In the Month of March, We held a weekend camp for the Thulir
Children. The children came to Thulir on Saturday morning at 10 am
and stayed in Thulir till Sunday evening 5 pm. For most children,
this is the first time they are staying over at Thulir and so there
was much excitement.
About 25 boys and 12 girls attended the camp in the 11 to 15 age group. Volunteers were drawn to take on various chores like cooking, serving and dish washing and cleaning. We had a mix of activities that involved the whole group
and some that were done in small groups. The small group activities
included writing small stories, riddles, doing craft work [leaf art--
animal figures made with leaves stuck on paper!!]. There were
sessions in singing/ small play rehearsals. A group discussion on
fear in the evening was also held as there is a local legend about a
spirit in our neighbourhood that keeps a few children away from Thulir on new moon days!!
We tried a small experiment during the camp . For the sessions with smaller groups, we identified a few boys and girls as groupfacilitators, and briefed them on the role they were supposed to play. They took this up very eagerly. It was interesting for us to observe that these sessions went with very minimal input from us and the groups worked with great concentration in the best possible cooperative manner and produced some very interesting work.
