Create a Safe Space for Children and Youth

June, 2018 is the beginning of the academic year. We saw bundle of joy and enthusiasm among children as we started different activities in their respective areas. Through our regular Balsena activities, we reached about 745 children by the end of 30th June, 2018. Special programme like "Anti child labour day" on 12th June, was conducted to create an awareness among masses about the critical issue of "child labour". 124 Balsena children and many more children from outside joined the campaign. 

By the month of July, we expanded to 8 more area points to conduct our activities. This makes the total 20 area points for Balsena activities. Apart from the regular area activities, 3 Balmelas were conducted on the theme of "Child rights". We had a participation of 145 boys and 127 girls in the Balmelas. Through different activities children got aware of the 4 basic rights of right to protection, right to survival, right to development, and right to participate.

On August 19th, 2018 we had our Balsena Election day to elect the new President and Vice President. It was a two day event in which the first day was focused on building the leadership qualities of children. Through Drama children exhibited their understanding on 6 different systems of government like Democracy, Direct Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Communism and Ideal system of Equal groups. The next day was focussed on election process where the 12 candidates who nominated for the positions gave election pitch for 5 minutes each. This is followed by children among the audience posing different questions to the candidates. The last step of the election process is the voting mechanism where children gave points to the 12 candidates based on their profile. Vadher Karthik has been elected as President and Baraiya Kajal and Vegad Hardik have been elected as Vice President. We had a participation of 50 boys and 45 girls during the election day who represent different committees in their respective area and school points. 

August month also had number of Balmelas under the theme of "Fun with Science". Children made small toys to understand the concept of sound, Animal and Science toys with paper, and paper craft to understand the idea of "Motion picture". Children have shown great enthusiasm while making the toys and shared their learnings at the end of the Balmela. We have done 4 Balmelas with a participation of 191 boys and153 girls in the month of August. 

From 22^nd April to 26^th April, 2018 we had Mannar residential camp where children were exposed to activities related to Life skills. We had a participation of 58 children. All the children have actively participated and shared wonderful reflections.

Vacation camp happened from 8^th to 20^th May, 2018. This was around the theme of environment preservation and life skills. To make the best use of waste materials, children have used plastic to make banks, wall hangings and various containers to use in the kitchen. Other activities involved using their creativity to build complex origami houses. Film shows and Exposure visit to Museum and Auditorium were part of the vacation camp.

Nihar, one of the Balsena member said “Whatever Shaishav is doing is very important to us. My vacation time was properly utilized by learning about how to make different things with plastic and other used things. Whatever I have learnt here is very valuable for me and I would never forget them.”

Kusum, who is the president of Balsena Team said “I have seen children learning a lot by doing with their hands. A lot of skills have developed in the process. I have developed a new perspective towards environment and how to look at any object differently to use it in multiple ways.”

Wenlido training to improve the physical, mental and emotional capabilities of girl child happened in the month of May. 190 girls across different age groups participated in the one-day and two day trainings. Anjali who is a 10 year old girl said “This training is good. I know now, how to protect myself from getting beaten up from my mother.”Krishna who is a 13 year old girl said “I have learnt how to say “no” in any given situation and how to draw boundaries to protect myself.”

With the start of the new academic year, we have seen children coming to the one day training very enthusiastically. We had 2 Active and Council meetings in the month of June which was on “action plan” for this year.

One of highlight during this quarter was, Shaishav had celebrated its 25^th anniversary with Balsena children on April 27^th. Instead of blowing out candles on a cake, the children and staff chose to light a diya to signify their never ending hope that all children will have a safe and happy childhood.