Inspiring Kids to Be the Change

Inspiring Kids to Be the Change

Overview:

While parents and teachers do teach about the importance of adopting good sanitation and personal hygiene habits at home and in school, what you tend to find is that the method of teaching doesn’t include the underlying values, isn’t fun, and is given in an authoritarian style, all of which prevents the learning child from self-realizing the importance of the habits, which disinclines them from becoming ingrained, self-motivated behaviors.

It is specifically these areas we like to focus on in our awareness programs at primary schools. We have found that when you approach a child as an elder brother or sister and not an authority figure, make your activities fun, and frame the importance of sanitation and hygiene in the right context (e.g., that your body is like a temple and a gift from God, so how are you going to treat it it?) that you will inspire kids to make a change on their own.

Program at Vadasar, Moti bhoyan and Khatraj of Primary Schools:

In June, 2013 around seven karyakartas from ESI conducted a full day’s worth of programs at the Vadasar, Moti bhoyan and Khatraj Primary Schools located in the block area of Kalol in Gandhinagar district, Gujarat.

It was an inspiring and energetic day, which resulted in all the kids from the different classes taking a heartfelt pledge to keep their nails trimmed, comb hair and brush teeth daily, and always wash hands after going to the bathroom.

One to two karyakartas were assigned to each class and spent the entire day sharing with the kids. The program always starts with prayer and rapport building. Again, we want to set the right context for the importance of sanitation and hygiene. That there is a spiritual component involved, and that we are sharing the information out of love and respect for humanity and Nature. We are not parents or teachers, but servants in the Gandhian tradition of world harmony, genuinely interested in the welfare of kids and their community.

We use a number of values-based activities to help support the learning, such as fun songs, inspirational videos, drama skits, and games. We also use charts of all the various practices like nail cutting, teeth brushing, and hair combing and give live hands on demonstrations of them—these demonstrations, especially, the kids enjoy.

At ESI, we like to make dustbins out of old oil tins. We paint them with a sanitation slogan and creative images, which makes them more fun to use, which increases the likelihood that they will be used. A few of these bins were donated to the school.

All of us were moved deeply by the kids’ enthusiasm and commitment to improve their practice of sanitation and hygiene. In addition to the personal pledge they took, the kids all decided to share the values they learned forward throughout their community.