Competition "Kids of the world" by @olesia & @soulwind | Theme: International Children's Day | Submission for the 7th week | Children's Day celebrated in Prothsahan

Happy Children's day to all of the childrens all over the world - including those having a children's heart inside an adult body !!

I like to share my experience of celebrating the "Children's day" with 500+ kids in Prothsahan event.

Prothsahan is an annual fest for the kids from underprivileged families. It was organized since a decade by an NGO (Non Government Organization) named Educare. This events were organized in many cities in eastern india. I was a volunteer in Kolkata chapter of the event.

There are many night school, street-school, NGO operated school in the city for lesser privileged childrens. Due to lack of infrastructure, budget, manpower - these Schools are not able to organize any fest / inter-schools competition for the kids. In Prothsahan Kolkata chapter, 20+ such schools were invited to participate.

The event was organized in Don Bosco School, Park Circus. We reached the venue early morning and decorated the stage, hang the banners.

Also, we organised the trophies.

The kids start arriving along with their school representatives after 8am. We served them packed breakfast (veg sandwich, slice-cake, ripe banana, fruit juice). Then the inauguration ceremony takes place in the auditorium by the Principal of Don Bosco School.

After the inauguration ceremony, the competition begins. The sports events like race, math-race (where they have to run, then solve a simple math, and then complete the run) organized in the open field. We served glucose-water to the participants at the end of their race.

Face-painting is a very popular event. The kids participate in a group of two from each of the school.

The colors they used were provided by the organizers and are safe for skin. Once they are done, we were very surprised seeing the creativity.

There was rangoli event where they created rangoli using organic colors. The colors were supplied by the organizers.

Some teams chosen to give a message for social awareness like "Save trees" or "Save Girls".

In Mehendi competition, kids participated as a group of two and designed beautiful mehendi. They used herbal color provided by the organizers which is safe for skin.

In hair-styling event, we were stunned after seeing their skills.

There were sit-and-draw events where we seen a huge participation. We provided the colors for the participants.

There was Essay Writing competition which was taken place inside a classroom.

We invited renowned personalities from different fields to judge the kids in the competition.

After the competitions, we had lunch. The lunch menu was veg fried-rice, veg manchurian, sweets. After the lunch, everyone assembled in the auditorium.

After a mind-blowing performance by the kids from Manovikas Kendra (a home for mentally challenged kids), we had skit competition.

Again the kids surprised us with their talents.

There was a very good performance with a strong message for national integrity.

After the skit competition, the most awaited moment for the day - the prize distribution.

It was full of love, laugh and cheer. It's a moment that they will cherish lifetime.

We will also remember those moments.

Post the prize distribution, kids got their snacks pack and left the venue with smile and good memories.

So, does the kids received only trophies and certificates as their Childrens day gift?

No, they got a day full of memories. For most of them, it was a dream to enter inside a big auditorium, perform on a stage and applauded by 500+ audience.

We, the volunteers-

Not only the kids, we also got our gift. The gift is the smile in the innocent face. The gift is the sense of satisfaction of successfully managing such a big event. We realised our potential. We discovered our leadership, our people management skills. Our discipline, team-work and co-ordination among ourselves made the event a great success.

In Prothsahan, everyone re-lived our childhood once again !! This is the best Childrens' day gift one can ever have !!

The photographs used in this post are my own, clicked in my Huawei Honor 6 mobile.

My sincere thanks to @olesia and @soulwind for reading my post. I invite my friend @som1, @abhijitmahato and @papi.mati to participate this contest.