Saturdays are the best days to be at The Bindal Project because that is when we run the art program. While the children paint and chatter continuously while they do that, we have had Indrani Lahiri from Welham Boys training our teachers to plan their lessons and schedules better. Last Saturday (i.e. on March 12) we also had students from the Masters in Social Work program at Himalayan Institute of Technology joining us as part of their “field visit”.

The group of 25-odd students and their 2 teachers sat through a small background that we gave them about The Bindal Project. They also joined our kids in prayers and later, when the painting started, formed small groups with our kids to paint on chart papers or A4 sheets.

Oh and there was the lovely bunch of students from the Groton School in Massachusetts, USA (http://www.groton.org) with their two teachers at Street Smart and The Bindal Project these past few days. The group is staying at the Doon School for a week and they spent Saturday with our kids at Bindal.
Though there was an obvious language barrier, it mattered nothing to either the Groton kids or the Bindal kids. By the end of the class, we had more painted faces than painted paper! The girls played clapping games with our kids and by the end of the day, it looked at one huge party!

Monica is one of the two teachers accompanying the Groton students and as a photography instructor there, she has come to us with an exciting project with the Bindal kids. She brought a bunch of disposable cameras that she has handed to a few children down at the slums and they have had it all day yesterday to take photos with.

The idea is to get them to take photos of their homes, their friends and families, and also to give them the tools to capture and present their daily living and life. Our kids will return the cameras today and then Monica will have the photos developed.

Needles to say, we cannot wait to see what the kids have put together!!