“A person is a person; no matter how small”. With all the restrictions posed by the pandemic, our children proved to be true superheroes as they had to adapt to the sudden shift to online schooling, almost in the blink of an eye. Students as young as 6 -7 years old of Riverside school made their mark as they transformed challenges into opportunities.
Their journey from crisis to creativity was steered by the ‘design thinking process’ during which the students identified and understood a problem at hand and collaborated with their friends, teachers and parents to come up with a solution. It is with deep pride that we would like to share the story of our superheroes with our readers.
Design thinking has been an iterative process in Riverside school for years. It is a structured framework of ‘Feel, Imagine, Do, Share’ by virtue of which challenges are identified and accordingly, solutions are generated after imagining an ideal scenario, brainstorming and refining ideas.
Here’s a brief roadmap of the latest project completed by the students of Grade 1 & 2 of Riverside school.
Feel: Conforming to their lessons on the ‘importance of health and hygiene’, students observed the precarious conditions of the underprivileged children around them.
Imagine:
Following the mantra , ‘cleanliness is the first law of health’, the young learners imagined a setting that is pure and clean, believing that proper hygiene will keep one healthy- both mentally as well as physically. Hence, the idea of inculcating the 4H mindset- Health, Hygiene, Helpful and Happy was focused upon.
Do :
Once they imagined the best case scenario, it was time to just do it!
However, in order to pioneer the 4H mindset, the little ones armed themselves with all the knowledge about the concept to refine their ideas.
So here’s how it began….
Interaction, Storytelling, Empathy, Assignment, Awareness:
Students interacted with the team from Manav Sadhana, an NGO for the underprivileged communities, based out of Ahmedabad.
They listened to the stories of different children who come to study and spend time at the organization. Riverside students familiarized themselves with the young children of ‘Manav Sadhana’ and empathized with them.
After this online interaction, as an assignment, the students made a note every time they were happy, helpful and how they made an effort to stay hygienic and healthy. This enabled the students to realize the importance of hygiene and also understand the repercussions of the pandemic on health and hygiene at the grass root level.
In the subsequent sessions, students took a deeper dive into the whole concept of health and hygiene and also about what Manav Sadhana actually means. They learnt about liquid soap, why washing hands is necessary and all that. They also did their research and found the meanings of the words “Manav” and “Sadhana” with the help of their family members.
Gradually, the magical superstars of grade 1 and 2 were getting ready to don the cape of problem solvers. They decided to prepare kits with daily essential products which the underprivileged kids of Manav Sadhana could use to keep themselves healthy and hygienic. Individually, each child thought of different items that they would like to include in their kit. They were not restricted by budget or items at this point. They also went a step further and made posters, videos, audios on health and hygiene for the children who actually come from slum areas.
Things were taking shape and everyone involved in the process were happy and excited. One of the crucial aspects in making the health and hygiene kits was the ‘budget’. First, each student made a list of items that they wanted to include in their self-designed kits, along with noting the cost of each of the things. The total amount ranged from Rs.100 rupees – Rs. 2000 . . In order to avoid any disparity in the products and to make the end product affordable, students co-created a fixed budget for their kit which was best fit for all.
Voila! The kits were ready in a matter of a few days!
Share : No stone was left unturned in this project. Students put in the effort to make and decorate paper bags which were filled with different things like toothbrush, oil, comb, soap, nail clipper and many more. Some students even included extra toothbrushes, masks etc.
Through this interdisciplinary approach, the tiny tots of Riverside created a sustainable and noble impact in their immediate society. May this inspiring account encourage more minds to make kindness an everyday practice and bring about a positive change in and around us.
#kindnessmatters #health #hygiene #bekind #staysafe #riversideschool #ahmedabad
