Community projects

Today was the first of three days working out in the local community with the charity partners. We were in three groups -

One group (Lara, Leah, Emilia, Annabel and Sarah A) went to the Indian Sponsorship committee. We went to a small hall in the middle of a local community where there were about 40 children. We sang songs, played games and made paper aeroplanes. After lunch we went to a second local community hall where there were about 20 children and we sang songs and made paper boxes. The kids loved all the activities and loved having their photos taken!

One group (Chloe, Lorna, Ellie and Catherine) went to Tara Mobile Crèche.  We started off the day by painting the outside of the concrete school building.  Over the next few days, we will reapply the white paint, and then create a colourful mural to welcome the children.  We also had a chance to plant a range of flowers and shrubs that we had bought from the garden centre yesterday.  This will provide the teachers the opportunity to show children actual plants, while they are studying this topic.  Tomorrow will be busy, as there is quite a bit of painting that needs completing, plus we are running activities for the children.

The Green Tara Foundation group (Lydia, Beth, Olivia, Daisy and Sarah C) went to the Pune International School to teach a class of about 50 students, with ages ranging from 15-18, about environmental science. They had a round robin system, covering the topics of water, global warming and pollution. Although most of the students were older than us, the group worked really well together and kept them interested. During the next few days, we will be teaching the same students again, on similar topics, and visiting the local community hall to teach children aged from 11 to 20. It's going to be a very busy week!

We then came back to Sangam and had a session on 'Free being me' talking about self esteem.

Back to the community projects tomorrow!

Sarah A and Catherine xx

Starting our Community work (30/07/14)

The two of us started the day by participating in yoga at 7am; where we learnt how to count to 10 in the local language and it was very relaxing experience.

Then we all went out on our introduction to the particular community partner that we will be working with for the next few days.

I (Emilia) went to the India Sponsorship Committee where we spoke to two of the women who work there about the programme and what we are going to be doing over the next few days. In this charity the staff teach the local children and adults about gender equality and explain why it is important that girls go to school. Also, the women can pay to make bags and purses with old fashion sewing machine which the organisation sells and the women get a percentage of the profit made from the group. Over the next few days we will be going out into the local communities where we will be doing activities with the children that we organise. 

I (Daisy) went to the Green Tara foundation, which works with young children and mainly adolescents teaching them informal education and life skills. They work in both schools and local communities, with both boys and girls, all around the ages of 14-18. We visited the office for Green Tara and met the founder Dr Mune who told us about the foundation and her inspirational story. We were then taken to a local community where we visited some of the houses in the slums of people who are helped by The Green Tara Foundation.

When we got back we had a Indian culture session where we had feedback time about how the day went and how we felt about the days ahead, and asked some questions about the Indian culture.


Then we had our first 10 million girls session, which was focusing on the 'stop the violence' campaign, in which we participated in various actives related to the topic. For example we got given sentences related to the issue and we had to do a freeze frame of it.

After this session we had dinner, and finally had a prep session in our groups for the next day of community work, and reflected on the day.

Emilia and Daisy xxx

Rickety Rickshaws :D

Today we got a bit of a lie-in as we had breakfast and our daily flag reading at 8:25. After this we had Patrol

Corner, where we sit in our patrols and answer questions and discuss plans for our future duties. The patrols are made from mixed groups of event participant, so we get to know new people, which is nice. 

From 9:00 we set off in rickshaws to go shopping at Laxmi Road. I was in a group with Catherine and Daisy, and during the bumpy rickshaws ride I stayed the warmest and dryest as I sat in the middle. When we arrived, our rickshaw driver dropped us off in the wrong place so we had to call Sangam to find out where we were meeting the rest of our mixed group. (Note from leaders - all the girls were accompanied by an adult in the rickshaws!).  We found out that we were meeting at Kirti Saree Centre first, where Daisy and I tried on some gorgeous saris and punjabis. In the end, Daisy brought a beautiful bright pink and gold sari and I bought a punjabi which is blue. 

Next, we headed off to the Black Temple where there is a museum and a balcony where we can take pictures of the busy road. 

After this, we went to the Line Bazaar which is a market place selling all sorts of things. In the centre of the bazaar there is a giant Ganesh statue used for the Ganesh festival later in the year. Soon after that we went to the vegetable market, where we were set a challenge to discover what a Hindi vegetable in English, and we were set ginger. We also had to try and buy as much ginger as possible with 10Rps (approx. 10p) which was very fun as we had to try and haggle with the vendors. 

We then went to buy bangles and bindis for the Indian afternoon later in the week. Soon after this we went to eat lunch in an Indian restaurant, which was DELICIOUS!! 

After lunch we went back to the closest bus station to get two buses back. On the second bus, Emilia, Leah, Lara, Daisy, Lydia, Beth and I watched a young Indian girl (who couldn't have been older than seven) begging money off of a man on the bus. The twist to this story is that it looked as though the girl's foot had been snapped off and reattached which was upsetting, shocking and hard to believe.

Once we got back to Sangam, those who had bought a sari or punjabi were fitted by the tailor which took a much shorter time than anticipated. After this we had until dinner at 6:30 to ourselves, so we had some chai and sat chatting, which was really nice. 

On Tuesdays, we don't eat meat or eggs, so our dinner was a vegetarian curry with rice and vegetables, followed by melon. Dinner was delicious as usual. 

After dinner we had until 8pm to relax again so we had some ice creams from the shop which cost 10p-£1!! 

At 8pm we had a WAGGGS game based on the theme "Save Our Pool" as Sangam is trying to have the pool renovated as it has a huge crack down the middle of it. The game was really fun as we had to come up with a synchronised swimming routine, make a poster, and design a newspaper swimming costume for Leah, where she looked fabulous! A highlight of mine was seeing our leaders try to synchronise swim on land (Another note from the leaders - we thought we looked quite good!!). 

Overall, it has been a brilliant day with some definite highlights, and it has included quite a few power cuts (including one literally just now!!)

Wishing you lots of love from Sangam, and we are missing you loads :D

Olivia xxxx

Discovering our potential

Today we woke up at 6:30 am for a 7 o' clock breakfast. Everyone was tired but we were looking forward to our day.
The other guide groups staying here with us at sangam were going on a hike through paddy fields and had to wade through a river!  Due to the information we were given we realised it wouldn't be safe for us to go with them.  However, we had an amazing day planned for us. We left with Jenna, a volunteer from Sangam, and got a local bus to Diggy Hill ( but it was definitely a mountain).
We had to rush off the bus and made our way up the mountain in the warm but constant rain. Going up the mountain we got very wet but once we were at the top the view was amazing and we found a simple but pretty Hindu temple and Muslim burial ground.

Once we made our way to the bottom of the mountain we got another bus and headed towards the town Alandi. The main feature of the town was the large river flowing through it where people were washing and playing. It was all a shock for us as none of us had seen anything like this before and we all knew the river was dirty but to the people here it was a very special place.

The next site we visited was a beautiful Hindu temple with 16 levels each consisting of its own place of worship to a different god. There were young children on the first floor of the temple being fed their lunch and we were invited up to the second floor to see men chiseling passages on tiled slabs from the Mahabharata.

We headed back to Sangam on another bus which was very busy, but it was exciting to see all the local people getting on with their lives.

Once we got back to Sangam it was time for lunch where we all sat together. Then we all decided to go in the swimming pool where we had a competitive game of volleyball, underwater selfies and pictures of us all jumping in!
Finally we were able to have hot showers so we are all refreshed.

We had quite a lot of free time where we chilled which included games of cards and relaxing on our beds. Lots of us went to the shop to buy Hareem pants ( Alladin pants). We also had Chi time and ice creams.

After more card games we had dinner, for dinner we ate chicken, potatoes and salad for dessert we had creme caramel. After that we sat together and talked about our day.

Beth and Ellie.

We would all enjoy reading your comments!

We made it!!!

We are writing this as we are waiting for the opening ceremony at Sangam to commence! We took off on time and got stuck straight into the films. The flight was calm until we began our descent were we experience some quite rough turbulence. We arrived at our hotel in Mumbai at 2:30am local time and checked in and left again after only having 5 hours sleep. We then took a 5 hour bumpy bus journey to Sangam where we saw our first glimpse of India in the daylight. We arrived just in time for lunch, curry, and then took a tour around the small neighbourhood in Pune. 

Quote of the day, "How was your flight?"said a leader from another group. "Good!"said Lydia.

Hope all is well back at home. 

Chloe and Lydia :) xx

Parents meeting today

Hopefully everyone is ready with their bags packed for todays parents meeting!