Awareness Event 2018
Global Hand washing Day 2018 : “Clean hands- a recipe for health” (15th October 2018)
This year, PARAS India celebrated Global Hand Washing Day to take an opportunity to motivate people about the importance of washing their hands with soap. Global Hand Washing Day is observed every year on 15th October all over the world to celebrate hand washing and its significance in prevention of diseases especially communicable ones. The tagline of the day ‘Clean Hands - A Recipe for Health’ emphasises the impact of hand washing on health. The theme for Global Hand washing Day 2018 focuses on hand washing, food hygiene, and nutrition. We organised awareness campaign, painting and drawing competitions on Hand washing at regional centres. An audio visual presentation on Hand washing was arranged at PARAS centre in New Delhi. It emphasised on the objectives of observing the day i.e foster a global and local culture of hand washing with soap, handle myths and misconceptions about hand washing, motivate healthcare providers to clean their hands regularly and the most important to educate the community, school children and health practitioners about the importance of washing hands regularly. The celebration intended to motivate the community students and locals to inculcate a habit of hand washing daily as to protect themselves from various diseases.
International Day of the Girl Child 2018 (11th October 2018)
“The International Day of the Girl Child” is observed every year across the world on 11th October to stand with girls everywhere to promote girls' empowerment for they inspire, innovate and take charge of their own future. This year it was themed as “With Her: A Skilled Girl Force”. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres marked this day by saying "On this International Day of the Girl, let us recommit to supporting every girl to develop her skills, enter the workforce on equal terms and reach her full potential." Today girls face adversities that hinder their education, training and entry into the workforce. Now they’re redefining girlhood, and they’re doing so against the odds. PARAS INDIA is continuously working for gender equality and providing opportunities and new pathways for girls. Through its multiple projects like SAKSHAM, NAV JEEWAN, PARIVARTAN and PRERNA, PARAS INDIA has developed an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise different rights and live up to her full potential. We celebrated the day across PARAS community centers and organized various activities like skill competitions, storytelling, games etc. SAKSHAM and PARIVARTAN provide livelihood opportunities while NAV JEEWAN is an assertive project in Central Jail ‘TIHAR’ to counsel and educate women inmates. Recently providing stitching machine with the support of “USHA Machine Organization” to slum women is a step towards woman empowerment.
SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN (Clean India Mission) (2nd October 2018)
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is an All India Mission to achieve the goal of “Clean India, Green India”. The Prime Minister of India on 2nd October, 2014 launched the flagship program - Swachh Bharat Mission to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019 as a fitting tribute on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation. The birth day of Mahatma Gandhi i.e. the Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated every year on 2nd of October as to commemorate his sacrifices, morals and his teachings. PARAS INDIA celebrated Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October 2018 by organising an Awareness Rally at its regional centres - Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The objective of this awareness campaign was “to promote cleanliness, hygiene and to motivate them to adopt sustainable sanitation practices.” Through Nukkad Natak, demonstrations and speeches we tried to make the local communities aware of the significance of sanitation. Slogans of Gandhiji’s popular sayings like “Be the change you wish to see in the world” etc were raised. We educated them with the objectives of SBM and government initiatives already taken in the same direction. At the end, we took a PLEDGE – “to bring an improvement in the general quality of life especially in the rural areas and to achieve the vision of Swachh Bharat.” The rally got support of locals and proved to be a significant contribution towards social inclusion by involving marginalised communities into sanitation revolution.
National Sports day (29th of August, 2018)
The National Sports Day is celebrated every year on 29th August, the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.The sports and fitness related activities contribute towards a healthier India. At PARAS, it is all about celebrating the spirit of sports and healthy lifestyle in the community. The celebration is meant to spotlight the importance of this day, attract the attention of community people and most important made them aware towards sports. We told them the significance of being a sportsman. That Sports not only give popularity, recognition but also provide employment to the youth who bring pride to the nation. We arranged various competitions like sack race, Ludo, Carrom, chess and yoga. In the reminiscence of the greatest of all, this day was celebrated with much excitement. We felt successful to achieve our main aim behind the celebration when lots of students looked excited to join sports.
Sadbhavana Diwas (20th August, 2018)
We celebrated “Sadbhavana Diwas” at “Nandlal” slum, located at Gopalpur, Delhi on 20th August, 2018, the 74th birth anniversary of our former Prime Minister ‘Late Shree Rajiv Gandhi’. The day is celebrated every year “to encourage the national integrity and communal harmony among the Indians” as Rajiv Gandhi dreamed. We celebrated the day by screening “Hickhi” movie at the slum. The movie is based on the story of an aspiring teacher suffering from a neurological issue called the Tourette Syndrome. “The movie clearly gives a message about the three most important traits of a teacher i.e. Passion, Perseverance and Building Trust in Students. It also gives a life lesson i.e. “ACCEPT Yourself As You Are, There Is Nothing To Be Ashamed Of”. This way, the movie not only entertained children but also developed confidence in them. Besides, children participated in discussions & speeches over the dream of Late Rajiv Gandhi to make India a developed country. His famous quotes were recited by students especially the most inspiring one for youths of the Country i.e. “India is an old country, but a young nation...I am young and I too have a dream. I dream of an India, strong, independent, self-reliant and in the forefront of the front ranks of the nations of the world in the service of mankind.”
Finally, the celebration brought a smile on the faces of children.
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE (Vishwa Adivasi Diwas) (9TH August 2018)
AT BUDELKHAND: - The celebration of 2017 was of particular significance as the year marked the theme “Indigenous peoples' migration and movement”. The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is celebrated at Bundelkhand centre of PARAS India to honour and recognise the resilience, pride, strength and dignity of the indigenous people worldwide. We are working in this area with Sahariya tribe, who are epicentre of our movement. We started our celebration with a rally in village Nari, then we had dance among the tribal Sahariya community people. Our co-coordinators gave awareness on the importance of celebration of this day and roots of keeping the culture alive. At last, we conducted a meeting with the community, discussed their issues and suggested solutions.
AT DELHI: - Collaboration and connection is the key to it all. This day was celebrated at Delhi with distribution of clothes among the unprivileged, tribals and beggars of slums. We received blessings from the elderly and needy
INTERNATIONAL YOGA DAY (21st June 2018)
Yoga was originated in India in ancient time when people were used of meditation to transform their body and mind. The theme of World Yoga Day 2018 was “Yoga for Peace” .In order to create a great level of consciousness and positively changing the lifestyle of worldwide human population, practicing of yoga everyday is necessary. Various diseases, stress, physical and mental illness can be liberated through yoga. Launching a particular date of practicing yoga all across the world and celebrating as yoga day was initiated by the Indian Prime Minister to the United Nations General Assembly. Yoga is very necessary and beneficial for all human being if it is practiced in early morning on a daily basis. Official name of this day is UN International Yoga Day and also called as Yoga Day. It was celebrated at PARAS through activities such as practicing yoga, meditation, debates, meetings, discussions, variety of cultural performances, etc. At PARAS, we celebrate with a lot of enthusiasm in early morning at every community centre like Delhi, Jhansi and kanupur dehat. Various poses were taught to the learners like adho muktasa, bhujangasan, kapotasana, balasan, tadasan, dhanurasan, vajrasan and many more. Also, breathing exercises such as pranayam anulomb vilom and bhamari were taught. Suryanamaskar forms a very important part of yoga which is practiced on a daily basis in all the centres in PARAS India.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY (5th June 2018)
The theme of the year 2018 was “Beat Plastic Pollution”. It emphasises the need to understand the severity of plastic pollution, explore suitable alternatives for plastic usage, to safeguard our oceans, marine life & humans from detrimental impact. This year, our country India got an opportunity to host this event. This calls for concrete action to combat one of the greatest environmental challenges of today's time. At the celebration of world environment day in PARAS, we took this opportunity to introspect & make changes in our lifestyle to reduce use of plastic in everyday life. Students created beautiful drawings with their imagination of better future and an oath to conserve mother earth by beating plastic pollution. They were enlightened on this topic by some of the teachers and were made aware on dangers and hazards caused by using plastic in every day’s life. Students took an active participation in the celebration by adopting small steps like carrying their water bottle, using steel Tiffin to store food, use of metal containers instead of plastic one and replace all the possible plastic items in everyday use with paper or metal. The celebration ended with prizes to the drawing competition and distribution of sweets in the community
ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA (23rd May 2018)
Our organisation is a state partner with Chhattisgarh election commission. The ECI conducted a two day workshop for representative of Civil Society Organization at USI, New Delhi in which member of our organisation took part. Nearly 40+ participants across the country were addressed by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, Sh. Umesh Sinha. The workshop witnessed participation from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. They designed a Electoral Literacy Club (ELC) project .It was focused on spreading awareness in public about the importance of voting. The workshop was aimed to involve CSOs for taking the ELC project forward at the grass root level and impart electoral literacy.They played various interesting games and prepared wall magazines to have better understanding about the process of voting. We then, conducted awareness sessions at all our regional centres.
WORLD WATER DAY CELEBRATION (22nd March, 2018)
World water day was celebrated with hue and candour at nand lal slum on 22nd March, 2018. The theme was “Nature for Water”. The aim was to increase the awareness among the people about the importance, need and conservation of water. The sense of responsibility to conserve every drop of water and utilize it in sustainable way is very important. Our purpose for celebrating this day is always very clear. We, at PARAS India believe in sustainability of resources. The symbol of world water day is a drop of water of blue colour. Drawing and essay competition were taken which got good response from students. Two students got awards for their incredible essays and drawing. The community people were given awareness on importance of judicious use of water. The event was marked successful by active participation from students and the community people.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION (8TH MARCH 2018)
Theme for 2018 international women’s day was “Time is a now- rural and urban activist transforming women’s lives”. We witness inequality against women in our own homes, violence against women can be heard on daily basis, female feticide is continuing.There have been several positive changes in the society such as now girls are also going to school on vast majority and their employment ratio is also increasing.All these positive changes are leading society to a greater amicable nation. PARAS truly believe that educating girls will help in removing gender discrimination; and removal of gender discrimination will help in developing the country.The celebration started with a rally in the morning, showing amazing and beautiful banners made by community women’s and students. Later in the afternoon, drawing competition was held which received humongous participation.The picturesque moment was filled with vibrant smiles and positivity of future. Through drawings, they brought forth various aspects which needed attention such as equality of gender, women’s education, women’s health and sanitation, equality at workplace and various other enticing topics. Later, in the evening, a meeting of girls and community women’s was taken which received great welcoming. The event concluded with meeting of community women’s on awareness and women rights.
Workshop on Menstrual hygiene – It was a one day workshop conducted in Slum area of Delhi where a renowned women social entrepreneur Ms Prachi Kaushik, founder & director, Vyomini guided us. She gave awareness on common myths and superstitions related to menstruation. Also, she advocated the importance of proper use of sanitary pads and importance of exercise in daily life of a woman. She then distributed bio-degradable sanitary napkins in the workshop. The issue of menopause, its traits and care was discussed. The session turned out beautifully. The women and adolescent girls now have ample information on the proper care and hygiene taken in their menstrual days. Various aspects were discussed in brief. All over, it was a very useful session for the women of community promoting community development at large.
