Like every month, this month too the Mobile Library visits were made in the SOGG Learning & Information Centres of Bong, Chibbo and Pudung. Old books were replaced with new ones in all the 3 centres. This time a new Intern of GFF Helps, Ms. Surabhi accompanied the GFF Helps team. She also got to learn about the project and experienced it for the first time. The students were happy to interact with her and receive new books.

The computer classes in all the 3 learning Centers have been ongoing since the month of September. While the 2 Centres Bong and Pudung had a computer teacher since the beginning, Chibbo had a volunteer teacher for a month. From 10th October, Ms. Teresa Lepcha has been appointed as a computer teacher in the Centre. The students of all the 3 centres have been learning Computer. GFF Helps India has provided each Centre with basic computer books. The project will end after 3 months of completion.

The World Mental Health Day is celebrated on the 10th of October every year. This year a Darjeeling based NGO DLR Prerna had organized a program remarking the day on 17th of October 2022. GFF Helps India Representative, Ms. Nikita Rai attended the program in Drajeeling. The theme for this year was “Make Mental Health & Well Being for all a Global Priority. There were various guest speakers who spoke on various issues, causes, solution and their experiences. Schools, colleges and social organizations were present from Darjeeling and Kalimpong Districts.

Debanjan Share Girls’ Academy is a year old residential girls’ football academy where 18 girls have been accommodated in their hostel at present. It is a collaborative effort of Debanjan Sen Foundation and Share Football Club and is the first residential football academy in West Bengal. Mobile Library Project was introduced to them by GFF Helps India on 19th October 2022. The main aim to implement the project there is not only to improve their English language and vocabulary but also their imagination and creativity. The books were handed over to the incharge Ms. Sushan, who will be coordinating and keeping the records as well. The managing team of Debanjan Share Girls Academy and the girls were glad to have started the project. Every month books will be given to them and reading sessions will be held along with storytelling sessions.

GFF Helps India has been collaborating with IL&FS (Skill Development and Training Institute) from the very beginning. There are various courses through which dropout students can get employment through. Awareness programs for these courses have been done before in Chibbo and Dabling villages. Similarly this time on the 21st October 2022, an awareness program was held in Bong village in the SOGG Centre. There were 22 women participants from the Self Help Groups who were active participants of the program. They were mostly interested in the tailoring and beautician courses. Ms. Mamta Cgettri of IL&FS gave clear information about these courses. After the Diwali break, followup needs to be done on these 2 courses. These kinds of skill development and employment opportunities have given direction to those who have dropped out of their school and colleges.

The regular health checkup project started during the CoVID19 pandemic in April 2021. The project still continues to reach the vulnerable section of the society in Bong, Chibbo and Pudung villages. Blood Pressure and Sugar tests are done in regular basis of the sick and elderly population of the villages. The project has made it convenient for the people to take benefit of the health checkups especially for those whose Hospitals and Health Centres are far from their houses and during emergency situations. The Staff of SOGG Bong, Chibbo and Pudung have been volunteering since the pandemic and have been serving their community.

As we move towards a digitalized era, there is a need for us to move towards building virtual connection with our sponsors, friends and beneficiaries. Therefore on the 1st of October 2022, to address the need, a seminar on Social media was organised by GFF Helps India where the main resource person was Mr. Joe Fisher (former GFF Helps India volunteer). It was held in the GFF India Office in Kalimpong from 10:30am-12:00pm. The GFF Helps team from Philippines, Nepal and Sri Lanka attend the seminar through online mode while GFF Helps India and SOGG L&I Centre team physically attended the seminar. Mr. Saom and Ms. Minket were also present and were the moderators for the seminar.

Mr. Joe conducted a very interactive session with the participants and covered various important topics such as Capturing great footage, Goals for social media and Case studies. There were many participants’ queries and doubts cleared.

It was during the pandemic that the storytelling session had begun and it was these stories that got us together. All respective representatives and volunteers got together and they started narrative storytelling sessions online in their respective countries. It has been two years that the pandemic has lessened but the relationships that we made during those times has got us really good bonds with children. Some of them stayed and some of them grew together with us. It was in the month of August that ‘A storytelling Gala session’ was organised where all the four countries came together along with their children and they shared stories of their culture wearing their traditional dresses. This was a perfect example of unity in diversity and they learned each other’s food, dress and songs.

GFF Helps India has been an active collaborator with the SOGG Learning centres of Bong, Chibbo & Pudung. They have been working in tandem on various thematic areas. Particularly in the field of education, GFF Helps India and GFF Helps Nepal have been organizing collaborative story telling session that targets the children of SOGG Learning centres since 2020. The main aim was to engage the children during the lockdown, when schools had been closed for a prolonged period of time. Other goals of the session have been to spark children’s imagination and stimulate curiosity, to help them build confidence and develop oratory & listening skills.

GFF Philippines have conducted storytelling sessions for their Philippino children and their sessions are always moral based and ends with an activity so that the children can remember the moral of the story. The children were very keen and excited to meet children from other countries.

GFF Sri Lanka is gradually going into the foray of telling stories through their English for Village Programme or Mobile Library. In the GFF HELPS Sri Lanka team, there were six students and they performed various kinds of performances. They wore Sri Lankan National costumes. Students have sung the Sinhalese song” Mage Ratata Dhalada Himi Saranai” Song (My country is the shadow of Dalada) and One student performed storytelling of the country song, another one delivered a speech about Srilanka, and there was a brief introduction about Sri Lanka. Finally one student played a Sri Lankan traditional music by using the traditional instrument in Sri Lanka.

On the 27th of August, a Grand Story Telling session was held online for the children of India, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka, at the behest and guidance of a well known story teller- Ms. Minket. The aim of the session was to help children explore and understand the cultures of other participating countries, to inculcate the spirit of community and to help bring about positive influence inside the participant’s heart. 

The participants presented aspects of their respective cultures. Team India, represented by the children of Chibbo Learning centre performed a mime (guided by Mr. Raymond- an assistant teacher of SOGG centre Chibbo), a dance and made a short and succinct presentation on India. Mr. Jimmy, Ms. Priya & Ms. Vanessa (Freight System), Mr. Saom attended the session and . The curiosity filled and the occasion was graced by Sir James Keir, Ms. Priya and Ms. Vanessa (Freight System). Mr. Saom opened the session and gave a brief introduction about the storytelling while Miss Minket Lepcha moderated the session. They all appreciated the children’s efforts. The session was full of fan fare and excitement. As a marker of appreciation, the children were given a certificate of participation. 

Sessions like story telling have been a useful marker to assess the children’s progress and over the years, the children have learned about team work, polished their presentation skills, language skills which was evident on the grand story telling session. We hope to organize similar events for the children that will lead to their intellectual growth and help them develop social skills. 

One step at a time, to empower the younger generations from community schools into becoming conscious of their emotional health. The assembly on Children’s Mental Health took place on 26th August, 2022 the audience present at the site were the entire school students and staff from Bal Kumari school. These students who are in-fact beneficiaries of ESL- educational project under GFF Helps Nepal, took the lead on sharing awareness on Children’s Mental Health and why it matters? The assembly aimed at improving the students in both public speaking and pronunciation in English Language. While, supporting the overall objective to spread knowledge Students from class VI perform an assembly on Children’s Mental Health Matters on mental health with the entire school. The use of posters illustrating imageries such as: An Ice-Berg (on the surface and within water displays actions and emotions respectively); two minds one filled with a beautiful garden , while the other filled with thunderstorms; posters that shows a cartoon boy with a message saying: It is okay to be sad, anxious, worried, confused, angry; the final poster shared the message on using words that are loving, healing, kind, caring and life giving. The ESL (English as a Second Language) and mental health sessions are inter-related focusing on both of GFF Helps Nepal -Education and Emotional Learning Projects.

Most of the localities in Kathmandu is seen littered with plastic and all other types of waste. This is due to the poor waste management system and lack of awareness. GFF Helps has been conducting sessions on plastic waste

management with the children of Shree Bal Kumari Basic school, Tri -Jyoti School and Bourgandi Nepal children home in order to generate awareness and intending that the children learn from these sessions and pass on the knowledge to their peers and parents. Children have been engaged in making Eco Bricks from the discarded plastic waste in order to turn into something useful later on.

With the help of such sessions, children have been able to understand how to focus on reducing waste, reuse bags in order to avoid single use plastics and not to burn plastic in the open roads which in turn results in damaging effect on human health. The children have been able to understand how plastic has affected us in everyday life. In order to stay healthy and live a long life, it is necessary to take care of our environment which in turn affects the whole ecosystem.