The picture of a well planned city should be for everyone…

Today was the start of the second half of the camp. This means that we are now ready to get deeper into the awareness program.

One of the posters showing the menace that can be created if we dont save water today!

WATER – Conservation, Protection and Preservation

The morning began with the penultimate day of the YES program. The children have also gotten into the rhythm of doing yoga in the mornings now and so we shall continue to do it even after the program is over. But, more than that they were excited about finding the task for the day, cause now they all want a prize.

Meanwhile, we were invited by Professor Sadagopan, the director of IIITB, to interact and work together with children from a school close to the campus called Kumaran School, as they were coming in for a Science Workshop.

So, we had a large audience for the presentation of Water and its importance, which was beautifully and in a very interactive way taken by Sophie.

children from the Kumaran school and the 1000 crane children all sitting for the presentation

Sophie giving her presentation, with Lina ad Abhishegh standing by as support staff :) 

a screen short of the presentation on how water is wasted !

She stressed on points of How IMPORTANT it is that we all realize the need to protect and conserve Water, as it was learnt yesterday that in metros like Bangalore, the scarcity of water is going to get so bad that by 2023, half of Bangalore shall have to be eradicated.

Abhihegh assisting one of the groups to understand the topic better

Mahesh at work with his group

Manjunath and the girls from Kumaran School adding colour to their poster

The children of the Kumaran School were high school students and hence our project children worked with them in groups to help them understand the topic better and then they collectively painted a poster on the theme “Save Water”

Post lunch, we had a photopgraphy workshop with Samuel Raj (www.samuelraj.com)

Samuel Raj demonstrating to the children how to use a camera

We had some of the older boys wondering why they needed a photography workshop? Because they said that there is nothing to understand photography…but then Samuel had planned an entire afternoon where he went into the details of photography but still not technical and by the end of the workshop, the children were really amazed with concept of photography and the possibilities with a camera.

Samuel brought along with him some old antique cameras as well for the children to understand how cameras have evolved.

Looking for the that perfect picture

What do you see Pooja?

We then went outdoors to try and work on practical exercise, where each child understanding the aperture ad shutter speed technique tried to do some motion photography. It was so much fun!

We came back to our studio and then saw our work on a large screen. It was really nice to see how proud the children felt about themselves when they saw their images on the screen.

We had a fun evening session, which also really helped us sum up the day very well.

Fields of View is a company working from the incubation center of IIITB. 

The team of Fields of View documenting the work 

They are a group of young IT professionals who are using their skills to work on sustainable living models. They have created a game which in a very simple and direct manner helps one understand each individuals needs and aspirations from the city they live in.

Aditi and the rest of the team of Fields of View

It’s beautifully developed as a game which can be played by people of all ages.

We got our children from Goa and Bangalore to work together on building a city of their dreams. It was really interesting to see how they built every structure and thought of every structure. This also brought out the difference in demography between Goa and Bangalore completely, but in a very simple fashion it also taught us that may be we need to start building ideal cities by bringing cultures together.

We can blame the kids, they will aspire for what they see, so if a child from Bangalore aspires to build a mall its only because there are only malls across the city, and if a child from Goa needs a well in his city, it’s because it is the first source of water for them.

We are extremely proud of this group of children as they have come a long way from Day 1…they have a great imagination and tons and tons of enthusiasm to keep learning ad keep absorbing. We have had some behavior issues but that is obvious because it takes time to get yourself out from the space you have always been.