If I ask from can you give a definition for the title ‘little girl’ what would it be. Definitely your answer will be blended with the words of beauty, luminance, courage, sacrifice, determination and commitment, talent, mischievous and most commonly talkative. There’s a wonderful saying by Alan Beck, “Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people. They are born with a little bit of angelshine about them, and though it wears thin sometimes there is always enough left to lasso your heart.” But unfortunately there are plenty of beautiful little sunshines who are mixed with hurricanes, struggling with issues of past, identity, hard hitting circumstances and emotional security daily all over the world. If we can be moonlight for such isolated little hearts it will help them to overcome those hurricanes for a better and bright future without any doubts. They will guarantee that they can climb mountains to overcome any obstacle to feel protected without hiding from the real world. So as the Rotaract Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo we created the community project “SNEHA” to rise up the dreams of those beautiful hearts. “Sneha” met twenty four little eyes from six years to seventeen years old girls in ‘Maithree Children Development Centre’, Colombo 08. They were eagerly waiting for us with quizzical looks along with blushing smiles. Our main aims were to improve their spoken and written English knowledge, expand their ability of cooperating with others and to motivate themselves how to achieve their goals and ambitions through better education.
At first sight they displayed bashful behavior with us and we exchanged our names to make each and every one audible. Soon after the introduction session they became very friendly with us and believe me they had tons of questions about ourselves. Firstly we conducted an easy English game called ‘I Spy’ which helped them to recognize objects around them and learn how to spell in English. They were really exciting and they kept on talking with ourselves to lead their team towards triumph. Not only those little girls but also my colleagues were totally in it helping them with better ideas as well as tricky moves. Through this they merely got us as their own sisters and brothers. So it helped us to be closer and get to know about their needs and thoughts without any emotional barriers. Yeah it’s pretty sure if we were able to spare a little time in our busy life schedules for them, we can amazingly mend their broken souls by spreading love and compassion. Those lil sisters were cuddled to us and holding our hands tightly without a single word but searching for the warmth of sisterhood which stopped our hearts for a while.
They enjoyed the tea break with us filling their little tummies hurryingly to get ready for the upcoming events. It was lovely to see elder girls were taken care of their younger sisters as one family. Then the motivation programme was started by grouping them according to their age. We sat together and started the session. They had really great ambitions and they wanted to how to achieve their dreams through our experiences and guidance. Many of them had different ambitions like doctors, teachers, army officers, police officers, singers and authors. There was a divergent cute one who want to become a mermaid and the only question she got was whether she needs to study for the achievement of her goal which made us chuckled. Within the programme we enhanced why we need to study properly, what are the effective ways for studying and how many great opportunities and pathways are waiting for them if they became university students. We inspired them that it’s such a great pleasure to be an appreciable citizen for our country by doing an esteemed occupation. As the great saying by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, they got to understand that educated one can drag their direction of life into different victorious way. Also we expressed that as girls we have to hold countless responsibilities and obligations in future and for that we should maintain good human ethics and human values. I guess they were crystal clearly grabbed our souls because of the thoughtful questions they raised.
The round of cross word and word searching puzzles gave them goosebumps again. It was little bit difficult to complete the task on time with those mischievous little ones because many of them refused to leave our laps during the activity. They only search for affection and attention from us by their deep heart’s core which is priceless to these innocent kiddies. They were really talented girls; some of them good at singing and playing the piano. So we sang songs together. Finally we distributed gifts which need for their academic requirements. Their valuable, delightful comments about ‘Sneha’ made us pleased. When we were about to leave, all of them got a single major question “are you all coming tomorrow also? “. Actually what did they expect from the society? , Are they ready to face the world which is outside this cocoon?. As responsible youth we can lit the light of hope, dignity and confidence in their innocent lives more than just feeding children and providing them with an education, but about motivate them to seek and achieve their dreams, giving them a solid chance in life , and bringing glimpses of heaven on earth. Our unsaid, unwritten promise is to heal their buoyant tomorrow for the ones who face such adverse circumstances with little to no monetary support, no emotional support but come out strong enough to smile through life.
Written by Rtr. Sachindee Chandula
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