Over this past month the kids who attend our centres have enjoyed so much - way beyond the traditional ‘classroom’. They’ve been playing games, enjoying sport, dancing and celebrating 75 years of India’s independence, planting fruit trees and learning about environmental awareness as part of the Harela Festival.
Environmental awareness and the Harela Festival
Harela is a festival celebrated in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and in some regions of Himachal Pradesh. This festival is celebrated on the first day of Shravan-Maas, as per the Hindu Luni-Solar calendar and marks the onset of the rainy season. At this time people pray for a good harvest and prosperity. Harela means "Day of Green", agriculture-based communities of the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh region consider it highly auspicious, as it marks the beginning of the sowing cycle in their fields. As Harela symbolises the sowing seed, it advocates conserving and saving the environment.
To celebrate this festival the team of Project Help India was approached by the Forest Department of Kotdwara to assist them on a plantation drive in the forest regions of Kotdwara. The children from the city centre and slum centre and their teachers travelled into the forest where they were heartily welcomed by Divisional Forest Officer, Sub Divisional Forest Officer and forest rangers. The Forest Officer addressed the children about the “Harela” festival and further educated them about the importance of trees and the small steps they can take to save and conserve the environment. The children with the help of forest officers planted fruit trees like mango, guava and Indian blackberry and gooseberry.
Through the training we are providing, our teachers are learning the power and importance of designing ‘hands-on’ learning experiences for their students. Our Project Help India Centres are challenging the notion that children must learn in front of a blackboard in a traditional classroom setting (educators refer to this as “chalk and talk” …Who would have thought that learning could be so much fun. It’s magic!
