Page 59 - DAIS Insignia 2021-2022

ROUND DAIS Hosted Round Square Events

SQUARE Samaanta - A Gender Equality Global Perspectives Symposium

Exploring Diversity: ‘Samaanta’ – A gender equality global perspectives symposium aimed at
exploring the diverse perspectives of gender inequality from around the world. In addition to
our own Indian perspective. we wanted to get participants actively thinking about the problem
DAIS Round Square of gender inequality and more importantly, reflect on our role in resolving it. Aligned with the
goal of resolving to make a difference together, Samaanta became a gender equality global
Student Committee Chair perspectives symposium that aimed to create a change in our own attitude and inspire those
around us to support gender equality. The virtual symposium was led by students from Grade 10
and 11 and welcomed 215 student delegates from 36 schools worldwide.
This year, Round Square at DAIS
allowed students to engage Along with our keynote on the Indian viewpoint of gender inequality, we also had cultural
with the 6 IDEALS despite all the events being virtual. presentations by international delegations from Bangladesh, Chile, Dubai, Japan, Jordan, Peru,
and South Africa, who shared global perspectives on the issue with us.
One of the key aspects of Round Square is to break geographical barriers and form everlasting relationships
with students from across the globe. Recreating these interactions and intercultural explorations was a Keynote Speech: The event began with Keynote Speaker, Ms. Vibha Bakshi, an award-
raging success on the online platform with students attending Zoom Postcards, Virtual Conferences, winning film director and producer whose films are changing the narrative on gender inequality.
Collaborations and more. Through her speech, Ms. Bakshi stressed on the importance of getting men and boys involved in
the conversation of gender inequality, and our role in breaking stereotypes. The speech and
Over the past year, students across ages 12-18 have participated in over 25 virtual events held in schools
across the globe. Students created new bonds of friendships, gained cultural knowledge and made subsequent question and answers session sparked eye-opening discussions in Baraza rooms.
memories to last them a lifetime! Every delegate was inspired by Ms. Bakshi and her work, making it the perfect way to start our
symposium.
The Round Square Core team created events with the utmost enthusiasm, guiding their juniors to reach their
highest potential. The core team helped mentor students from middle school to plan 3 events hosted by DAIS this year - Colours of India, International Perspective: An important goal of Samaanta, was to explore diverse cultural
LaughTopia Postcard and AARSA - RS virtual conference on Self-care. perspectives, and understand how gender inequality manifested differently world over. During
the sessions, the delegates engaged in the presentations and videos of our international
Along with hosted events, we launched a publication, 'Round Square Round Up', that features articles sent by students from across the
school. This compilation includes information and experiences of student participants in Round Square events, updates on upcoming delegations from Chile, South Africa, Peru, Jordan, Bangladesh, Japan and Dubai. In their presentations, they explored the causes,
opportunities, student learnings with reflections, as well as articles based on one of the IDEALS. implications and existing solutions for gender inequality in their own countries. These cultural perspectives provided invaluable insight that
helped delegates understand gender inequality as a global problem and demonstrated that everyone wants a more equal world, and is
The enthusiasm for Round Square across the student body grew at a rapid rate with students from various grades becoming empowered willing to work toward it.
young leaders. - Sriya Bodapati, Round Square Student Committee Chair (RSSCC), IBDP Year 11
Baraza Groups: Delegates were divided into smaller groups through
breakout rooms for their Baraza sessions, where they engaged in
DAIS Round Square Representative Reflection inspiring discussions about the keynote, cultural presentations, and
possible solutions for gender inequality. These discussions often
featured anecdotes from the delegates’ personal experiences such as
stereotypes they are subjected to when at home and in school. This
Through the pandemic, Round Square activities with DAIS never ceased. Instead there was a new lease of life
as students lead several online events, regionally as well as internationally. DAIS hosted 'Samaanta' – a allowed us to view the issue from a series of different perspectives
gender equality global symposium, Postcards -'Colours of India' exploring India's cultural diversity and and understand gender inequality better, before looking for ways to
'LaughTopia'- looking at the brighter side of life. DAIS was the only school in the region to host the Round resolve it. Additionally, clips from various popular films, which either
Square virtual conference for the year, 'AARSA', Service through the lens of Self-care. Senior DAIS students demonstrated a gender stereotype or broke one, were shown in
were selected as Baraza Leaders and delegates at the RSIC 2021. Our student were invited as guest speakers Baraza rooms. These short videos acted as a stimulus for discussion
at international summits on women empowerment and climate change. We also hosted Spanish and French and helped enrich the conversation by pushing delegates to
language exchanges online. Our success story was also shared as 'Best Practise' during the SA & Gulf recognise both explicit and subtle instances of gender inequality
Regional Forum. Every event hosted by DAIS created a new milestone and our students were an inspiration around them.
for delegates across the globe. Truly, DAIS DID NOT LOCKDOWN....in fact DAIS created many more avenues The outcomes from the Barazas became both a culmination of all our
for our students through Round Square, to explore, learn and reflect! discussions and our promises for the future. The pledges on our
- Manisha Nanda, Round Square Representative – DAIS posters serve as a reminder to take this movement forward in our
own communities. Little by little, we will soon bring change.
King Constantine Award Kareena Shankta, DAIS IBD Year12 student has been awarded with the Reflections from the Samaanta Core Team:
prestigious King Constantine Award for the academic year 2021-22.
Her service initiatives, during the pandemic, created a positive long-lasting impact on people in distress during the lockdown. Samaanta and the process of organizing has been I think the symposium was a great Being a part of Samaanta and being
an incredible experience. It showed me the work it success and a good experience for able to plan an event of such a large
Kareena’s initiative, Kayasha, generated funds through sale of her paintings. These funds helped support people who had no means of takes to plan an event, consolidated skills like me. I could see the delegates magnitude gave me the opportunity
livelihood during the pandemic. Kareena revived her passion for painting with an objective to sell them and generate funds to provide communication, teamwork, and organization, and wanting to talk about their to understand the detailing that
meals to people in far-fetched areas of Chennai, Srinagar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and other states. In Saranda and Latehar districts of allowed me to engage directly with the theme of experiences and offer opinions about goes into creating an event on such
Jharkhand, her project, Kayasha provided food ration for 163 families and 82 families respectively, while 120 families were supported in gender inequality. -Anagha Srinivasan gender inequality. - Annsh Navle a large scale. - Devika Kothari
Medinipore, West Bengal. For her efforts with Kayasha, she was recognised by the
Hindustan Times in an article titled ‘Hues of Kindness’. Working to put Samaanta together Organizing Samaanta gave me first hand insight Samaanta was a great experience as
Birsa Munda Service Initiative: During Kayasha, she had the opportunity to meet the helped me realise my organisation skills into the issue of gender inequality and various we got to explore gender equality from
students from Birsa Munda School in Jharkhand. Majority of the children belong to the and ability to multitask. - Dhruv Bhalla people's perspectives on it. - Kshitig Seth different perspectives! - Saisha Gupta
poverty-struck tribal and Maha-dalit communities of Manika and were taught by
teachers of the same community. Kareena adopted this school as part of the CAS Planning Samaanta was nothing short of a life changing experience - Samaanta was a very fun learning experience. Not only
initiative and along with her peers she conducted activities like singing, dancing, watching so many young leaders fight for change was truly inspiring. did I learn how to run and direct events, but I also learnt
storytelling, volleyball, football, and badminton over the virtual platform every week. It allowed me to look at the topic from lenses I had never considered before, about gender inequalities from the perspectives of
and only made me want to fight for gender equality more. - Sriya Bodapati
Over the summer of 2021, Kareena also conducted a series of online drawing students from all around the world. - Vihaan Mangat
classes and competitions with the children who were staying in the school due
to the lockdown. This was not only a creatively enriching experience for the kids DAIS Student Leaders: Anagha Srinivasan, Annsh Navle, Devika Kothari, Dhruv Bhalla, Kshitig Seth, Saisha Gupta,
but also a stepping stone towards promoting self-sustenance through commercially Sriya Bodapati, Vihaan Mangat, Vivaan Turakhia, Ananya Mittal, Dev Mehta, Dhaniti Parekh, Stuti Daga
selling artwork.
and Rajveer Batra.
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