Pratham Books Champions : SAP Labs

Priti Dhingra sent us the following report of the storytelling session conducted by employees of SAP Labs.

We visited Sneha home care (http://www.snehacare.org/snehacarehome_bangalore.html). Sneha Care Home is a ‘home away from home’ to 95-100 HIV infected children.

Our main agenda was to bring in reading habit and to build an aspiration to learn in the children.

· Skit based on the book

· Fun activities (measuring Paplu, dressing up Paplu, dancing along with Paplu and Soni )

· Fun Quiz based on the book

· Drawing competition for the kids.

The 7th day of September began with lots of excitement and anticipation as we headed towards Sneha Care Home and Shining Star School for HIV Positive children. We had been planning and preparing for this day and had come up with a skit for the children to articulate the story “Paplu The Giant” along with a few more activities strewn around the same story.

Our aim was to stress on the importance of book reading or rather reading in general while still making sure that the kids have fun. As we entered the premises of Sneha Care Home, we were welcomed by the lush greenery. We were later told that children there actively participated in gardening and dwelled very close to mother nature. As we made our way towards the school, we were greeted by numerous cheerful smiles. We couldn’t help but forget our apprehensions and started mingling with those adorable kids.

While couple of us started to set the stage for the skit, others helped the school’s staff arrange kids into groups and assemble them near the stage for the play. We started with brief introductions about ourselves and then went on with distributing the face masks among the children. The play opened with the main character of the story “Paplu” coming on the stage while the story was being narrated accompanied with the background music. As the skit progressed, it was evident from the chuckles and chortles coming from the audience that the play was being well received.

We had planned the skit in such a way that kids could also become an active participant. There was a part in the play where “Paplu” is being dressed by tailors and as expected kids had a nice time dressing up Paplu. After this we had organized a quiz based on the skit. Kids were teeming with enthusiasm and almost every one of them wanted to answer. We had a hard time deciding whom to give chance to. This showed that they had really take in the play and had really enjoyed it. We had also given prizes for the quiz winners.

After the skit we had planned for a drawing competition for the children. Each child was given a drawing sheet along with the required stationary and colors.

It was the best feeling to watch those small children so engrossed in painting and coloring. They drew all sorts of pictures like flowers, animals, solar system, village scenes etc.  and our very own hero of the story “Paplu”

Finally we had to select few of them for prizes. It took a lot of time and we ended up giving five prizes for best five and another fifteen consolation prizes.

We played with the kids and laughed with them. Our very presence there gave us immense satisfaction and we couldn’t help but feel gratified to be given the opportunity to spend time with those innocent and loveable kids. Every individual has a right to be happy and so do these kids. We all felt fortunate that we could bring smiles to their faces. We hope that we can do this again.

Thank you for spreading the joy of reading!

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This International Literacy Day, Pratham Books has taken a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

What started as a small step by Pratham Books to spread the joy of reading has become a movement. Last year Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day and we conducted over 250 storytelling sessions. This year we are delighted that over a 1000 sessions are happening across the length and breadth of the country.We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog.

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

This blog contains stories sent in by all our champions. Browse through the blog for more stories. You can also go through the tags on the right side of the blog to find stories happening in your own city.

Note : If any of you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting 'a book in every child's hand', write to us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.