Volunesia Diaries – Diving Into The Forgotten Joy Of Handwritten Letters With The Goodwill Tribe
Harshita, one of our beloved volunteers, shares her Volunesia experience!
Bangalore was in a good mood that day. The weather was at its best; gloomy but blissful. I was on my way to meet the little wonders at Brindavan Tent School after quite a long time. When I entered the class, I was surprised by the drastic increase in their strength. The kids greeted me with their usual “Good Morning, Madam” tone. I had a wide smile on my face looking at the spark in their eyes. How are these kids always so energetic? I ask this question to myself every time I come here!
Circling After A While!
I joined the volunteering team for the opening circle in the next room. It is a great feeling when I see these enthusiastic faces. The circle had Pranita, Anjali, Manu who are the major pillars of Volunesia, Ketki the weekly volunteer, her friend Mahak, “The Goodwill Tribe” volunteers Moupiya, Pravin and Priyanka who were a new addition to the group. With the same zeal, they welcomed me into the circle and the discussion began.
We did a brief introduction about ourselves followed by answering Pranita’s seed question, “How are you feeling, today?” I love this part because this single question channelizes all our emotions and makes us say it out loud, giving us a boost of the necessary rush, needed for the day.
Welcoming The Goodwill Tribe
“The Goodwill Tribe” is an incredible organisation headed by Chandni and Sonia, who conduct social events to bring people together in compassion and love. Moupiya and Pravin were here to organize one such event ARL (Art Based Letter Earthling) program with the kids and volunteers, where every kid would be writing a letter to a stranger in their own style.
Moupiya talked more about ARL and explained how it establishes human connection between strangers through compassion. The concept of letter writing in itself is so fascinating. Writing to an absolute stranger based on a small chapter of their life makes it all the more interesting. Moupiya read out the 5 letter requests made by different people.
We had our speculations as to how the kids would react to this challenging activity, where they were required to listen to a stranger’s story and then write/draw whatever came up for them in a letter. We wouldn’t have known the outcome if we hadn’t tried, and we are so glad we did!
Writing Letters To Strangers
We divided the kids into 5 teams and gave one story to each group. We explained them the stories in the simplest way we could so that the children were able to relate to it. One of the stories talked about a girl and her service to the society at the young age. Her friends had requested to write a letter of encouragement to her. The kids in my group worked on this request with their unmatched creative minds!
As my group had students of 1st and 2nd grade, they were not well equipped with words, so Priyanka and I wrote few sentences for them to write in their letters after consulting with them. Initially, they were a little hesitant but later they found it so interesting that they wanted to know the meaning of those sentences and asked for more!
The other request talked about a girl who had lost her mother recently and had moved to Chennai. Her friends wanted to make sure she doesn’t feel lonely. We underestimate the kids thinking they are too young to understand these intricacies of life. But they have proved us wrong time and again. The empathy, compassion and sympathy they possess is incomparable. They wrote letters and sketched as if they knew the person they were writing to from a long time!
The activity ended with the usual selfie party. The kids rushed to our selfie spot to pose, scream and say cheese, like Pranita rightly expressed, “The storm after the calm!!!”
The Small Stories With Deep Learnings
The closing circle is where we conclude by pouring our heart out about the day’s activity. Anjali shared how she enjoyed with the kids as they displayed all their innovation skills while designing the letters. Moupiya told us how utterly amazed she was looking at the way the kids reacted to the requests, which was an interesting experience for her because she’s only conducted these activities with older people before. Ketki was impressed by how kind-hearted these kids are and how a new quality stands out from every child each time she interacts with them. Pravin, who had never really worked with kids before, understood that there are no rules to follow with them like we adults have. Mahak had a great first-time experience too and looked forward to more interaction and engagement with the kids. Priyanka told us how exciting the whole activity was for her and how volunteering brings her immense joy. Manu talked about a certain group that worked on the request dedicated to the girl who had lost her mother, and how one letter stood out to him completely.
Krishna, one of the students, writes a letter that moved us deeply. He writes to the girl that he sends her a lot of strength to deal with her loss at such a young age. He tells her how he is sure she’s a very sweet girl, which is why he’s attaching a toffee with it for her. He also draws a crying face and a smiling face, with a cross mark next to the crying one and a tick mark next to the smiling one, indicating how she should be. He offers his friendship and invites her to come visit his school. Krishna displayed so much originality and sensibility, which touched us and we are sure will warm the girl’s heart to when she gets the letter.
We were glad to be back in touch with the beauty of letter writing, which is a dying art! The millennial have either forgotten or have never really experienced the mere joy of sending and receiving letters. So we decided to take forward “The Goodwill Tribe” activity and introduce these kids, formally, to the world of handwritten letters.
I’ve learned through my visits that there is a certain way to work with these kids, ‘go with their flow’. They know what they are doing and whatever they do will make sense to us only at the end. We as adults have confined our minds to think in a particular way. They’re limitless and their minds are so powerful. Growing up we didn’t realize that we were abandoning and locking up our childhood all together. These kids teach me to travel back in time and create something new with no boundaries!
When someone asks me what Volunesia is about, I simply say it’s an experience to unlearn the mundane and learn the possibility of doing something differently
Kudos to the aspiring KnowYourStar team.
Enjoyed reading about this? Then you might like to read Volunesia Diaries – Taking The Kids On A Cinematic Journey [Video]
If there’s a story that needs to be told, we are ready to tell it. Write to us at contact@knowyourstar.com with your story lead, or contact us on Facebook or Twitter.
