Mumbai: The Children’s Learning Center at Sanjay Nagar is a community initiative to provide quality learning to the children from the locality who face structural and behavioral bias from peers, colleagues or sometimes teachers of public schools and private coaching centers and suffer from the consequences of general educational backwardness of their community. The Children’s Learning Center has been pioneering in its mission for the last nine months ensuring quality education to more than 70 children.
20 November is observed as Child Rights Day at the CLC, Sanjay Nagar. This year, the volunteers and teachers talked to the students about rights of children and asked them what they think about their rights. The children were provided with color pastels, brushes and paper and they drew on the theme of Child Rights Day. Later, children performed skits, dances and songs. It is the educational rights of the children CLC is standing for and the very first Child Right Day celebration itself made it visible how the students are acquiring quality education and skills.
On 26 January, CLC celebrated the first Republic Day by declaring a commitment to protect constitutional rights and duties. In attendance also was the prominent human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi. Tricolor was the theme: tricolor paper flags, hand prints and paintings adorned the stage. The flag showered the crowd with flowers when unfurled. The national anthem was sung in unison. CLC is the community rising up to take control of their reality, their patriotism stemming organically from their belief that the ideals this country was found upon – of Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, could still be achieved, that there was still hope.
The flag hoisting was followed by dancing in earnest to the evergreen patriotic song – Aye Watan Jaanemann and a heartfelt rendition of Hum Honge Kamyab, Girija Kumar Mathur’s beautiful translation of ‘We Shall Overcome’. The song, dance and color created enthusiasm and excitement among the children, also attracted significant favorable attention from other members of the community, a lot of who were unfamiliar with CLC and were novel to such celebrations, which mostly took place in school/formal workplace settings. Children being active in decoration and singing patriotic songs were engaging to a motivational and patriotic gathering, the mission of CLC is becoming a success everyday with the enthusiastic and brilliant little learners who are going to lead the community in future.
On 17 February 2019, the volunteers of GBGB organised a picnic to the Nehru Planetarium for the students of CLC for entertaining the students and also to enhance scientific temper on their learning. There were around 60 student and 10 elders accompanying them. Everyone had fun in the bus singing and dancing. Planetarium was an exciting and knowledge providing experience for them, since it’s the first time they are engaging with the Planetarium projections that enhanced their textual learning about science and geography. After the show, members of Giant Club provided gifts and food for the kids. Later the picnic went to Haji Ali Dargah, it thrilled the kids. The picnic both enhanced the learning of the children and was also a colorful day of their life. It is the combined effort of our volunteers and sponsors and their commitment to the cause of supporting educational enhancement of the children in marginal communities that made this picnic possible.
