SOCIAL EXCURSION AND LEARNING TRIP (SELT- 3.0) TO JEEVANTIRTH
On 8th august 2023, forty eight students with two faculties Prof. Pabitra Ranjan Chakravorty and Dr. Tushar Panigrahi visited Jeevantirth, Ramapir No Tekro for Social excursion and learning trip (SELT 3.0). Jeevantirth which means “Life Pilgrimage” was established on 14th July 1997 by Raju sir, a social activist and a social entrepreneur and Deepti ma’am, a couple who became active in social service since “Movement for Total Revolution”.
Kids in the NGO were of age 7yrs to 15yrs and to engage with them we had fun activities planned like drawing, poetry, signing, etc. Students and kids were grouped together for drawing and meanwhile few kids were indulge in poetry and singing. Inspite of being underprivileged and facing numerous of difficulties, the charm and light that reflects on their face filled the room with happiness and positive energy.
The teachers and staff members were extremely cooperative , Mrs.Laxmi Yadav who is one of the teacher of Bal Sanskar Kendra and is working with Jeevantirth from past 13 years, she informed us about how Jeevantirth currently has seventeen ongoing projects and how they teach kids to make sure that the studies are not about mugging up which makes it boring, infact they teach kids in a fun and interactive way which helps them to learn and understand more.
All the kids are being taught in Bal Sanskar kendra. Basic subjects lik taught at Bal sanskar Kendra, Jeevantirth the basic subjects like –English, Hindi, Maths, Science. While interacting with the kids I was fascinated by their innocence and how they find happiness in little things and were satisfied with what they have.
The purpose of Jeevantirth is to enable people to be lifelong learners by community based education, so that they learn to learn, learn to do, learn to live together and learn to live life in a way that is filled with full of Joy, Love and understanding it in a sustainable way.
<p>After the visit to Jeevantirth NGO, we visited the slum area where we saw how few SDGs i.e Sustainable development goals like quality education, women empowerment , gender quality, etc are followed. Jeevantirth is mainly working in the fields of education, environment, rural development, women 2 empowerment and vocational training & livelihood related issues. We visited a small waste management and recycling plant nearby where all the working staff were women and we got to learn how they collect and arrange wastes according to the future requirement for recycling.
Overall this trip to Jeevantirth was about learning how to appreciate and share the things that each one of us are provided with and to be grateful for it, people who don’t have this privilege know the true importance of it.
Albert Einstein once said “So long as any single child is deprived in this world; no invention is great and no discovery is outstanding”. This initiative of Jeevantirth has motivated and inspired each one of us to follow this path and serve back to the community and to help the underprivileged with little things that we can do in order to ensure their happiness and help them having a life worth living.