Transforming the Youth through FSL-India’s 100th Monkey program – Madhuri P, FSL-India

Transforming the Youth through FSL-India’s 100th Monkey program – Madhuri P, FSL-India

22nd July 2019 was my first day as a facilitator. I was going to begin my journey as a facilitator for FSL-India’s 100th Monkey program.

The 100th Monkey is a program which focuses on promoting self-actualisation and active citizenship among the youth. The program aims to nurture the abilities and potentials of the youth to its fullest, by using community initiatives and social action as foregrounds.

I facilitate 100th Monkey program sessions at 5 Schools in Bangalore, which are funded by Bosch India:

  • St Teresa’s School, Begur with 75 children
  • Vidya Jyothi School with 40 children
  • Begur Government High School with 80 children
  • Hombegowda Boys High School with 33 children
  • Government School Adugodi Police Quarters with 50 children.

My first month focused on building familiarity with the children, and encouraging teamwork amongst them. The sessions involved introduction, building trust between children and the facilitator, welcoming them to the program through energisers and ice breakers. So, here are my experiences from the sessions facilitated so far.

I introduced our program by narrating the 100th Monkey story to the children. Here, I witnessed the innocence of the children when asked what did they learn from the story? The answer was that “we should wash the sweet potato before eating”

The next step after the introduction was to focus on building familiarity and trust between the facilitator and the children, creating a safe place, raising the energy levels of shy and quiet children, and at the same time neutralising the energy levels of a very energetic class. All these were done through planning appropriate energisers and icebreakers and setting a behavioural contract when needed.

Moving on from this, there was a need to conduct a baseline survey to know the children better and to measure the impact of our program. It was interesting to see that children were able to provide thoughtful answers.

The next focus was on team building activities to promote team work, and help the group to understand each other better.

We helped the students feel more connected to each other with a ‘common ground’ activity, and while they were looking to find the commonality, they also shared more information about themselves, helping to get to know each other. Here is a glimpse of this activity where we see children in the process of finding commonalities in a team of 5-6.

To foster better communication, collaboration and team strategy, students worked together to build the tallest free-standing tower with the minimum resources provided.

The next activity was all about making a visible web of connection that united the children. It allowed the children feel a solid connection between each other.

An innovative teaching activity helped the children to come up with some creative ideas. It was very joyful to see how children came up with instant ideas when asked to teach something they know to their partner, they were very excited to display it in front of the class.

Overall it was a great learning experience. A few things I learnt:

  • Understanding what children respond to
  • Planning activities according to their interests while giving importance to their safety
  • Children connect best when we create a fun and caring environment, a safe space for them to learn
  • Do not force them to do anything, if they do not want to participate in any activity then respect that and give them their space
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