HUGS

HUGS FOR HAPPINESS

We happened to visit a happy family of Immanuel Ditto, Priya and two smart kids Carlton & Carolin (Real names are added with the permission of the family). While entering their home we heard the voice of those children. As soon as we came in children barged into their mother and said: “Please give us some energy”. We were eager to see what energy she was going to give. Suddenly she stretched her hands towards them and said “come to me and get the energy”. They went closer to her and got a huge hug from their mother and they went back to resume their games.

This was a surprise for us because we were expecting some energy drink but she gave more than that!  Mother looked at us and said that she was recharging her kids! Whenever they find any difficulties they come to me. It is a way of building a deep relationship between us. This incident made us think about the power of touch especially hug.

Touch is the first sense we acquire and the secret weapon in many successful relationships. Recent studies suggest that number of ways touch can make us stay healthy. Hugging is a most powerful weapon among them. Hugging is a physical acknowledgment of the presence of another with the intention of expressing affection. Comfort hugs are often longer and may continue until the other person has calmed down. It may be used to develop trust and create an emotional and identity-forming bond with the other person. In coming close together you effectively 'becomes one', joining identities for a few moments.

A sad fact is that spontaneous hugging seems to be in the decline in societies where fears of abuse and litigation override the simple pleasures of an affectionate hug.

While looking back to the cases dealt by Don Bosco CHILDLINE last year, we found that more than 35% of the children ran away from their own homes due to lack of care from their parents. Family is the first place for restoring a child. Many times we find it difficult to suggest it due to dysfunctional families. In such families children often grow up without receiving love and physical touch. The neglect they receive often makes them run away when they grow older.  If the families are imitating the energy charger of the above said happy family, we believe some major neglect issues can be solved.

Skilling

SKILL BASED EDUCATION – A NECESSITY

Vinod (given name); one of our beneficiaries was asked by our counsellor about his ambition in life. He replied: “Sir, I wished to study electronics, but when I open my books, I am totally confused. I doubt whether I will ever be able accomplish my dream”.  Vinod is only one among a large number of middle class and poor children who are unable to fulfil their dreams due to the inadequate educational system of Kerala Society. Though Kerala is well known as a state in very high literacy rates and educational achievements, the truth is different.   We have a good number of dropouts after children finish Xth grade.

The fact is that our answer paper valuation up to Xth grade is so liberal that a very good number of children get through without learning anything.  We deal with a very huge number of children who are unable to read and write even after their 10^th grade! There are no methods of learning other than the lecture method. Most Indian schools have a strong focus on academic subjects, with little scope for creativity and few or no extra-curricular activities. Traditional schooling methods tend to emphasise role of learning and memorisation, rather than encouraging independent or creative thinking. Together with this the focuses on examionations make children hate academics.

As the teachers are incompetent to elicit discipline without a stick and are not sufficiently able to apply child friendly methods of learning and increased awareness and mechanisms to eliminate corporal punishments incapacitate them to impart quality education resulting in decreased learning. As children go up the grade, lack of ability to read and write makes them lose interest in studies.  Besides this, the fact that the valuation of plus two (11^th and 12^th) is stricter makes children to drop out of school.

It is high time to rework our educational system and that is definitely a tedious and slow process with the Government machinery. The work round this problem is to introduce skill based learning after 10^th grade. This can make children to sustain in education especially because of the fact that skill based learning is practically oriented and educe interest. This can indeed decrease the number of delinquent children as we can sustain more children in schools where better monitoring is available compared to being in home locality where they are prone to be influenced by anti-social elements and parents are often away at work and are unavailable to monitor children.