few weeks ago, on arooftop of a school under a blister-ing mid morning sun, I attendedthe valedictory function of a socialintervention program.

Mr. Chikkadeva Gowda,

Asst.Headmaster, Government HighSchool, Uttarahalli, Bangalore hadthis to say on the impact of this program.

―

The stress of learning had taken joy out of children. They

laughwith you (the trainers)

but are seri-ous with teachers.

Through these "life skills" sessionsthey are learning to be happy in life.

From the feedback I got from thechildren, I understand that

they areable to differentiate between what is good and what is bad in all what they do.

They have

started giving titles to in- formation they get from televisionand newspapers and are expressing their views

.They are

learning how tobehave appropriately withtheir peers, friends, par-ents and teachers

; and to

differentiate between dif- ferent kinds of relation- ships

.They have

become moreexpressive

nowadays. Theyhave become

bold to speak what they feel without hesitation or fear.

Teachers say that people from MindTree come hereon weekends and by Mon-day the students are ener- getic and undisciplined. However, I feel that this is not indiscipline.

It is growth, it is change. That is how wehave to take it.The children have started mingling withothers actively. Whether there is happi-ness in their homes or not, on Saturdaythey know that there is happiness at school. These are the changes I have no-ticed in them"

A new way of Volunteering

Mr. Chikkadeva Gowda, Asst. Head master, Uttrarahalli Govt. School

O n e T o u c h a t a T i m e

M I N D T R E E F O U N D A T I O N

April 2010

The ―children‖ referred in his speech are

, 9

and 10

Grade students

–

560 of them

- from socially disadvantaged back-

grounds (better known as ‗slums‘) in and

around Uttarahalli, located close to our Global Village campus.

The ―Trainers‖ were a group of

54 Mind-Tree Volunteers

with little or no prior experience in the business of bringingabout social change, let alone catalyzinglife enhancing transformation in childrenin such a scale!!

Welcome to Sambhav Mindshare

–

anext generation social intervention initia-tive @ MindTree.MindTree Minds have consistentlystepped up to contribute in numerous so-cial activities over the years. Some of them are TSA trips, Dream-2-Reality,tree planting, teaching in schools as partof Campus Assimilation, blood donationcamps, visits to Samarthanam Trust for Disabled and clothes collection for Goonj.Many Minds are also involved in pro-grams on their own such as Art Of Liv-ing, Rural Development, Underprivilegedkids and children of convicts.The

Sambhav MindShare

program for-

mally meshes an NGO‘s intimate knowl-

edge of the target audience and their competency in designing customized in-terventions with the tremendous enthusi-asm, energy and desire of MindTreeMinds to contribute to the society. This isthe potent combination that has broughtabout the measureable social transforma-tion through sustained involvement over a period of 16 Saturdays.Our Minds were trained by Sambhav Founda-tion to facilitate interactive, game orientedsessions on areas such as



Critical Thinking



Creative Thinking



Problem Solving



Decision Making



Self-Awareness



Effective Communication



Interpersonal skills



Coping with stress



Coping with emotions and



EmpathyThough many of these Minds do not knowKannada, they overcame this barrier throughtheir sheer dedication and innovative commu-nications, setting up a strong emotional bondwith their respective classes.The Minds involved in this program havealso experienced their own transformationsand enhanced their personal leadership capa- bilities.

Page 2

Sambhav Mindshare….

ONE TOUCH AT A TIME

Sambhav Life Skills training Session in ProgressDr. Meena Jain

—

Founder of Sambhav FoundationRiddhi Shree, Sajina and Phani

—

showed that Language barri-ers can be overcome through compassion, commitment andperseverance

This is what Prabha has to say -

―

This program is like an unforgettable chapter in my life. I learnt a lotfrom this program. This program has given an opportunity for me to give back to society. From the firstto the last class lot of changes were there in the class, in terms of answering the question, enthusi-asm to

talk in front of the class, politeness etc. which is very satisfying for me‖.

Akshay led from the front

—

never missed a sessionfrom day 1, marshaled the program through its upsand downs, including pushing me to seek additionalvolunteers when we almost ran out of steady volun-teers midway through the program. He was also oneof the most popular facilitators among the children!Minds like Nagashree Ranganatha, Prathibha Sastry,Suresh Tamminidi, Vishnuprasad Pathki and Yogeesh Gandige put insome of the most consistent and committed attendances among theteam.

You can‘t have a program of MindTree Minds for over 16 weeks without Knowledge Management,

can we?Patrecia took on the task of compiling the experiences of every single class room for every singlemodule AND circulating the report. This was an excellent reference material for all of us. These re- ports served as very visible trackers of the progress the children were making through these interven-tions. They also helped to highlight changes in our MindTree minds in their personal development andtheir skills in dealing with emotions and aspirations of such young children.When the schools reopen, we will plan for a similar intervention in another inner city school inBangalore. We are confident that this will become an ongoing program where we help to trans-form the lives of thousands of school kids. Watch out for announcements for volunteers in May2010!My personal take away from the valedictory function was from a note read out by a 9

standard

girl. ―We all need help

rich or poor; children or parents; students or teachers.‖

Yes. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these kids.Affectionately,Raja Shanmugam.

Page 3

Team Catalyst Akshay receiving his certificatePatrecia

—

KM Champion!!Prabha

—

derived immense personal satisfaction

We All Need Help