Birsa Munda Service Club
As part of the Service aspect of IBDP CAS, Kareena Shankta of Grade 11 proposed the Birsa Munda School Service club. The objective was to expose the students of Birsa Munda High School in Manika, Latehar district, Jharkhand to a range of extracurricular activities.
The project was guided by CAS- coordinators, Miss Nitika Gupta and Mr. Sreeraman Ramanathan and project supervisor Miss Uma Shivayogimath. 10 volunteers - Kareena Shankta, Ria Mittal, Mehak Tiwana, Raghav Agrawal, Ahaan Bhansali, Rajveer Batra, Devasree Jain , Ria Punater, Dhanya Shah and Sia Harisingani, conducted 6 activities for a total of 110 kids. Activities included singing, dancing, storytelling, volleyball, football and badminton over the virtual platform of Microsoft Teams every Friday.
The school was introduced to Kareena Shankta by Dr. Veenapani Seksaria, who is currently heading the COVID-19 relief project – The Shakkar Paara Project. Akash Ranjan, ex-BSF officer and coordinator of the Right to Food and Brother Markose, was in charge of the school. The school required a dire revamp in terms of extracurricular structure and vocational exposure. The school accommodates both residential and day-scholar students. Most of the children belong to poverty-struck tribal and Maha-Dalit communities of Manika and are taught by teachers who are mostly part of the same community.
“We have been teaching the children how to play badminton online. Badminton was a popular sport at the school, and many children joined in for our sessions, eager to learn. However, teaching a sport online was always going to be challenging, so we tried our best to make the sessions worthwhile. We started off, by explaining the rules of the game, and introducing the children to the equipment. After this, we taught them how to grip the badminton racket and serve. In the span of a few weeks, the children were already comfortable playing shots such as the toss and the lift. Slowly, they were capable of having long rallies amongst themselves.
There were difficulties we faced, for example, often due to poor wifi our sessions would be cut short- depriving the children of a learning opportunity. Furthermore, due to lack of equipment, there were not enough rackets and no net at the school. However, on the whole, watching the children play, and being able to teach them a sport that they liked was an enriching experience, and one that I will always remember. Always enthusiastic to learn, the children motivated me to try out new things too. From them, I also learnt how to be grateful and make the most of what I have. I hope I can continue teaching them in the future, and be able to impact their lives as much as they have impacted mine.“
- Dhanya Shah
“We are thoroughly enjoying teaching the children. We have already taught them close to 12 dances and what really amazed us was how actively they participated and took initiative. Not only did we teach them dance routines, but also exposed them to different cultures through dance genres like Bhangra and Garba. We have planned a cultural event and virtual sports highlight that will be broadcast live. Going forward, our aim will be to accentuate their local dance as much as possible in order to empower the children and show them the importance of cultural roots.”
- Kareena Shankta and Mehak Tiwana.