The First Day

Received a hearty welcome from my mentors Himalini, a communication design graduate and Santayan, an industrial design graduate both from NID at Thoughtshop Foundation. Since everything begins with a cup of tea at NID, the tradition followed here as well with our project discussion soon rolling with simmering cups of tea.

Thoughtshop Foundation( TF) operates through Youth Resource Cell (YRC) which in turn imparts information of life skills and protection to adolescents. The members of Youth Resource Cell  are residents of a certain locality which they represent as a YRC group and focus on empowering the adolescents of that particular locality. There are about 18 YRC groups that operate across the state of West Bengal both in rural and urban areas. The approach taken up is through games as they are:

• Experiential Learning
• User Friendly
• Empower barefoot trainers and peer education
• Facilitate discussion of taboo and sensitive issues
• Reduce Hierarchy

Since Thoughtshop has been using the game approach to give important message to the society as well as helping them solve the problem and initiate working in community, Himalini suggested that I first devote time in understanding the context that is:

1.  People involved in the whole process (adolescents, their families, neighborhood, YRC member)
2. Demographic profile of the area concerned.
3. Issues being faced by diverse community groups.

SPACE

Since the groups meet weekly and they generally meet for a few hours there is a need to call on the children’ attention, hold on to their interest and leave a positive impact on them. However all this has to be done in a span of few hours. Himalini suggested that there could be possibility of creating a portable structure in the space where meetings are held. Also inspirational messages could be mentioned along with  the structure.

 BOOKLET

A supplementary booklet has also been compiled, which would be given to each child that would enable them to list their strengths and good qualities. Since most children come from families where they are routinely abused in some way or the other, they have a low self morale and opinion. This booklet will serve as a prized possession for each child. The content of the book has been compiled but the format and design needs to be created.