Chennai: A revolutionary program is being implemented in the old city of Chennai, which will eventually lift the children of a lesser God from the deep perils of misery caused by economic poverty. These children are the residents of slums. The parents of these less fortunate children eke out a living somewhere out in that big city. The children, many of them, are left home alone for long periods. During which these tots exposed to violence, aggression and frustrations from many from the peer group and others. Lack of hygiene and clean drinking water are amongst the problems faced by these children. Plus many are forced into child labour. With such road-blocks that are placed before them, these children’s future naturally looks bleak.
Art of Living came out with a few programs specifically aimed at improving the lives of these children.
- To develop life skills, emotional thinking and social skills or soft-skills
- Address mental health and adolescent issues
- To improve health through Yoga, Breathing techniques and Meditation
- To create awareness of personal hygiene at home and elsewhere
Apart from these programs, a holistic one created by Art of Living, called Happy Child was imparted to both the children, their parents and the teachers involved. This program comprised of such exclusive ones such as Art Excel (ages 8-13), Yes (ages 13-18) Stress Free Teaching (for teachers), Know-your-child (for parents of children aged between 0-12) and Know-your-teen (for parents of children between the ages 13-18). This is a four day long programme.
The results of these programs have been very fruitful and beneficial to both the children and the parents. This resulted in:
- The children managing their emotions (anger and frustration)
- Effectively manage stress
- Feeling of happiness and positive minded
- Most important, their focus on studies vastly improved.
So far around 15,000 children have enrolled from various schools in the city and have successfully gone through the programs implemented by the team from Art of Living.
Mr Prakash Athrayil and Mr Sekhar Satagopan, both senior faculty from Art of Living have headed the successful efforts. Their untiring work has paid off so far and more success is envisaged in the days to come.
Initial challenges were many that were faced and overcome. Among them was the manner of indifference exhibited by those approached and lack of adequate space to conduct the programmes was the other. To begin with, top government officials were met and apprised of the plan. That included the Principal Secretary to the government of Tamil Nadu. Each of the 282 schools located at 2170 slums were visited. The respective Principals were briefed in whole about the project. Educational Officers attached to these schools too were met and briefed about the huge project. After the convincing was complete about the holistic method to be adapted at the schools, permission was granted to impart these programmes that consisted of 3hours of teaching and lasting for a period of 4 days in total. Once again so far, a total of 8 schools and 7200 children (plus their parents) have been covered and have directly benefited from these programs.
The Chennai chapter of Art of Living Foundation with a dedicated band of volunteers, comprising of trained teachers have dug deep in about 2100 slums and is aiming to help about 75,000 children between the ages of 3 and 12. The challenge is massive and the sheer numbers are staggering for a lay man to comprehend. But for Art of Living under the guidance and blessings Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, these are just numbers. About 280 schools are being targeted for this program. In the none too distant past and presently too, many a thousand under-privileged children across our ancient land of India have been benefited by the actions of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The number of children all over India that have risen from the depths sheer poverty is around 51,000. They have been provided with free schooling and nutritional meals, something they have been deprived of due to their unfortunate background. The records of Art of Living under the spiritual and practical guidance of Gurudev speaks for themselves, pointing out at the successes of previous such programs.
Courtesy: LinkedIn
