On 31st August 2019 YaR National Day, we celebrated at Bosco Boys Home (BBH), Borivali. In all 70 boys participated in this grand event. The management and staff planned and executed this day along with the volunteers from the Rotaract Club of Thakur College, Kandivali. The theme for the day was ‘All Rights to All Children.’ The program was inaugurated by Fr. Corlis Gonsalves sdb, Director of BBH, who expressed his concern over the rise in the incidents of violence against children and urged that this program is a good initiative in conveying the message of protection and propagation of the rights of children. For the session, the boys were divided into 2 groups: one group comprising of the Junior boys belonging to the age group of 10 to 14 years and the other comprised of the Senior boys been from 15 to 17 years. The Junior boys were animated by Cls. Agnel Dias sdb and Jittin Mathew sdb along with the staff and the volunteers and the Senior boys were animated by Dn. Xavier Bandya sdb along with the volunteers.
The boys were animated through the different session which helped them understand their basic rights and their responsibility towards protecting and safeguarding their Rights. Activities based learning and creative games were conducted in which the boys were explained about the Right to Education, Right to Live, Right to Equality. There was also a fusion dance put up by the boys and the volunteers in which the different Rights pertaining to freedom of speech, privacy and religion were showcased. A creative drawing competition was conducted by Dn. Xavier Bandya sdb, in which the boys were encouraged to bring out in paper with beautiful colors the Theme ‘All Rights to All Children’ along with the ‘Right’ which they liked the most and explaining the reason for it.
Romero D’Souza had a creative session with the children educating (right to education) and exploring through children making them aware of the rights and their identity (ek pehechan, apna pehechan, mera pehechan) as BOSCO BOYS. In the later part of the session he animated and established a governing body to educate them about the knowledge of policies of being part of an active participation by which the children can recognize the potential of being and becoming responsible citizens (right to live and right to democracy and right to participate) of our country – India (right to nationality).While educating the boys on their Rights, Eustace Fernandes, the Education in-charge of the BBH boys, shared, “each child must be liberated from difficulties and live their upbringing joyfully. Everybody must make every effort to create an environment wherein a child is enabled to enjoy its ‘right to education’ and ‘all basic rights’ which lead to his/her holistic growth.”Datta Gade, the in-charge of the Social Work department in his talk to the boys said, “Children should be treated as citizens. As citizens, they should enjoy the right to life, protection, participation in public opinion, development and other opportunities which are their basic rights.” He further added that Childhood is the most memorable period of human development. It is a time when human beings begin to learn and experience the realities of life and world. Unfortunately, many children are deprived of a happy childhood due to tragedy in their lives.
One of the volunteers from Rotaract Club of Thakur College, Prince Shah shared, “Our theme was “Imparting Knowledge, Inspiring Change by making the boys know their Rights.” We enjoyed teaching the boys about the Moral, Civic, Technica and Language awareness. The main motive was to provide the basic knowledge which they are deprived. The children were cooperative and participative in the program. They were listening as well as responding to the members. My advice to these talented youngsters is that they can achieve everything whatever they want in life, the only thing is needed is hard work and studies”.When the boys were invited to share their view on different rights, it was heartening to see the eagerness of the boys to know more about child rights and what more they should do to ensure that every child has his activity-based. Some of them had these points to shareMaster Salim Shaikh (16) student of X NIOS expressed his joy for being part of this educative program where he learns how to work hard in your life where proper planning is necessary to achieve successful goals.
Master Richardson Fernando (16) in Std. X NIOS said, “They taught us about basic binary bites of computers and shared their knowledge with us about engineering. It was an interesting interacting and spending quality time with them.”“The program was good and I learned lots of basic rights of children which I have never come across. They played and spend quality time with us. They should come again on Children Day to share their talents and time which will motivate us to give our best” had this to say, Anand Surukar (16)
