Beyond Academics

In this stage we try to develop small social interactive visits. In these visits they may not appreciate the causes of suffering for these under privileged people but their innocence takes care of the role they play.

1. Learning - Bonding :
The children are first taught to make items like – greeting cards, table mats, ‘rakhis’ for celebrating the festival of “Raksha-bandhan’. The children are then taken to the underprivileged schools like “Matru bhumi’, which is a school taking care of children belonging to construction workers, and is situated in the vicinity of our school.

We have adopted the school and time to time a group of 40 students belonging to one particular division of each standard is taken to their school with gifts like old toys of our school kids, old note books with blank pages, pencils, pens, school bags etc., which our kids must have used and discarded them as they got new ones.

This is comparatively a mature stage where, the students, by interaction with the inmates try to understand the suffering of these people. The students are sensitized to the suffering of certain people and participate in all such activities by choice and full understanding.

2. Adoption of Old Age homes and Orphanage
The old age is an inevitable event of life. There are many less fortunate old people who are deserted by their families due to several social or economic reasons. They are either left to fend for themselves or die on the streets. Some of them make their ways to these benevolent Old age homes.

Similarly there are many children who have lost their parents in mishaps, natural tragedies or simply disowned by the parents or their families. Some of these kids make their way to these orphanages. These shelters for old age or children need support in terms of, financial and infrastructural support and the in-mates need emotional support.

To sensitize our students and extend support to these institutions who help such people, we have made our own contribution by adopting an Old Age home and Orphanage – “Swagat Ashram” located at Malad, Mumbai.

Our teachers visit Swagat Ashram and discuss with them their needs during one year and frame a plan or schedule to supply them the need based requirements of food grains, eatables, utensils, clothes etc. Our students of different standards visit the Ashram regularly every quarter. The kids carry with them food grains etc. for the next quarter. They also carry with them toys, chocolates etc. They spend the day with them. They sing, dance and share with them some moments of joy. The residents of the Ashram look forward to our visit to their Ashram. Our students having been exposed to the issues, these people / kids face, they are more appreciative and sensitive to these issues in the society and are eager to participate in such future programs which deal and try to solve the issues.

All collections are done by asking children to bring one fistful of grains / forego a meal and contribute the amount saved towards charity. Bring old but decent clothes / toys etc after cleaning and packing them neatly. They are encouraged not to tax parents or others for donations of any kind, instead earn and give or maybe give from the pocket money by foregoing some luxury.

3. Bajaj School of Physically Challenged, Kandivali.
M/s Bajaj School of Physically Challenged located at Kandivali (West) is a very sensitive visit for our students. They start appreciating the need and the difficulties these students face to study, live and to do their routine activities.

Our students participate in activities like the purchase of Candles and small items prepared by the blind kids /in-mates and helping them in organizing their living place etc. We also carry lot of items which they may need.

4. Adopted Jawhar Adivasi Village and School – 3 years
About 120 KM away from Mumbai there is an Adivasi Village located in Jawhar Taluka. The adivasi residents are very poor and the benefit of all the development taking place in surrounding areas has not reached the village at all. There is no electricity, no proper roads, no health care facilities or proper schools. They have a so called school with only two small rooms where students from 1st std to 10th std. sit together and somehow manage to study.

We have adopted this school and provided them with 2 green glass boards. The funding of these articles was organized in a unique way. The students collected old news papers from their houses, neighborhood and their own copies of NIE News Paper (students edition) that they get in school, collected enough funds, by selling the old News Papers to buy the green glass boards. In addition we also provided school bags, water bottles, books, pencils, toys etc. Students also collected clothes, utensils and blankets in sizable quantity. They were distributed in the village.

3. Compassion /empathy for animals, plants, Senior citizens and orphans
Our universe encompasses several universes within it. The human being is supposed to be the most intelligent, however to substantiate that, every individual must show the characteristic of that intelligence. What is the life pattern of wild animals, ants, birds, bees etc. etc.? They have their own universe and they too must be having some way to communicate to each other, survive, grow, multiply i.e. a separate universe of their own. A student of humanity needs to understand that everyone has a right to live and grow. For survival of humanity, these flora and fauna are important, they play a significant role in our life. Merciless exploitation of trees, mines and natural resources only show our insensitivity to them. Consequently we sometimes face the nature’s wrath in the form of floods, earthquakes etc. We at Gundecha Education Academy want our students to be the harbinger of love and compassion. They must have and express compassion to those who are underprivileged, in pain, in distress, in need of any type of help for a respectful, peaceful and meaningful living.

Our project “Compassion for Animals, Plants, Old people and Orphans” is a Project with “live performance”. In this project every child has to adopt / rescue any animal in pain or which is hurt. They individually or collectively need to adopt old persons and orphans, who need help, from their community or old age homes / orphanages. They also need to grow medicinal plants like Neem, Tulsi, Aloe Vera etc and take care of the trees in their vicinity against cutting, burning or misusing.

Every child needs to take a photograph along with the trees or animals and show it to their teacher / friends to motivate others along with a PPT.

The best part of the project we have realized is that, when someone starts loving even trees and animals, he / she cannot hate fellow human beings of whatever cast, creed, religion, skin colour or gender.

Right to Education has now become a fundamental right in our country. We cannot wait for the govt. to take all steps to achieve this difficult goal. Being a responsible educational institute we have decided to make our small but significant contribution to this noble cause. We have taken up several projects keeping this objective in mind. Since ours is a minority unaided institution, we do not reserve seats for the economically weaker section students, however we embark upon the following:

4. Each one Teach one
Each one Teach One is a project undertaken by every student of STD XI. They have to identify at least one illiterate or semi literate person from our community. The target segments are security guards, school peons, house maids, drivers, gardeners of the society etc. The child is asked to declare the name and entire contact details and level of literacy of the person he/she identifies at the time of commencement of teaching. At the end of year the person is evaluated for having learned the desired education offered to them. This program is very popular and we have seen very good response from the students, their parents and neighbourhood. In fact the program is so motivating that even the parents have implemented the same in their offices, societies and other place of work.

7. School on wheels – participating with Rotary Club of Thakur village, Kandivali.
School on wheels is a novel and wonderful idea where a bus is converted into a school, which goes to the places where there are number of children who are not able to go to schools because of floating population. These are primarily street children and children of construction workers are given education.

We have one such bus associated with us which is funded by ONGC and run by one of the Rotary clubs in the locality. Though there are regular teachers however, our children also participate in managing the classes, conducting exams and teaching at suitable times.

Being aware is important but making the community aware is equally important. We believe unless one is fully convinced the role and importance of any project, it will be difficult to convey the message to others. Hence first we undertake individual oriented projects as explained in above sections. Once we realize that students have really understood the meaning and have developed some sort of affinity towards environment, animals etc. we take them to community projects. A few projects are given below:

5. Tree plantation
In the name of the development of roads, infrastructure and industries the biggest casualty is more often cutting down the trees. Though there are counter provisions to develop a green belt but often this falls short than desirable.

Tree plantation is one of our prime projects. The project is conducted in 2 stages:

1. Plantation of saplings of trees
2. Every student adopts some of these trees. He/she takes care of these trees till they grow proper roots and become steady.

Tree plantation is undertaken at different housing society premises, leading roads in the neighbourhood and some far flung areas.
In 2013, on 15th August, our students of STD IX,X ,XI and XII did the tree plantation activity at two venues- One is a neighbouring school, “Samata Vidya Mandir” and another on a ground, belonging to the National Sports Authority of India along with the Rotary club of Thakur village.

6. Cleanliness drive in the community
Cleanliness of the roads, surroundings around the shopping clusters, street food joints etc. are usually thought as a primary responsibility of the local bodies, municipalities or government. However, the places can be kept fairly clean by following simple rules and developing awareness in the masses. We conduct Cleanliness drives around these places where large number of foot prints fall.

7. AIDs awareness campaign
Our school conducts several skits / street drama shows and campaigns in the form of processions with banners and speeches. The methods have been very effective and parents and citizens appreciate our efforts.

8. Civil defence : Fire fighting training to students
Fire Department officers and fire men conduct training program on

Types of fire

causes and essentials of safety from fire,

use of fire extinguishers and

methods of rescue at a time of emergency

More exposure to students on the realities of life makes children worried and sometimes they go to the extreme of thinking that getting near (90 - 100)% marks in the exams is the only way to survive and to lead a respectful life. We in Gundecha Education Academy take the responsibility of going beyond the books and expose them to some vocational training sessions where we explain the self – employment possibilities, setting up industries and choice from many other professions and services to our students to develop entrepreneurship. This will empower them to create self- employment not only for themselves, if need be, but also to train the youth belonging to the less privileged group to generate self-employment.

9. Some of the industrial and cottage industry products which we produce and distribute are given below :

1. 1. Phenyl: Used as a disinfectant in home and hospitals is a very easy to make and has wide acceptability. There is a big market and the customers are not so tied up to brands.
2. 2. Liquid Soap: Easy to make and helps developing habit of washing hands more often.
3. 3. Book binding: Easy to do and has good demand in the market, without the need of any branding.
4. 4. Tailoring and carpentering: The growth of ready made garments has given new meaning to tailoring. The basic knowledge of tailoring is useful in creatively thinking and creating designs and mass production of the apparel. The training not only helps appreciate and take care of self help at the time of need but also gives perspective to a large industry. (These activities are in planning stage to be implemented in the coming academic year)
5. 5. For junior classes we undertake many projects which include :
   • a. Best out of waste : Theme card making, Rakhi making, Table Mats, making dusters, making news paper bags
   • b. Pot painting
   • c. Book binding,
   • d. Making annual calendars
   • e. Philately – Postage stamp and coin collection

The geographic spread and number of people needy and suffering is so large and enormous that it needs co-ordinated effort of talent and resources of all like-minded people / organizations. We have gone beyond of our boundaries of school and joined with several NGOs who are working in this direction. We have recently joined hands with Rotary international which is one of the more than 100 year old internationally proclaimed charity organization. We have over 200 students members who joined the Interact club and participate in different programs jointly sponsored by Rotary Club. This interact club is the second largest in the world.

13. Disaster Management :
This program includes training the students in

Lift and Escalator Safety programme

Mock Evacuation drill

First Aid and Safety

Road Safety measures

14. Home Science : Food, Health and Hygiene
The most important disorder among youngsters is rated to be the wrong type, wrong quantity, wrong quality and wrong way to eat the food. We recognize the families and society does not give enough education to the food element in life. We conduct special sessions to appreciate the above concern in young people. The following activities are the some of the them –

Health Week celebration

Canteen Day

Food activity – Fireless cooking, health food

15. Formation of a Joint Stock Company:
The main objective of this activity is to make the students learn practically a number of topics in subjects like Commerce, Accounts, Economics and Business Studies and in the process the students get trained in the method of establishing a limited company and the process of a company becoming public.