To thank someone is a simple act. And a simple act of gratitude can a make difference, and bring a smile to someone’s life. Not just to the one who is thanked but also to the one who thanks, and expresses their gratitude. Children are greatly encouraged to inculcate gratitude and its expression within their beings at Touching Lives.
Spiritual awareness, insight, and acts are integral to the education imparted at Touching Lives. It completes the personality of the child in a way that makes them self-fulfilling, in an utterly uplifting manner. Expressing gratitude is an important aspect of ones spiritual growth. It opens up the doors of manifestation and also brings forth a general sense of well-being and abundance.
That being said, how do we being this into our lives. How can we possibly teach children this deep philosophy of gratitude? Touching Lives Community Leaders Poonam Tevar and Ram Soni took on this challenge and accomplished it with flair. They taught a bunch of absolutely cute, tiny children, to be thankful and how! They made it fun, they made it creative and they made it grand. Thanking became an event. Take a look at what transpired during Gratitude Week at the Indranagar Community Center with Ram and Poonam:
The Plan
After brainstorming among themselves, Poonam and Ram openly discussed with the students about their ideas. ‘At first we exchanged our ideas about how we can make ‘gratitude’ creative and and interesting for the children.’ says Ram. ‘We wanted it to be something simple, fun and impactful. Something they could easily relate to.’ When they were sure what they wanted to do, they unleashed their ideas on the tiny beginners of the IndraNagar community.
The Big Idea
They decided to celebrate an entire week as Gratitude Week. And guess who they decided to thank? People they already knew and saw and met nearly every day, the community helpers. Poonam explains how they prepared the children for the week ahead. ‘First, we made sure our children understand who the community helpers are. You know, the uncles and aunties as we often address the doodhwala, chaiwala, kirana dukaanwala, autowala, dhobi, sweeper, and so on and so forth. We discussed how they are important for the society and how they add value to our lives with their services.’
The Act
So what did they do through the week. Well, it was an elaborate plan, Poonam continues to explain their step-by-step execution of the plan, ‘Once we were done explaining, it was decided that children will make thank you cards for all these community helpers. And then the whole lot of us hobbled around in the community and distributed the cards to the respective people. We had such lot of fun, all of us!’ Indeed they did. The look on the faces of the community helpers says it all!
The Gala Event
And if you believe that this was it, then wait till you read on. Ram shares what happened next, ‘To enhance their understanding and significance of the community helpers, we decided to take them through one more experience. We planned to have the children enact ‘Community Helper Skits’. Poonam explains further, ‘We split them in groups and assigned one community helper skit to each group. We handheld them through the whole process, including ideas, props, dialogues etc. All of us had great fun.’ On the last day of the week, they put up a gala even in the community, complete with chief guests, and a make-shift stage. There was a cobbler, farmers, vegetable seller, and even a teacher. It was an endearing sight to see the tinies dressed up and enacting the helpers who make our lives easy.