Conflict Resolution, Peace and Bullying
Date: 12 October 2018
Report:
One Future Collective conducted three sets of workshops for children from the eighth to the tenth standard at the BMC Mohili Village School in Andheri, Mumbai. The topic for the workshop was peace and conflict resolution, with a focus on bullying within the classroom, conducted in Hindi and English. The children explored ideas of peace at the personal level — what peace means to them, what it means to be peaceful within a family unit, and between friends, and at school. They also explored peace at a societal and national level. The workshop focused on three aspects: (1) emotions, their origin and their effect on us; (2) whether we can control our emotions, and what effect they have on our surroundings; and (3) whether compassion could create a less hostile environment. The children had wonderful questions, such as: ‘where do feelings come from?’ and ‘can we really stop anger the moment it comes to us?’ They shared examples of times they have felt an overwhelming emotion, and the effect of that emotion on their own self and the people around them. The children were then asked to define ‘bullying’ and think of why one resorts to bullying. One class split themselves up into groups and performed a 3 minute skit, each, on how they would overcome a situation of bullying within their class. After deciding that bullying is no good, the children created their own rules for interaction within the class: ‘be compassionate, be kind’, and ‘stand up against a bully’ or ‘tell a teacher if things get out of hand’.
Gender Sensitisation, Gender Leadership and Busting Stereotypes
Date: 16 October 2018
Report:
One Future Collective conducted three sets of workshops for children from the eighth to the tenth standard at the BMC Mohili Village School in Andheri, Mumbai. The topic for the workshop was gender sensitisation, understanding and busting gender stereotypes and inculcating the understanding and importance of gender leadership and was conducted in Hindi and English. We discussed and along with them, analysed how gender stereotypes play out at home by way of the division of labour, decision making and differences between siblings. We discussed and analysed how gender stereotypes play out at school by way of access to leadership opportunities, behavioural expectations, subjects and activities being gendered and thus marked with restrictions among others. We had the children map these stereotypes by having them perform role-plays thus throwing light at how gender stereotypes play out and how an alternate gender neutral solution is the call of the day. We asked to sum up by analysing all that they felt was gender biased in their day to day lives and how they could possibly work together (both girls and boys) to look out for each other and thus change the situations.
Mental Health
Date: 26 October 2018
Report:
One Future Collective conducted two sets of workshops for children from the seventh and the eighth standards at the BMC Mohili Village School in Andheri, Mumbai. The topic for the workshop was understanding mental health, which was conducted in a mixed language of Hindi and English. The fundamentals of what they understood about mental health, what is its importance, how mental health is not always negative and how to remain stress free was discussed in the classes. Students from both classrooms showed enthusiasm and some eagerly participated to make the sessions interactive. The workshop maneuvered to discuss why is taking care of one’s mental health crucial at every stage of time, some points to always remember in order to make oneself happy and how to identify a classmate who may be going through a tough time. The workshop was focused on learning ways to reduce stress and always designate some time for taking care of one’s mental health. The workshop ended with talking and discussing about how to become a #mentalhealthfriend?