Speak Out Archives - Bhumiverse

Speak Out – Children’s Day Special

Posted on January 20, 2017January 20, 2017 by Vaishali Rajan

Inspiring the child in us!
Everybody has a child like nature within us and SpeakOutians got a special way to let it all out on this Children’s day with our bright angels! Volunteers at two of the Pudhiyadhor centres, Samarpana and Arun Rainbow planned a Children’s day event at their respective centres. At few centres we celebrated it giving chocolates, biscuits and stationary to the whole centre. We also screened movie at one of our centre “Despicable Me“ with prior permission of management. Kids absolutely loved the minions!

We thank volunteers from all 4 centres to take an effort and give me our kids best they deserve. A much cherishable day on the 2016-17 Calendar of SpeakOut!

Speak Out – This Week’s Special Children’s Day Special

“Akka parunga neenga dhan en name English la eludha soli kuduthinga.” said a kid named Madhan whom I used to teach. It made me so happy and that was the day when I realized that just the 2 hours we spend can make a bigger difference.

After that I actually wanted to bring change and that’s why I applied for ‘Lead Bhumi’. Kishore and Avinesh were my boosting tool. Everytime I come to Chennai and go back I carry a million memories and wait eagerly for the next weekend.

Even In future If I move of to some other city I will plan to start a Bhumi chapter. Bhumi is closely connected to my heart and soul and has been the platform to change myself from within.
And I’m looking forward to start a Project for Women Empowerment in Bhumi.
– Pavithra Mannan, City HR

Merchant of Wow! – Rhaasi

“Volunteering is an amazing chance were you get to contribute in making difference in society” says Rhaasi. An architecture student, joined Bhumi last year and this year she took up the role of centre HR coordinator of Arun Rainbow-Purasawakkam.

She says that she believes in good bonding among volunteers and team work and she’s put her words to action as well by having the best volunteer bonding for her centre.

Thank you Rhaasi for being an awesome coordinator this year! We are proud to announce you as merchant of Wow!

Champs in the Amps!
Here are Samreen & Mansi – centre HR coordinators at CMS and Kamaraj Illam respectively doing an amazing job! Sharing their experience and journey so far:

Samreen

Volunteering for me means: Simply a chance to make a difference.

Best part of Bhumi: Its functioning pattern itself and youth volunteering which offers several responsibilities to youngsters.

Best part of Speakout: The maximum strength that our project has. Larger the count bigger the impact.

Bhumi has changed you as: As a better person who is very comfortable in conversing and working with many strangers whom I didn’t know before I joined Bhumi.

Inspiring person you meet in Bhumi: Our Founders are the best example that anyone would take them as inspiration because there start and the level and influence that Bhumi has now after 10 years of Journey showcases their hardwork.

What’s the most special thing happened to you in class: After class when I went down the stairs a little girl came running towards and draged me to her parents and introduced to them. That gave the absolute teacher feeling which was great!

Samreen’s Rapid Fire

Hobbies: Reading, writing
Love to: Dance, Enjoy songs
I dream Of: That day when I can afford my parents’ living!
Chennai to me is: Its just Namma Ooru Chennai for me. A place where I would love to live in and make changes accordingly.
Favorites: Books – Alchemist Movie – Any inspirational story and All love stories that has practical endings. TV Series – Koffee with Karan.

Mansi

Volunteering for me means: It’s all working selfless . Being carefree and just because you wanna do something which many peoples don’t tend to do that comfortably.

Best part of Bhumi: Attending class and being with kids. Meeting like minded people.

Best part of Speakout: Spamming and irrespective fights which has no head and tail. (All volunteers group whatsapp)

Changes you would like to see in spo: Recruitment process, where in beginners understand the seriousness of volunteering.

Bhumi has changed me as: A person who consume time in proper channel.

Inspiring person I have met in Bhumi: “Pavithra” our HR coordinator. Being a working woman, she finds time to manage things at best way possible. She travels every weekend just to ensure that things at SPO goes smoothly.

Most special thing happened in class: Met this naughty kid at my spo class, Vignesh. He’s full of energy and not stoppable. He makes me dance every time I enter class, which makes me feel special and is signing on note for me to begin class.

Mansi’s Rapid Fire

Hobbies: Wander lust, cribbing novels.
Matrimonial ad: Commit at your own risk.
You dream off: To command like Hitler
Chennai to me is: second home
Favorites: Books – The white tiger Movie – Gajni, Hachiko TV Series – How I met your Mother

Speak Out: Mobile Libraries

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Vaishnavi Srinivasan

“The kids in my class don’t know the alphabets. The kids in my class just want to copy and write. The kids in my class think drawing is the best thing to do during my classes. My kids are just not interested. “. These are some of the most common grievances one gets to hear from the volunteers. This is where introducing story books to children, from as early as Class 1, can make a massive difference. Yes! Speak Out has planned to implement Mobile Libraries for kids across the 5 centers in the city, for kids from Class I to Class V.

It is completely reasonable if you ask what kids will do with story books at such a young age, when lots of them don’t even know the alphabets yet. One valid reason could be that the kids will be entertained with such stories. Instead of giving them “boring” study material and exercises, and asking them to learn to read; volunteers reading out the stories to the kids will keep them engaged and very interested to be seated in the class. But, have you ever considered that the biggest reason that the kids can’t “read” or “understand what they read” is because they don’t have access to the wonderfully enjoyable world of books?

The role of books begins at a very early stage in a kid’s life, much before the question of learning to read arises. There are many books which kids can listen to, or whose colourful pictures they can look at, feel the pages with their tender hands, and start recognizing that learning to read these books could be something to look forward to. These books take children into the world of their dreams. They get to see animals that can talk, mouthwatering food items that seem to be interacting with them, or they get to see how a rabbit, which is just as small as they are, gets to overcome the odds and win over a lion. Such topics are extremely close to the heart of kids, and will get them exceedingly interested to know more about it. It also gives us the avenue to explore lots of new topics and possibilities with & for them.

If these kinds of books are available in the homes/centers of children, and if possible, the elders/ center authorities read out passages from these books for some time daily, the kids will definitely start recognizing words and eventually alphabets. When they get to match the content they learn in classrooms to the personalized experience they get with the books, it makes them increasingly confident. This is how kids embark on their journey towards becoming expert readers.

As the kids in our centers haven’t had such an environment which enables them to learn to read, the onus is on volunteers like us to guide them with the help of these books. During the initial days of befriending books, volunteers must take care that they run their fingers through each and every word they read out from the book & hold the book in such a way that the kids can see the finger move beneath the words. This will help the kids in identifying the “left to right” orientation of reading or writing, and will also get them excited with the fact that each and every word that their eyes behold has a meaning to it. If the books happen to have words/sentences that repeat themselves, the children will start to notice, identify them and then read them on their own.

Thus, the process of befriending the books is more about kids discovering the relationship between the printed words and its actual meaning, than just merely reading it out to them. Yes, It is very important that the kids don’t feel that they will see the books just once in their lifetime, but they will also have the opportunity to hold them, feel the pages, smell them, stare and smile at the colourful pictures, and finally have the chance to decipher the meaning of the hordes of straight lines and curves, that we call words. Let’s work towards building a strong, fruitful bond between the books and kids.

– Princee Chaudhary