It was very nice to have a workcamp after thigh scheduled meeting of APM this year in India. Workcamp was held at Kanakere, Maddur, Karnataka, India from August 12th -16th, 2024. Before we headed to Maddur, we managed to have one school visit session at Arpan School, Bangalore. We did a peace poster competition and peace walk on August 12th, 2024. It was organized
along with differently-abled children at Arpan School, Bangalore. We got together and sang songs & a talent show by Asian volunteers was arranged and ended with the distribution of snacks to children.
In the afternoon at around 3 pm, we leave Olive Hotel (Our accommodation during the APM) to the campsite by a small bus. Around 15 participants both international and local volunteers participated in this workcamp.
Punya Bahadur from SCI Nepal
Kunavathy from SCI Malaysia
Inba Malar from SCI Malaysia
Meryam Beevi from SCI Malaysia
Priya Radha from SVI Mauritius
Sunil Ariyarathne SCI Sri Lanka
Sany Mardlotillah IVP Indonesia
Zahir Raihan from SCI Bangladesh
Tina from SCI India
Sashi from SCI India (Campleader)
Gauravraju and Vikas from SCI India
In such a workcamp as usual we managed our food, we had a very handful host Mr.Srinivas who cooked for us for the first dinner. But in the end, we could manage to cook and enjoy our dinner in the following days by ourselves.
On the second day, we had a tree plantation &awareness of using plastics at the local vocational school. We organized along with the Rotary Club in this District. We planted around 100 trees with diverse kinds of it. So students and teachers also participated in this session. The local leader also managed to visit and take action with us. They promised to take care of the trees that will provide shade for students who study there in the future.
In the afternoon (2nd Day) we had a chance to walk around Mr. Srinivas’s Farm visit his cocoon farm and saw how his farmers breed the worm into silk cocoons. We met with a local farmer and learned how it works from a worm, feed them with local trees they grow at the farm, and let it set for around 3 months untuk it becomes a cocoon, or high-quality cocoon that is ready to transport to the Factory in Banglore.
A health check-up camp for the community of the village is held in the local kindergarten. Dr. Shoba managed to visit us and organize health check-ups for locals. She talked about health awareness to the women &children on health, hygiene & nutritious food. In the separated rooms volunteers also hold an educational game. We sang a kid’s song from several countries and role games for them to not get bored while waiting for a health check by Doctor Shoba. Meanwhile, volunteers also helped Doctor Shoba to take care of some visitors such as doing measurement of blood pressure and taking some notes.
In the afternoon we have another session in the local school called Greenwood School. They welcomed us with the wonderful food they had provided along with students and teachers for our lunchtime. We had rice, rasam, sambar, pickle, dall, and banana for closing. Then, they took us to a place where the students had already gathered for a ceremonial speech. The students managed bravely to introduce us to the students and they also asked some questions about the countries of the participating volunteers. At the end of the session, we moved to another palace to play fun games with the students. And all the program of this has ended and we moved back to the campsite and prepared some food for dinner.
On August 15th, 2024 we celebrated India Independence Day with local schools and community. This is our second visit to this school we were so happy to see all the kids from yesterday’s health checkup session. The activity began with a flag ceremony and then the kids performed some excellent talents such as dances and singing. A Malaysian volunteer named Kuna was very touched by such a memorable moment since her childhood in India made her experience the same moment alike we had on that day. All volunteers to keep the community energetic and active. At the end, we gave some coloring books, and study tools to local kids and made them so happy.
After the independence day, we managed to see Maysour Palace and Tipu Sultan Palace. It was nice to see very massive budding during dutch era in India. Volunteers got to know that Mysore was the capital city of Mysore state along with Banglore before independence in 1947. Following India’s independence in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore State and remained the capital when the new Indian state of Karnataka was formed in 1956.
Bonfire and closing ceremony:
During last day we got another group of local volunteers coming. They are Sheela, Rachel, Steven, Maria, Ravi and Supreet. Volunteers had a closing ceremony with singing songs and ended with the song WE SHALL OVERCOME ……..and traveled back with memorable memories of APM and post-work camp.
Thanks to our organizers of the camp Mr. Srinivas & SCI Karnataka group secretary Mr. Shashi for leading the camp.Great work by the entire team of SCI Karnataka.
