Yes! This summer as part of the Travelling Dome initiative, we organised a summer camp at Camarabhat. Why Camarabhat you ask? Why not!
It’s been a couple of years since my colleagues Vishal Rawlley and Arnaldo Lobo have been working with the children in Camarabhat to raise awareness about the state of the St Inez Creek and doing their bit to clean the water of garbage and litter, plant trees, build floating gardens for bioremediation and using the red boat to maintain this pristine little spot. So that, besides humans, biodiversity and endemic species like the otters and crocodiles could thrive too.
Our engagement with the children over the years helped us bond like a family and we have been using every opportunity to work with them to affect positive change. To go beyond the work at the creek. To help develop their unique skills. To help discover the talent in each of them. It’s been a huge learning for us. To recognise their best potentials, to give wings to their unique abilities.
Last year under the aegis of the Travelling Dome, we conducted ecological trails where besides the registered participants, children from schools in Panjim, we also enrolled the Camarabhat children so that we could encourage mixed group learning and cross mentoring. It was a huge success. A few of the children then got a chance to participate in workshops and programmes out of Goa. Some became champions at a local futsal championship!
This time Vishal thought of a brilliant idea to simply do the summer camp in Camarabhat where the children would host the Camp and their neighbourhood would be the focus area and function as a base camp for activities, performances and exploratory walks.
We shared this idea with our friends and soon we were swamped with volunteers. Young architects in the making, Kirti Rathore, Elisha Fernandes, Yatharth Gupta, Architect Pratiksha Budvi and aspiring film maker, 15-yr-old Kabir Naik joined the team. Vikram and Varun too joined the gang.
We did a recce over 3 days to the Camp base exploring space designs, found material to use to make temporary structures and planning activities with the children. Kabir made a promo video and observing him work, a couple of the kids Sachin Magere and Deepak were soon hooked to using a simple phone for making videos and taking photographs. They then went on to make videos of the activities during the Summer Camp and their skills for this, is apparent in the videos that we shared on social media.
How did the Summer Camp pan out? On the first day, we had around 15 children. On the subsequent days the numbers swelled and we had up to 35 children on the last day, at the end of the week. In the mornings we conducted a Tree walk along the fields and bunds of Taleigao. We inquired into the life of trees. How they produce such juicy fruits from ordinary soil, water and the sun. And give us so much nutrition when we consume these. We identified many of the local varieties of fruit-giving trees like Mango, Tamarind, Coconut, Banana, Papaya besides the other species like copper pod, gulmohar, cassia fistula, etc. We collected wild berries from scrub plants growing along the edges. We collected pods, dry leaves, grass blades and even flowers and fruits. We then returned to make a collage of all that we had found. It was so super to see the variety and abundance that grows in our backyard.
In the evening sessions, we taught the children how to make useful items like wallets and purses, pencil holders, face masks out of discarded tetra pak cartons. We also taught them to make animals and birds of paper using origami. The little ones as young as 7 yrs were the most enthusiastic. Rupesh was the best among all. He has a speech disability but that did not stop him, nor did the jibes from older kids. He was quick to learn and even taught the other kids how to fold paper into a bird! We also taught them how to make their own currency and home-made snacks and refreshments. The children had to use found material like bundles of grass, shells, etc, as currency to ‘buy’ a snack. We used the blue pea flower that the children had collected from the fields to make a sweet concoction as a refreshing drink.
On the subsequent mornings we explored the Khazans and mangroves along the Ourem Creek in Panjim. Here we spotted many endemic and migratory birds. We also swam in the shallow waters of the creek. We talked about the pollution of the creek due to sewage and littering from the neighbourhood and its impact on marine life. We also explored the St Cruz wetlands which had an old manos or sluice gate and the children waded into the shallow water to discover more birds. They dived and swam with abandon, free like children should be. The older kids helped the younger ones to learn to dive by waiting at the deep end to help those that dived reach safely to the bank. A super lesson of collaboration. In this outdoor session, Rupesh again was a super inspiration. He did not want anybody to help him. He fearlessly stepped into the water along the bank and began enjoying his first time in the water. He then climbed over our shoulder for a firm grip and began flapping his feet vigorously like a fish in water!
We also visited the Siridao and Bambolim beaches to learn about its history, ecology and marine wealth. We celebrated Earth Day with the children making beautiful sand sculptures of the marine animals fish, turtles, eels and snakes as a tribute to Mother Earth and culmination of a fantastic Summer Camp. Thank you Sanctuary Nature Foundation and the Earth Day Network for lending us support and work with these kids and showcase their unique skills!
(Tallulah D’Silva is a practising architect in Goa and has recently taught at the Goa College of Architecture)
