VaaO episode 9: 11/02/2017 - ‘Those hands on sheets though’

Luckily, we went this week to the orphanage, we missed last week. Today our main activity besides reading, coloring and sports was hand printing. To begin with we made tang juice for the kids and served it to them. Then we gave them pictures to colour and meanwhile we set up the posters, paint, etc for hand printing. We bought 2 big posters, on which the children did hand printing. We asked all of them to stand in a queue and come to us one by one to paint their hand, followed by printing it onto the poster. Also after printing, they wrote their name beside the hand print. All the kids enjoyed this activity very much. Later towards the end this very nice girl made mouth-watering tea for the 3 of us. This was a very appreciated surprise! We had lots of fun and enjoyed these precious 2 hours spent with the kids!

VaaO episode 8: 28/01/2017 - ‘Let's dance, color and read’

Thankfully this week we went to the orphanage. As usual we served them tang again, they liked it. Later on we gave them sheets with pictures to color. Some professional artists! After 20 minutes we read with them. This was an hour. For the next 20 minutes we had like a mini football competition with some of the stars in which they were only allowed to do a single touch and pass, aim was to do maximum passes without losing control of the ball. Rest of the children continued to color or read. Towards the end we had a game which involved everyone to dance. In this they had to keep on dancing until the music stopped and when the music stops they freeze. The person who moves is out. We had 2 winner in the end, we will get them chocolates next time! These 2 hours were glorious. Overall, it was fun, hope to see them next week again. 

VaaO episode 7: 21/01/2017 - ‘Origami along with guitar’

Again we couldn’t go for a while because we had holidays from 16th Dec onwards and school reopened on 9th January 2017. On 14th December the children at the orphanage had an activity so they were gone out somewhere, unfortunately we couldn't go. But the week after 21 december they were free so we went over and had lots of fun! At first we made them tang and served it to everyone, next we did colouring and sports with them. After that we got all the children to come in and then we taught them origami and their were some unexpected masterpieces by some extraordinary students! Later we did a bit of reading with them and towards the end at around 12:45 pm, one of my friend had bought his guitar so we sang with the kids and he played guitar it was mini musical session, they enjoyed it!  Overall, it was fun we are looking forward to see them next week. 

PS: Video quality is not very good, sorry!

 

VaaO episode 6: 10/12/2016 - 'Creativeness overloaded'

Today was our 6th day at the orphanage. Today we did lots of different engaging activities. At first we gave each child a balloon, which we had bought for them. They all enjoyed inflating it and then asking us to tie it for them. This was our starter activity- to get them active and going. Then we played some music and then gave the kids books to read for sometime- some read books and some played with the football. Later, we gave them drawings to color and blank pieces of paper to the ones who wanted to draw. Results were fascinating! (pictures attached). While most of the kids were drawing or colouring, a few kids were sitting in the other side of the room. I went there and I saw them play with the football, basically what they did was they flipped around one of the chair and used it as a basket and use the football as a ball and played basketball. (Picture attached). This was such an innovative and creative idea- literally they played basketball with a chair and a football! We all were very happy to see those kids be so creative! Towards the end, we gave them the pack of juice we had brought for each kid, they enjoyed it! Also, I have a few stars of the day; who came up with the idea of the basketball game:

1. His name is Sowropp Tuladhar, he is years 8 old studying at Kantipuri school
2. His name is Sabin Magar, he is 13 years old studying at Kantipuri school

Today was really fun overall!

VaaO episode 5: 3/12/2016 - 'Beautiful Bracelets'

Finally after 8 weeks we went to the orphanage today :( We couldn’t go firstly for the 4 weeks because of dashain- we had gone outside and also the kids of the orphanage were gone away for their holiday. After that we had a school charity activity which we had to attend from our school for the next 2 weekends. Then in the previous 2 weeks the students at the orphanage had gone for a picnic so we couldn’t go :(

Today, we reached there at 11:00 pm, the kids were excited to see us and they all said “Namaste” to us. Seeing those children always makes me happy since they always look very excited and eager to learn from us. They expect a lot from us and we expect a lot from them too! After reaching the orphanage we first made tang for them and served them tang. We had music playing in the background so they enjoyed and were engaged as well as  entertained. Then we kept the reading books we had for them on one table and they came and picked one and started reading. Some students who probably didn’t enjoy reading much they played with the football which we had brought for them. After sometime one of my friend had brought a box which had items to make bracelets. All the children were very excited, they all ran towards us, which made me immensely happy. We guided them at first on the steps to make the bracelets and then they were so smart on their own that they didn’t even need our guidance later on. Each and every student made a bracelet for themselves. After making the bracelets, we did the mannequin challenge with them (video attached), which they hopefully enjoyed. Last but not the least we had a few colour pencils, so some of them drew very nice pictures and some played games with their friends such as tic-tac-toe and hangman. Me and one of my friend went outside and played football with the “sporty” kids who were eager to play football for sometime. (Pictures attached!).
We all finished by 1 pm.

All of us enjoyed these 2 hours spent with these astounding, astonishing and awe-inspiring children. We hope to see them again next week!

An educational essay I had written last year:

HOW TO REDUCE HUNGER IN TANZANIA - ESSAY. 

Tanzania is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Kenya, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi and the Indian Ocean. Tanzania borrowed money from MEDC's -> lack of money. The interest rates later rose and Tanzania couldn't pay back. Cuts were made to public services by the MEDC's. The number people in the population rose without any education. Education lack lead to poor land management; not enough money-> malnutrition. Which lastly meant that it created hunger in the country. Low income lead to poverty which then lead to low intake of food. Diseases like Marasmus and Kwashiorkor spread out to children's; disabilities. This meant that they can't work properly later on and have a very low income. This is the poverty cycle which kept on happening. 27,000 deaths of children PER DAY! Can you believe it?

 I believe that the best solution to reduce hunger in Tanzania is Farm Africa! This will help them because they teach adults and children how to manage their own livestock and crops in a sustainable and profitable way, befitting the whole community. Improved ways to manage their crops, livestock, forests and access to water. They will be provided by a goat which will cost Farm Africa thirty pounds per goat! Therefore, this will reduce the amount of hunger because they can profit by selling the crops at a high price since they will be very good quality. They can also sell the milk which they are getting by the goat; 3X more than a cow, to the people and earn money from it and use it for their children's education. Their children would be provided with pure nutritious milk which will be a good diet for them and enough protein for the day. This option is sustainable because it helps the locals education and education is something which can be passed onto generations. Education is the key thing to life.

 The reason why I rejected the other three options was because the other three options were not as sustainable as this one. They were also not very profitable. Firstly, I rejected drop the debt because it was not a very sensible idea since the MEDC who the LEDC has borrowed money from would not want to lose all their money which they lend to the LEDC’s. Another problem was even if the MEDC agrees to not have the money they gave back, it would still not be helpful to the LEDC because they are not yet developed; they still need money. It will not progress the development of the country by doing this. Secondly, I rejected Alternative food sources because it is not environmentally sustainable option because if the people have not grown up eating insects then they will not be able to eat insects for all their meals and it will disgusting as well. If we would have grown up with eating insects then it would be normal for us to eat insects and we would love it. If we all eat insects at a regular basis then the insects we eat will be extinct and we would run out of them, so it is not sustainable. Lastly, I rejected Family planning group because it is not socially sustainable. You can’t just go up to a family and say that you are only allowed to have 2 kids per family and teach them about having safe sex. This option also involves money but no one is financially supporting it.

 However, there is one disadvantage of my decision which is that Farm Africa needs a very big company to financially support them because all the equipment for farming which they will be giving out to the farmers will cost them a lot of money. Paying 30 pounds per goat will not be cheap as well, so they will need a lot of money and great donations from very rich organisations.

 There are some good points about my rejected options they are, drop the debt will help the LEDC for a time that they will not have to pay the money back and losing much more money than they borrowed which will very strongly financially support them for a short period of time. Alternative food source would be a good thing to do since it will mean that nobody will be hungry and the food will not be unaffordable for the poor people. It will be eating insects which will have much higher nutrition than normal food, it will also be convenient to grow, keep and sell. It would save a lot of time and money. Family planning would be a good option because it will never cause overpopulation and if there will be less humans in the society then less food would be consumed. It would also reduce the number of child death rates.

 In conclusion, I believe that the best option for Tanzania would be Farm Africa because it is the most sustainable and profitable out of the four even though it is a bit expensive and would have some financial problems. Farm Africa would not harm the environment or the people in the society at all so I think it is the best option to reduce the hunger in Tanzania.


Written by- Shreyas Agrawal Y-9B

VaaO episode 4: 01/10/2016 - 'Tattoo making'

Today was the 4th day of us visiting the orphanage. It is very fun when we go every week to an orphanage to help children, it is an honour to be able to attend and a golden opportunity. This week we were running a bit short on time since most of our team members needed to leave at 12 PM instead of 1 PM, so we only did the activity for 1 hour this week. That 1 hour was more than enough to give us satisfaction and make the children have a happy time and day! In that 1 hour we managed to do various activities efficiently. The main activities we did were:

• Tattoo making on their hands.
• Coloring
• Music and dance
• Reading
• Played football
• Team building activities
• They watched us do cards tricks
• Distribution of pen and pencil to the children by us.

At the end of our activities we wished them happy Dashain (a very big and famous festival in Nepal at this time of the year). We also told them that we would not be coming for the next 3 weeks because it is Dashain and we had holidays from school, some members were going on a holiday but most importantly, most children won’t be there and they would be going somewhere for Dashain, so we told them that we won’t come too. I’ll miss them for 3 weeks!