earthquake

In February "Kids for Kids International" organised a run for children, about 3000 children participated, 1000 children wore saffron coloured T-shirts, 1000 children wore white T-shirts and 1000 children wore green T-shirts, the President of India flagged off the run, Kapil Dev and P.T. Usha also ran, this was a fund raising idea and they generated about Rs.40 lacs out of which in small sober ceremony in Delhi, a cheque of Rs.19.55 lacs was contributed towards Eklavya's Aadariyana project. An NRI from USA who was present at the ceremony was so moved that he wrote a cheque of USD 1000 on the spot.

Eklavya wanted to rebuild the school with the support and co-operation of the village people. For this, on March 13, a "Vision Sharing" workshop was organised. About 35 village leaders attended the one-day workshop in the village itself where Prof. Daniel Steenstra (a reputed Design management expert from UK who is also associated with NID, Ahmedabad) conducted a workshop on Vision Sharing to help rebuild the village. He was assisted by an expert trainer from Ahmedabad. They played a cube game CUBES 4 NATIONAL, a toolset that aids different groups in aligning a range of functions, establishing a common understanding and facilitating effective communication to achieve common goals.

People playing the cube game.

These 35 village leaders (unfortunately, all men, women have no role to play in decision-making, in future, we are hoping that our efforts will bring in participation from women as well) discussed for 9 hours on how to rebuild the village. For the first time, the villagers met and sat together and shared views and opinions which were social, political, caste issues and philosophical in nature, experienced a convergence of ideas and most important of all, an appreciation of other people's views.

On 26th March, 2001 Bhoomi Puja (ground breaking ceremony) of the new school building was performed. This was an auspicious day. It was exactly 2 months after the earthquake (26th January) and it was the New Year of the Vikram Samvatsari and celebrated as Gudi Padwa, Chettichand and the Telugu New Year Day. Seven havan kunds were prepared for the puja. The 440 students of the school were the chief guests. It was a simple puja. Children sang patriotic songs and performed garba. It was the first time that all children in the village participated in an event together. There were no VIPs, no IAS officers, no politicians, and no speeches. All liked it. It was the first time that all communities in the village participated in an event together, more than 1000 men and women were there.

An On-the-Spot-Painting Competition was also held in four age categories and prizes given away.

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