1. October 13
Design for
Change 2011
When I reflect on it, I feel proud of myself for having
given so selflessly for those kids I barely knew. Feels like
some sort of a “connection” – Pranay Chatterjee (Gr. 7)
Planet city, Vill. Mujgahan, Old Dhamtari Road, Raipur - 492001

2. Indus World School
Planet City, Vill. Mujgahan, Old Dhamtari Road,
Raipur -492001
“..we all come from well to do families ma’am, but what about those who just aren’t so lucky?”
argued Rajul, a grade VI student just as we got into the heat of the discussion as to what change
they should finally work on..
“That sensitivity and conviction in the “kid’s” voice moved us mentors”, says our
principal.
He started it all with a small assembly briefing us about the entire concept of the design for
change, inviting ideas of what was the one thing that we desired to change the most. As much
as we thought it’d be easy, it was a tough call. Before us were 18 ideas, none less than the
other; right from cleaning up the city slum, to an anti plastic campaign across the city, to a mass
plantation scheme.
We divided ourselves into 18 groups and worked on our plans and presented them. This
one was chosen – to bring in a change in the rural Govt. Primary School behind our campus, to
adopt it. We had all seen its deplorable condition, so
agreed at once.
To start off with, a bunch of us went to survey the
school. What we saw totally shook us.
The children at the school were sitting on broken
cemented floor in a dark room, about 75 in each. They
were clad in shabby “uniforms”, reciting “pahade”. The
blackboard was almost white in colour, the metal doors
were broken and rusted. There were open electrical
wires dangling here and there. The rumble from the
construction that had come to a dead stop, was lying
everywhere, metal
rods were all around.
A beautiful Banyan
tree with a damaged
chabootara was a sad
scene. What was most disturbing was the scene of their
kitchen. There were mice and insects crawling all over, the
food was being prepared in the most unhealthy manner.
The children had their lunch and washed their plates just on
the ground making a small pool of dirty water right in front
of their gate. The school has no drains, no toilets.
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3. Our Motto –
- To bring in a change in the way they learn; in their surroundings; and giving them a love
of lifelong learning.
Our Plan – THE ONE WEEK (10th to 16th Sep 2011)
The Design –
 Raising funds
 Cleaning and Repainting the building, fixing a see-saw and planting trees
 Repairing the “chabootara” and the doors;
 Making a soak pit near the hand pump
 Collecting books for their library, making teaching aids for the teachers
 Making notebooks, mats and dustbins for their classes from “kabaad”
 Conducting Workshops for those children and their teachers
The Change –
DAY 1 & 2 - 10th & 11th Sep - The plan was to totally redo
the school inside out. And for that we needed money. It was
decided to raise the funds by doing some road-shows across the
city rather than collecting contributions from parents and staff.
The weekend was chosen for programs in the malls. A group of
children set out to collect funds, whilst the others started off the
clearing job. They worked on leveling
the uneven land by rearranging the
scattered rumble; rubbing off the
algae from the walls.
We managed to collect 14,857.
A few kids worked out the
budget with a mentor to procure
material to be used for renovation, and
purchased 30 bags of cement, 1 truck load of stones and sand, paint
and some mats, paintbrushes, sandpaper, etc.
DAY 3 & 4 - 12th & 13th Sep – The day started with an
assimilation of all the books, notebooks, plain papers, toys, etc that
the kids had collected. Then the entire brigade was diverted to the
clearing up the mess at the school building. Scrubbing of the walls and
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4. leveling off the ground was undertaken. A group also took
to repair of the chabootara and the soak-pit for the waste
water from the hand pump. Back at school, a story-telling
workshop focusing on the knack of telling stories to small
children was organized by our mentors and some children
for the teachers of the primary school.
By now, all our money was over and so a second round of
fund collection was organized to raise some extra money.
We visited four corporate offices in these two days and
collected `12,850 which were diverted to the purchase of a see saw, a set of parallel bars and
other miscellaneous items.
Seeing the efforts from the children, contributions in kind (like books, clothes, gravel, plants,
black oil paint, etc) also poured in from their parents which we gladly
accepted.
DAY 5 - 14th Sep – Children of grade III - V made numerous
charts for the classrooms and teaching aids like math resources, art
and craft kits for the teachers. They also made dustbins for each of
the classrooms. Painting of the walls was done at the school, and
the chabootara and the soak pit work continued. The digging for
the see saw and the parallel bars also began. Although, there were
heavy rains which washed away the entire effort, the spirit didn’t
waver. They waited with full enthusiasm for the next day to dawn.
DAY 6 - 15th Sep – A Dance & Music workshop was held for which all their students were
transported to our school campus. Here, they got an experience of appreciating some good
classical music & dance. Meanwhile, children of grades III & IV mended the books and toys that
were collected and bound the plain sheets into notebooks. At the village school, the painting
continued. The children had to remove all the water that had filled into the pits they had dug.
The metal plates of the damaged doors were replaced.
DAY 7 - 16th Sep – The kids just managed to finish the
painting of the walls and doors. We were running behind schedule,
so decided to take two more days to finish the job.
DAY 8 - 17th Sep – A truck load of gravel was brought to level
up the land, and some potted plants were arranged in the vicinity.
The soak pit and the chabootara work were over, but we were not
able to arrange for gravel to level up the land due to rains.
DAY 9 - 18th Sep – Grade V kids visited the school with their
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5. mentors and handed over the material they had prepared to the teachers there and decorated
their classrooms with mats and the beautiful charts they made and set up their mini library.
This change was equally significant for us kids as for those. Yes, of course, doing a
mason’s jobs and slogging like a laborer was all as exciting as it seemed when we first thought
about it! But I think, we’re going back home with a lot more than we had imagined..
I now know that there is a bright sunny day after every storm.. That with sheer determination,
we can overcome the biggest of hurdles that we face in life.. That we, together, can do just
about anything. Perhaps, now we better know what hard work is.. We better know what
education actually means.. What it means to give.. Yes, the pleasure of selfless giving. I know
for sure, that this is just the beginning.. the beginning of a change within me, around me.
By G. Akanksha (Grade VII)
Edited by Niharika Dudhal (Mentor)
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