This summer I have the privilege to work alongside the Viveka Tribal Center for Learning (VTCL). With mentors, leaders, and faculty like Mr. Kumar, Mr. Sudarshan, Madam Shruthi, Mr. Lokesh and much more to make sure the project is a success and meets their standards. My project specifically focuses on health and hygiene and has three overarching components. One part is the health and hygiene manual that will focus on two different age groups (6-13 years old, 14-17-year-old). I plan for the manual to discuss what it means to have good hygiene. So, looking at best practices for body, dental, facial, handwashing, and for young women, menstruation. Through these best practices I plan to come up with a plan that will help and motivate students to incorporate them into their daily lives and remind them of the benefits for doing so. The second component of this project is to create posters that will be hung up around the school and hostels to remind students to practice good hygiene. Creating a list of Do’s and Don’ts and incorporating pictures will attract student’s attention. These posters are a summarized version of the health & hygiene manual, its purpose is to show students how to properly wash their hands, clean after their meals, maintain cleanliness in their rooms, etc. The last part of the project will be to create lesson plans for teachers based on health and hygiene. Based on their current modules, I will try to incorporate new and/or relevant information on any topic that needs it. Not only that but formulating these lesson plans in a way that will motivate students to practice good hygiene is essential. Overall, this virtual experience has been amazing, the VTCL mentors and staff were so welcoming and excited to work with me in completing this project. The manual, posters, and lesson plans came out great and the VTCL team will be implementing this into their physical education period. I am incredibly grateful to VTCL and SVYM for allowing me to participate and help bring their vision to fruition.
The following are picture sent by my mentors that helped me visualize the school and the activities that students engage in.
