaching learning Materials (TLMs) for class-I and II. They session was conducted by Rehana Sultana, Sr teacher and Govt trainer for Language and she was assisted by Sirin Parvin. The teachers developed TLMs on Bengali for Class-I & II in the two days workshop. 
In the evening , they displayed their works. Fr. Basil Mandi joined in the closing session and the teachers requested him to organised similar workshops on regular basis and for all the subjects. 
3rd Workshop:
It was held on 5th and 6th August, 2016. More than 20 teachers joined in these workshop. They learned the following topics:
  1. Training on language- for class-I & II
  2. TLM development for Pre-primary level.
  3. The art of Class management and joyful learning 

Next workshop is on 16-17th September, 2016.

We are looking for volunteers/ interns (part time) for documentation. 

Contact: Nilangshu: 9732524526

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