First aid and child safety
At Thamarai we are refreshing and upskilling as a team in the company of youth facilitators from other villages after schools. This week, we look forward to a day long first aid program with the Youthlink team, that will enhance our ability to respond to small medical needs and accidents. Last week we had two sessions on child safety with Honor Chance of Auroville Child Protection Services where we explored the sensitive topic of abuse in all its forms and how to notice and respond. Honor will support us with further sessions on child development and positive classroom management.
STEM and leadership programs
At the start of this term, we gathered with 70 teachers from Auroville outreach schools for a lively exploration in Tamil on education and preparation for this term using the base tools of the RTL program under the guidance of Muthukumaran who has extensive experience in bringing education and STEM technology to marginalised communities. Muthu was supported by co-facilitators Poovizhi, who has been nominated as one of the 365 women in STEM in India and Arun who is a STEM educator with a keen interest in alternative technology, especially solar energy. We explored our potential, reflecting on the conditioning and culture around education and designed individual projects for both responding and realising full potential with their students for the year ahead.
In the facilitators’ words
Here’s what two of our team shared as learning:
Vishnu
“I learned how to apply the tools in Thamarai not only in my class but also how to align my project to education institutes for shared values to manifest and systems to change. I felt the session was unique because I was able to see how other schools are working and what transformation can be created in each field. Muthu Anna explained that “it’s a choice”. This makes me think not only professionally and also in my personal life. The decisions I make are my choice and that indicates that when I am deeply rooted in my values and then make a choice that gives me full rather than partial responses”.
Swathi😁:
“ I got in touch with what I really love to do inside my heart and to balance my fear by noticing, naming it and letting it go using my inner capacity. Also, the deep listening tool is one of the best sessions I have experienced, it helped me a lot in my personal life as well as my workplace. I have learned not to take things personally, that useful feedback is for growth and how to distinguish complaints and look for the commitment for action behind a complaint when it’s needed.”