Wednesday, October 19, 9:15 am. Anganwadi (play school) in Orlim, South Goa. Two tiny tots are bawling their hearts out as they cannot see their parents around, while the more seasoned children are jumping up and down, exercising with the Tara Trust facilitator, Geeta Jamuni.
‘Jump korpak jaee! Come on, let us jump’, Geeta urges the children to exercise in a bid to wake them up and make them active and alert. The Orlim Anganwadi is one of the many anganwadis, schools and orphanages which forms part of the Benaulim based NGO, Tara Trust’s footprint.
Founded in 2008 by Goa based anthropologist, writer and artist, Katharina Poggendorf Kakar, the trust has been helping less privileged children across Goa discover the artist in them. Averaging anything between 400-500 workshops every year for the last five years, the Trust has been opening up the world of art and creativity that was hitherto not available to these children. The Trust also imparts training in handicrafts to poor women in the slums of Goa thereby providing them a source of income.
There were a total of 11 children in the Orlim anganwadi. In her 90-minute workshop on Wednesday, Geeta, the Tara Trust facilitator began by distributing cardboard cut-outs of the number nine to the children and also supplied them with colourful nylon thread. The children were taught to insert the thread through designated eyelets fixed on the cardboard number. Interestingly, most children successfully accomplished the task. The children were then asked to colour the cardboard numbers.
What was interesting to note was that the tiny tots were seen helping each other and sharing their crayons. There was a clear sign of camaraderie and team spirit visible in ones so young. Important lessons for us adults. Speaking to The Herald in the Trust office, Katharina touched upon this point when asked to list out their achievements. “What gives me the greatest joy is to see how the children we interact with lose their shyness and gain in self-confidence,” Katharina said.
The Orlim children later distributed their time between drawing with crayons on black chart paper and playing with wooden building blocks. Some of the children were very good with their drawings and managed to draw trees and even mangoes.
And while some of them struggled with the building blocks, a few others actually managed to consistently build what looked like cute houses.
Amita Vaz, the anganwadi teacher said, “The weekly workshop by Tara Trust is a god-sent for our children. The children love these creative and fun activities and look forward to the workshop every Wednesday. The workshop complements our daily routine very well.”
Geeta Jamuni, an alumnus of the Margao based Chowgule college has been working as a special anganwadi facilitator with the Tara Trust for the last two years. She attributes her present self-confidence and happiness to the Trust. “I was an introvert and a very shy person when I joined the Trust. However continuous interactions with anganwadi teachers and children over the past two years and the need to constantly innovate and create new workshops has made a happy and confident individual,” Geeta said.
Katharina is also all praise for her small and dedicated team. “Our work is effective, because of our team. While Geeta researches and executes our anganwadi projects, Ninoshka D’Silva is charge of all our workshops and also works with women in the slums and children in government schools. New entrant, Priscilla D’Silva works on all our environment projects which often involves acquainting little children with the joys of nature, while Nancy Mascarenhas looks after our accounts and office administration.” According to Katharina, the Trust has also been fortunate to regularly get both Indian and German student interns who are training in the field of social work. “It works very well. We learn from each other’s experiences,” Katharina said.
Katharina is also very excited about one of the Trust’s on-going activities in a Nuvem parish school, where they are teaching art to tribal children. The children belong to families of daily wage labourers. “Our team has been teaching art to these children and we will be showcasing their work at the forthcoming Serendipity Art Festival in December. What is gratifying is that a few of the tribal children have communicated their desire to become artists,” Katharina said.
Of course, as is the story with most voluntary organisations, fund raising is a significant challenge for the Trust. According to Katharina, the Trust often collaborates with organisations to hold art exhibitions where the work done by their children is showcased and sold generating revenue. The Trust has a very active Facebook page through which it communicates its activities to the outside world. “We are continuously exploring new opportunities to reach out to people who can appreciate our work and support us,” Katharina said.
Tara Trust can be reached at
1) www.facebook.com/taratrustindia
2) www.taratrustindia.com
