ADVITYA 2021

Advitya is a creative centre for those gifted with conditions like Down's syndrome, Autism and Cerebral Palsy, among others. These special individuals are part of the Advitya family under exceptional circumstances - one of the most notable being their inability to adjust with larger groups in other special institutes due to their need for individual attention or their growing age. At Advitya, all the students are above 18 and are involved in occupational therapy, whereby they are engaged in creating a multitude of handicrafts.

 

Due to the pandemic, Advitya had to move its operations online. As a result, our school's CAS programme has also shifted to weekly sessions with the Advitya students through the online platform Zoom. During these sessions, the DAIS volunteers have engaged in a variety of activities with the students such as making easy recipes and decorative craftwork. For the festival of Makar Sankranti, the group collaboratively made some beautiful kites! Activities to improve the students' motor skills have also been incorporated into the sessions. Simple games such as Simon says and Pictionary provide a fun way for the students at Advitya to improve skills. For one unique session, the IB volunteers worked with primary school teachers to plan a virtual service trip for the grade 5 students. The session included story time and some interactive games, and provided our 5th graders with an opportunity to gain exposure to this community and have some fun! Additionally, the parents of Grade 5 came together to make a donation worth 1 lakh to the Advitiya foundation, helping them with resources and training supplies for their students. This experience is quite unique to most of the Grade 11 girls volunteering.

 

 

Interacting with the Advitya students is similar to interacting with children; they are extremely responsive and easily engaged in activities, and it allows our volunteers a much-needed break from the rigorous IB programme as well as an opportunity for the kind of exposure they are unlikely to get otherwise. These sessions are extremely enjoyable for both parties, whether they are laughing during hilarious games, involving themselves in craft or participating in, (everyone's favourite), Bollywood dance time! The Grade 11 volunteers also planned an Art Sale to raise further funds for the Advitya Organization in March with the sale of donated artwork from various DAIS students, as well as handicrafts made by the Advitya students. Advitya has been great learning experience.

 

Treya Agarwal, Ananya Sachdev and Vrinda Das