Every Young Child has the potential to be a leader and their school, community, society have great responsibility to establish an environment that nurtures their growth as a self sufficient, engaged citizen and responsible individual with developed leadership skills, and as said "youth of today or leaders of tomorrow”.
As we are moving forwards with our mission, and as we are interacting with the people, we are getting more familiar with the community. With the data forms we set out to fill in, we are now having rather more personal outlook and understanding of the village, their stories, their struggles, their joys and sorrows and lot more than the mere sheet full of data. These people are simple humans and majority of the houses run on minimum income of wage working fathers. These humble humans who have little to less leadership qualities inherited are simply fighting their battle to earn and live their everyday lives. And as a result it was quite evident that the younger generation had little to less exposure and opportunity. As interacting to the senior student (college going students), the youth of the village, we found that these kids were shy, unconfident and unsure of their role in the community. However, they had the energy that could be used to direct them through a proper way.
Upon frequent interaction with them, we decided to create an environment to give them hands-on experience, to have them learn, inculcate leadership qualities and confront all their fears. We formed a group for them and named them “PRAGATI YODHAS, with elected members and assigned duties.
Today as a result this group has been involved in working for the community and are gradually exploring new possibilities where they can grow as a person in every aspect of life. They are now making collective decisions, organising events, helping community members and leading the village. All this may seem little but these tiny measures led them to personal growth, to have a sense of belonging, from little to so much more.
Further with this group we plan to guide this group, mentor them, have them acquire skills, help them do events, guide them make career choices and so much more. But most importantly create an atmosphere and a culture cycle of learning that shall prevail for generations to come.
On 27th of July, Pragati Yodhas conducted their first Drawing and Essay writing competition for the school going students of the village.
This article is written by Nicholas, the on ground program manager for Project Pragati