Centre for Culture and Development (CCD) Summer Camp

by Mr. S.A. Samy
Madurai, India

Summer camp for the village children — (Participants 45 children from two villages) Centre for culture and development (CCD) organised the camp during the third week during the Third week of May 2007 for 45 school going Dalit and other children in the Village near Madurai.

After having a consultation with Krid foundation an organisation promoting new and innovative methods of learning for the children in pre schools and primary level CCD designed the programme for the summer camp. The one week program was designed in such a way that children were given an opportunity to express themselves freely and genuinely .The morning sessions were devoted to the learning aspects of their lessons at the schools. The evening programs were meant to bring their talents in singing and sculpting and painting and craft workshops.

Mrs. Bella Rosario the Subud Indian Chair came from Bangalore to inaugurate the summer camp and distributed the drawing and painting materials and note books and pens to the children. She told the children to make use of the summer camp to increase their self confidence and learn different skills to perform well in their studies and personal life. The children garlanded and thanked them for their visit.

Mr. Kennedy a school drawing master well known artist and sculpture was present during the camp and encouraged the children to paint about their environment and make sculptures with clay. It was really amazing to see the latent talents of the village children in painting and sculpting. The creativity was connected to their own living conditions and their environment. The trainer observed that the village children care and concern for the nature is more than the urban children.

Mrs.Valarmathy, Prof.Amalanathan, Mr.chakravarthy, Mrs.Hema,  Mr.Ganesan, Mr.Samy took classes on Mathematics, English,  computer, Photography, Environment education, yoga, health and hygiene respectively for the children in a friendly interactive sessions.

On the final day the students were asked to present their paintings in an informal exhibition for all the participants. The paintings were more than what we expected from the children. The summer camp helped the children to have more fun in the form of singing and dancing and also learned lots of riddles in group exercise.

The summer camp helped the children to relax and in the same time to get an opportunity to learn different skills and thus increased their confidence and self esteem. The camp was supported by the generous contribution from SD Norway.