माध्यमिक शाळेतील मुलांपुढे दहावीनंतर काय किंवा बारावीनंतर काय हा मोठा प्रश्न असतो. अनेक विद्यार्थी आपला मित्र जिकडे जाईल किंवा पालक सांगतील तिकडे प्रवेश घेतात. विचारपूर्वक निर्णय घेणारी मुले खूप कमी असतात. पण विचारपूर्वक निर्णय घेतला नाही म्हणून नंतर पस्तावणारे विद्यार्थी खूप सापडतात.
म्हणूनच जुनून फाऊंडेशन प्रत्येक वर्षी श्रीमती मणिबेन एम पी शाह कला व वाणिज्य महिला महाविद्यालय माटुंगा यांना करिअर मार्गदर्शनाचा कार्यक्रम घेण्यासाठी आमंत्रित करते. दरवर्षी हा कार्यक्रम के जी पाटील विद्यालय देवघर येथे आयोजित करण्यात येतो, परंतु यंदा करोना विषाणूचं संकट असल्यामुळे हा कार्यक्रम ऑनलाईन होणार आहे. त्यामुळे आनंदाची बाब अशी आहे की तुम्ही कोणत्याही शाळा किंवा कॉलेजचे विद्यार्थी असाल तरी तुम्हाला ह्या कार्यक्रमात घरबसल्या भाग घेता येईल.
हा कार्यक्रम येत्या रविवारी २१ फेब्रुवारीला आयोजित करण्यात येणार आहे. ह्या कार्यक्रमात श्रीमती मणिबेन एम पी शाह कला व वाणिज्य महिला महाविद्यालय माटुंगा येथील विशेषज्ज्ञ करिअर आणि नोकरी यातील फरक समजावून सांगतील. त्याचबरोबर चांगले करिअर कसे निवडावे याबद्दल मार्गदर्शन करतील व दहावीनंतर विज्ञान, वाणिज्य कि कला शाखा कि व्यावसायिक शिक्षण हे तुम्ही कसं ठरवावं त्याची माहिती देतील. त्याचबरोबर बारावीनंतर कोकोणते अभ्यासक्रम असतात, त्यासाठी काय पात्रता हवी असते, कल्याण-ठाणे-मुंबई भागांमध्ये कोणकोणती महाविद्यालये आहेत वगैरे सर्व गोष्टींची माहिती देतील. ह्या करिअर मार्गदर्शन वेबिनारमध्ये भाग घेतल्यानंतर तुम्ही तुमच्या भविष्याला सामोरे जाण्यास सुसज्ज व्हाल ह्याबद्दल शंका नाही.
हा कार्यक्रम पूर्णपणे मराठीत असेल आणि तो गूगल मीट ह्या ॲपवर घेण्यात येईल. कार्यक्रमाची वेळ सकाळी १० ते १२ असेल. आपलं नाव नोंदवण्यासाठी कृपया हा फॉर्म भरा.
रविवारी सकाळी ह्या गूगल मीट लिंकवर क्लिक करून तुम्हाला कार्यक्रमात सहभागी होता येईल. काही प्रश्न असल्यास आम्हाला मेसेज करू शकता.
A few days ago Tejas dropped a message in our Junoon Foundation’s WhatsApp group about holding a workshop in Zilla Parishad School Budhavali on August 31, 2019. He wrote that the workshop was supposed to be in collaboration with Kora Kitab and it would be called “English & Me”. We would introduce students to English words from our day-to-day life through various activities.
I am a part of Junoon foundation since its inception and we have collaborated with many organisations in the past seven years, Kora Kitab being one of them. This was the second time I participated in Kora Kitab’s workshop. Kora Kitab’s volunteers came up with the idea of the workshop and designed two fun activities for the students. I was sure that students as well as volunteers would enjoy the activities so I immediately replied that was in. I was excited about this workshop because I knew that I would get to learn a thing or two.
Students introducing themselves to the class with the help of volunteers.
Our workshop started at 10 am. It was supposed to be in sections.
Section 1: Self-introduction
The first activity was the self-introduction. Here, we first made a group of five students and gave them names such as Tiger Group, Parrot Group, Peacock Group, Dragon Group, etc, and each team was allotted a volunteer for guidance and support. After that, we distributed a sheet on which we had printed some sentences with a blank space that was supposed to be filled by the students.
The purpose of this activity was to acquaint students with new words. Most of the students did well but some had problems writing words. Students showed great stage daring, not shying to go in front and read from the paper. Many students spoke and read well so it was a good start for us. After that, we moved to our next section.
Section 2: Action words
The second section was about action words. In this section, we once again distributed sheets to the students. This sheet depicted a boy doing his daily activity from waking up, arranging bed, exercising, taking a bath, eating, playing, reading to finally sleeping. These are the daily activities a student does in their day-to-day life so we taught them what to call them in English by acting them out. Students enjoyed this section and we let them keep the sheets.
In both sections, we got a good response from all the students. Komal and Urvi did a very good job of making sheets for the workshop. They also conducted the workshop really well and helped students come out of their fear of the language. After the workshop, we discussed how we could make English learning for students more interesting and decided to conduct more workshops in the future.
It was a rainy day of 7th July. Even though it was a Sunday, Junoon Foundation’s volunteers woke up early and started collecting the things required. We were heading to Dinkarpada for the ‘Go Green’ event. This was the seventh year of Junoon’s yearly programme.
Except the first one, I have attended this monsoon event year. Initially I was planning to skip this year’s event due to personal reasons, but later luckily everything got sorted and I could join. I was happy, and in that happiness I slept late. Still I managed to wake up early. Dinkarpada is about 20 km away from my home. We reached there by 9 am. A total of 55 volunteers from different walks of life had gathered. There were some new faces who were excited to experience Go Green for the first time.
Junoon’s volunteers Chinmay and Yuvraj instructed the new volunteers about the rules and the procedure to follow. In the first leg, Aditya led a rally of schoolchildren. About 20-25 students walked with Junoon volunteers through the village shouting slogans such as ‘Ek ghar ek jhad’ (one house, one sapling), ‘Jhade lava, jhade jagava’ (plant trees, grow trees). The purpose of this rally was to educate people and spread awareness about environmental sustainability.
The rally was followed by Junoon volunteers appealing to people of the village to choose a sapling from cashew, custard apple, guava, lime and blueberry. Volunteers were divided in a team of three among whom the first one was supposed to consult the house owner and decide a place to plant the sapling, another to dig a pit, and the third one to carry the sapling and plant it.
In the first half, we planted around 150 saplings in the backyard of each house from the village. The villagers were kind enough to offer us water; some of them even offered cold-drink. Those who didn’t have space for a tree, asked us to leave a sapling with them so that they could plant it on their farm or some other land.
We took a short snack break in which we simultaneously distributed stationery to the students who had participated in the rally. Meanwhile Aditya spoke to the students about the importance of trees and the vital role they play in our day-to-day life. After having tea and snacks, everyone was refueled and ready to work again. The mini-tempo was sent again to load the saplings. Volunteers formed a human chain in order to finish the work early. Other tractor carried volunteers to the forestland where we were going to plant the rain trees. A localite Ashok kaka guided us where to plant saplings. It was decided to plant them in a straight line approximately 5 feet apart.
Though it was a one-day event, weeks of planning had gone into making it happen. Ved, Nikhil, Pritesh and many others were working on it for days. From taking permission from the village sarpanch to safety of volunteers, all work was being done in the background.
We gathered at the house of our local coordinator and Junoon Foundation member, Pritesh, after the event. The final count of saplings planted came to about 350. We had some snacks with tea and started the experience sharing session. Everyone was supposed to give their introduction and share their experience about the event. It was interesting to know the reviews of new volunteers.
Volunteers shared ideas about how the event could be planned better the next time. Onkar briefed the gathering about the events carried out by Junoon throughout the year. Urvi had prepared ‘thank you’ cards made from reused papers with a note written by Tejas which were distributed among volunteers as a token of appreciation. Everyone headed home with a happy heart and lots of good memories.
मी जुनून फाऊंडेशनसोबत गेली सात वर्षे ‘गो ग्रीन’ कार्यक्रमात सहभाग घेत आहे. मागील सलग सात वर्षे झाडे लावण्यामागील कारण म्हणजे, आपल्या देशाच्या एकूण भूमीपैकी केवळ ११ टक्केच क्षेत्र जंगलाने व्यापलेले आहे. मोठ्या प्रमाणात होणार्‍या जंगलतोडीमूळे जल आणि वायू परिवर्तन घडून येत आहेत. पर्यावरणातील या बदलांमुळेच भविष्यात देशातील काही भागांमध्ये पूरसदृश्य परिस्थिती आणि काही भागांत दुष्काळजन्य परिस्थिती निर्माण होईल. आपण कल्पनाही करू शकत नाही इतक्या वेगाने तापमानात वाढ होत आहे आणि सन २०२० पासून याचे भयानक परिणाम दिसायला सुरवात होईल असा अंदाजही व्यक्त करण्यात येत आहे.
जुनून फाऊंडेशनसोबत झाडे लावताना प्रत्येक वर्षी नवीन अनुभव येतात, नवीन मित्र बनतात. यावर्षी दिनकर पाडा हे गाव निवडले होते. या गावातले लोक एवढे जागरूक होते की ते स्वतःहून जुनूनच्या सभासदांकडून झाडे मागून घेत होते. ते पाहून खूप छान वाटलं. गावकऱ्यांच्या या प्रतिसादामुळे सर्व कार्यकर्ते जोमाने काम करत होते.
प्रत्येक वर्षी कार्यक्रम दोन टप्प्यांमध्ये होतो. पाहिल्या टप्प्यात शाळकरी मुलांची गावात वृक्षदिंडी निघाली. सर्व मुले घोषणा देत गावातून फिरत होते. झाडे लावा झाडे जगवा, एक घर एक झाड, कावळा करतो कावकाव माणसा माणसा झाडे लाव, झाडांना घाला पाणी ते देतील पाऊस पाणी या सर्व घोषणांनी गावकरी मंडळी खडबडून जागी झाली. वृक्षदिंडीच्या मागे जुनूनचे सर्व सभासद प्रत्येक घरी जाऊन झाडे लावत होते, झाडांचं महत्त्व समजून सांगत होते, त्यांचं संगोपन कसं करायच याची माहिती देत होते.
वृक्षदिंडी संपल्यावर सर्व शाळकरी मुलांना शाळेत स्टेशनरी वाटप केली. सर्व मुले खूप आनंदी झाली. थोड्याच वेळात आम्ही त्यांचा निरोप घेतला. सर्व सभासदांनी थोडावेळ आराम केला, नाश्ता केला आणि सर्वजण दुसर्‍या टप्प्यासाठी तयार झाले. दुसर्‍या टप्प्यामध्ये एका माळरानावर झाडे लावायची होती. सर्व कार्यकर्त्यांनी कुदळ, फावडे घेतले आणि कामाला लावले. सर्व कार्यकर्ते पावसात भिजत, मस्ती-मजा करत झाडे लावत होते. सर्वजण आपल्या मोबाईलमध्ये ते छान क्षण टिपत होते.
आम्ही ४० कार्यकर्त्यांनी जवळपास ५०० झाडे लावली होती. झाडे लावण्याचा कार्यक्रम संपला होता. सर्वजण आनंदी होते आणि खूप थकलेलेही होते. त्यामुळे गावातीलच एका सभासदाच्या घरी सर्वांनी दुपारचे जेवण घेतले. सर्वांनी कार्यक्रमाबद्दल आपापले अनुभव सांगितले. आणि शेवटी सर्वांनी एकमेकांचा निरोप घेतला. वर्षभरात आपण एकही झाड लावत नाही. पण जुनूनमूळे झाडे लावायची संधी मिळते त्यामूळे पूर्ण वर्षभर मनात राहिलेली झाडे लावायची खंत नाहीशी होते. जुनूनमधील सर्व सभासद आता चांगले मित्र झाले आहेत त्यामुळे संस्थेसोबत काम करताना कोणत्याही गोष्टीचा दबाव नसतो. सर्व मिळून-मिसळून काम करतात. त्यामुळेच जोपर्यत जुनून फाऊंडेशन काम करत राहणार तोपर्यंत मी जुनूनमध्ये काम करत राहणार.
After our art and craft workshop in December 2018 for the students of Zilla Parishad Primary School, Budhavali, Junoon Foundation approached us for another workshop. So, which workshop? What kind of workshop should we conduct this time? Do the kids prefer indoor or outdoor activities?!!! questioned our mind.
During last workshop we had realised that the kids were quite reserved. We felt of doing something to bring them out of their shell and try to enjoy new ways of learning. And there the idea/concept of IN and OUT popped in our head. Wherein, we introduced some simple exercises which helped us to know about kid’s interests.
Accordingly, the day was planned, March 2, 2019. After our introduction to the kids, we did fun physical activity with them. This helped them to quickly open up to us. Later, the kids were introduced with four paintings. Two paintings had indoor activity (reading and sleeping), while, the other two had outdoor activity (playing and dancing). Kids were given the freedom to choose their favourite painting. Surprisingly, most kids chose outdoor painting, while a few chose indoor painting.
We had prepared two activities for the day. Indoor activity included educational drama/ skit and Outdoor activity included dance (physical activity). As we performed the skit, we asked a few kids to be a part it, which helped them relate to the story. A skit had a meaningful message, and we hope, this may help the kids to build their good values for lifetime.
After the skit we conducted a dance session which was full of fun and excitement. The volunteers joined the kids with the dance practice, which boosted kids’ confidence. While conducting dance exercise we observed that kids were opening up and being themselves. Later, the kids and volunteers performed the final act, and that was so much fun for everyone. The best thing was, after the dance session the kids demanded a local song and started dancing on it. It was surely fun to watch these kids dancing with full energy, despite the fact that they just had a dance session.
As this type of workshop was conducted for the first time we realised that the environment that the kids are in also has a big impact on the way they feel. For example, if they perform regular and boring activities all the time, they are less likely to be inspired to be creative. If we introduce kids to new fun ways of learning, it might inspire them to be creative. Kids love to ask ‘Why?’– Creative activities, such as drama and miming help them to think for themselves more and work out answers themselves.
We got to know about Junoon foundation through Facebook and luckily we got an opportunity to work with them soon after. We got in touch with our friend Komal Bharambe, who was already a part of Junoon, to know more about the organisation. Coincidentally, she was planning to conduct a workshop and asked us to be a part of it. We were more than happy to oblige.
On December 1, 2018 we conducted a workshop which was a collaboration between Junoon Foundation and Kora Kitab for students of Zilla Parishad Primary School Budhavali. The workshop was divided into three sections. Every section consisted of a fun activity.
Activity I: Bubble Maker
The first activity was DIY (do it yourself). Here, the kids were supposed to create the tools for a bubble maker. All students were divided into a team of two and the equipments were distributed among them. Each team was allotted a volunteer for guidance and support.
The motive of this activity was teamwork, creativity and joy. The kids participated enthusiastically. By the end of the activity each student had their own bubble maker.
Activity II: Dot Art (Come together to make a painting)
Dot Art was a group activity. This activity helped students improve their concentration level and teamwork. It was inspired by picture puzzle. Each student was randomly allotted a piece of sheet that was part of a picture puzzle and was asked to paint the sheet dipping their pencils in acrylic colours. At the end students were asked to complete the puzzle by joining their sheets, which resulted in three beautiful pictures.
Activity III – Design a dress for “Princess Hasmukh”
Basically in this activity the kids were supposed to design a dress for a princess which helped them to showcase their creativity, the results of which you can see in the picture below.
We had a great time with the kids and the whole team. It really helped us to improve and sharpen our skills. This workshop also inspired the little students to boost their creativity to the next level. All three activities had their own values and level of creativity. As this programme was our wish come true, we would love to participate in such social projects in future too.
Junoon Foundation is celebrating Daan Utsav (Oct 2–8) by organizing ‘Joy of Giving’ donation drive to collect stationery and school supplies for students in Wada taluka, Dist. Palghar.
Parents in rural areas find it difficult to meet their children’s school expenses. The “Joy of Giving” campaign is our modest attempt to ease their pockets a little. This is our yearly initiative since 2013. In October 2016, we distributed more than 3,500 notebooks, crayon sets and other stationery such as pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, scales, etc. Last year we distributed 600 notebooks, 116 pairs of shoes, geometry boxes, and other stationery. Do check Indian Express’ report in 2017 about our work.
Junoon Foundation is an organisation entirely run by local volunteers in their spare time. Do join us and be a part of Daan Utsav — India’s biggest festival of giving. Your contribution will encourage our young sparkling minds to do better in their studies.
Distribution: Saturday, October 06, 2018 at Zilla Parishad School Gargaon
Please donate at least three days before the event date.
For more details, contact: Ved: 8850986465, Mayur: 8847712323
Email: contact.junoon@gmail.com
The event photos of the previous three years can be accessed on the following links:
Junoon Foundation 