It was Friday, 17th Feb 2023 and thank God it was, as we were eagerly looking forward to meet the little children at Diya Ghar, Horamavu. Diya Ghar is an NGO, which helps in early education of the children of migrant labourers. We were briefed before by Diya Ghar team that the children were under six years to set the expectation, but boy were we surprised when we visited the school. The children were quite young and were eagerly waiting for us at the school.
“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” — Oscar Wilde, author and poet
We (CX C4C Foundation & Architecture) started with a small ice breaking activity where the teachers made the kids and the team sing rhymes both in English and Kannada. There were lead children singing and others joining them enthusiastically in the chorus. The energy was contagious and everyone eventually sang and danced along.
Later, we served snacks that we had brought to the disciplined children, who were sitting on the mat in a circle and patiently waiting for their turn. Now that the children are more comfortable with us, the teachers arranged for a group activity where each of us had to create an apple with craft paper along with four children in the group. With the children helping, we completed the activity in no time and one thing that surprised us was how different each kid was – one was very eager to complete the task, other was ensuring that we don’t waste the stationery, another was looking out for other groups and helping them with the glue and other items that we had in surplus. The kids were proud of the final product and posed for the pictures.
In the beginning of the day, we also had a dental check-up for all the kids by a dentist. The dentist showed them videos on dental hygiene and taught the kids on the best method to brush. She also did a check-up of each of them and noted the ones that need to be treated in her next visit to Diya Ghar.
Before leaving, the teachers took us to the shacks - basically those blue tents, where the kids live. The place was desolate and eerily silent – it had close to 20 tents and with only two people around. Most children would have been on their own in that place, had it not been for Diya Ghar. Diya Ghar is not only ensuring those kids with education, it’s also ensuring nutrition and most importantly safety, until the parents return from their work in the evening.
When we were returning from Diya Ghar, we couldn’t help but feel that it was not that we helped the kids, but it’s the kids that helped us – making our Friday more memorable with their joy and liveliness and teaching us a thing or two.
Once the Russian novelist and philosopher, Fyodor Dostoyevsky said “The soul is healed by being with children.”, and the whole team couldn’t agree more. Hence, our key takeaway was we would never miss an opportunity to be with small children, they are definitely "the happiness multipliers".
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