One year of RON Thrissur Chapter

It has been a year since the launch of Thrissur Chapter of Rhythm of Nation, a youth NGO committed to e-literacy and environment. Started off in Mumbai, RON also has its wings across Bhubaneswar, Orissa, Thrissur and now in Chennai.

It was on 5^th January 2014, that the RON team in Thrissur started off with its very first campaign “Project LOL”( Learn Out Loud) under the guidance of Jithin Raj, the founder of RON. “Project LOL” is an e-literacy initiative by RON for the kids who have no direct access to facilities such as computers/laptops and internet. LOL has been one of the most successful campaigns by RON across its various other chapters.

One year, and we’ve been into five campaigns here in Thrissur. And it has been such a pleasure to be part of it.

#1- Project LOL, St. Anne’s Orphanage, West Fort, Thrissur.

RON volunteers with the kids at St.Anne's

We had forty-five kids ranging from classes 6^th to 9^th at St. Anne’s and around thirteen volunteers. It was Rishi Satish and Gayathri Hari who were the centre-coordinators of RON at St. Anne’s.  It was the very first time that I was into volunteering, but then I had always loved teaching. It was with great interest towards lending a helping hand in bringing about change that I joined this campaign. But later on, it became something more than what I had presumed it to be. It was so great to be interacting with the kids and I was always learning something new from them during the course of teaching.

Once while interacting with one of the kids she said she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. I asked why, and she replied that she wanted to serve the poor and the needy. So I asked her why a doctor and not a nurse. And she said that in order to help the poor, one also needed money. Well answered.

Republic Day event

On January 26^th, Republic Day, we faced an acute shortage of volunteers. There were just four of us available. Rishi, Praphul, Thomas and myself. It was sure that we couldn’t attend to all 45 kids with just four of us. But we had planned on something for that day. We had brought with us a projector, and a few short videos based on patriotism and self-help. But that would be of just about 20 minutes. And it was just then that we knew no other volunteers would be turning up. So it was 4 of us, left with videos of about 20 minutes to be shown during a span of 3 hours.

But that turned out to be one of the best classes we ever had. We showed them one video at a time, and asked each one of them, their opinion regarding the video. They would explain what they understood, or what they felt or what they perceived from watching them. We too would join them and discuss different ideas regarding the joy of giving, need for helping others, and so on.

RON volunteers and students signing RON wall

We had to stop the classes in between, as the kids had to prepare for their terminal examinations during March. So after the final class of the academic year, we had a little painting session. It wasn’t a painting session actually, but was the signing of RONwall by both volunteers and kids. And it definitely included some art and some fun.

Later we resumed the project at St. Anne’s  in July, after the kids’ exams and vacations. We had more volunteers joining us, and it was a happy thing again to work as a team.

 

Final Day at St.Anne's

#2- enviRONment drive

The Clean-up 

On May 10^th, the day after the Thrissur Pooram celebrations, RON joined its hands with the Thrissur Corporation, in cleaning up the town. The spectacular Pooram celebration leaves behind a lot of wastes and spoils the beauty of the city. The RON volunteers  took it up as a duty to restore the beauty of the city they live in. So we cleaned up the whole of Palace Road after the Pooram celebrations got over.

 

RON volunteers celebrate the success of clean-up drive

#3- projecTREE

ProjecTREE was a nationwide campaign by RON in which people from around 16 states participated. People would plant their RONtree and vow to protect it. We even had international participation in this campaign. It was a one month long campaign, scheduled during June.

In Thrissur, we even organised a live art at Thekke Gopuranada, Thekkinkad Maidan, in bringing about awareness in people regarding the importance of trees and maintenance of the environment. The program was conducted on June 5, Environment Day, in association with “Mmade Thrissur”. We also distributed free saplings to people and onlookers during the event.

 

#projecTREE

#4- ProjectLOL, Sevasadan Orphanage, Kanattukara, Thrissur

Digital literacy assessment test

Soon we launched the next LOL project in Thrissur, at SevasadanOrphanage, Kanattukara. Here we had just 14 kids and five volunteers. A few changes were made in the LOL syllabus to suit the need of kids.

We used poems and short stories in teaching MS Word to them. We would teach them a poem first, explain the word meanings and the poem, and then make them type on laptops. In the process, they would learn new words in English, and also would learn to type and also the formatting tools.

It is still an on-going project.

Abou Ben Adhem by James Henry Leigh Hunt

 #5- ProjectLOL, Juvenile Home, Ramavarmapuram, Thrissur.

RONmates conducting Orientation program for newly recruited volunteers

The very next LOL project will be done in Juvenile Home, Thrissur. As part of it, we recruited new volunteers and an orientation program was conducted for them. The project will soon be started.

Our volunteers are more than just teachers. They are mentors, and someone to look up to. :)

If service is your habit, lets meet. :)