Anganwadi Kotwali Bazaar

While in Dharamsala I have the pleasure of volunteering at an "anganwadi" (daycare). This anganwadi is one of many across India that falls under the Intergrated Child Development Services (ICDS) of India and it is funded through UNICEF. There are four sites in Dharamsala that we volunteer at, each of the other sites has 2 volunteers but I am the only one at my site.

The goals of this program are very similar to the goals of programs/directorates I have worked with. They centre around child devolopment for 0-6 year olds (eg psychological, physical and social development,improve the nutritional and health status, reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutriton and school drop out). At my anganwadi there are 5-10 children ages 2-4 years, that come everyday between 10 am and 1 pm. There is a teacher, Mala and an assistant Rama, both kind, patient caregivers (and very nice to me!). My role is to teach numbers, colours, shapes, social skills (sharing) etc to the children in as many creative way as I can.
When I arrive, we set up the one room (not very big!) with a mat for the children to sit on. The kids all say "Namaste" and "Good Morning" to me as they arrive and I get to meet the parents and see their sibblings. Once all the children have arrived they say their prayers, then we usually bring out blocks/Lego for them to play with. Next, we sit in a circle and say rhymes and sing songs, both in Hindi and English, but mostly English. This includes songs such as: Itsey Bitsey Spider, If Your Happy and You Know It and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I have been trying to teach the kids ""Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes", and while they are starting to get the actions and some of the words, really they love watching me speed up while I sing it to them. Next I try to do a craft, then I read them a book. I give them reading/looking at books time and provide each of them their own book. They show me pictures and words and ask what things are (or at least that's what I think they are asking). Each day I try to do something physyical with them like playing with a ball or blowing bubbles for them to catch. I usually end with something quiet - for example we have a Xylophone that they like to play with (photo above). By this time it is usully lunch time and I am exhausted. The assisatnt cooks them a hot meal and they have lunch. Soon after, it is time for me to go home and rest up and plan for the next day.