Colours of happiness adorn kids’ shelter home
LUCKNOW:
Colours of happiness adorned the plain walls of an open shelter home for children at Geetapalli in Alambagh here on Sunday.
As part of ‘Happy Walls’ event during ‘Daan Utsav’ organised by Project KHEL, over 50 volunteers, members of the NGO and inmates painted the entire shelter home with bright images to create a child-friendly atmosphere.
Children were also engaged in a hand painting competition and they drew happy faces on the walls.
The children, who are staying temporarily at the shelter home run by Ehsaas, said they enjoyed interacting with so many people and the home looked beautiful and colourful now.
Project KHEL uses games and interactive methods to engage with underprivileged children to arm them with life-skills and awareness.
‘Daan Utsav’ or the joy of giving week is celebrated every year from October 2 to October 8. This year Project KHEL and Swatantra Talim have joined hands to bring the ‘spirit of giving’ to Lucknow by organising seven different events for seven days.
Earlier this week, Project KHEL organised a unique event called ‘Help a Hawker’ to honour dignity of work.
Over 40 volunteers and Project KHEL team members became street hawkers for a day and gave street hawkers’ some relief from their work as part of the event. The volunteers purchased stock of hawkers in Hazratganj and Saharaganj area between 4 pm-8 pm and sold it to pedestrians who were present.
All revenue generated during the sale was given back to the hawkers.
Some hawkers said they earn about ` 400 in the period, but the volunteers were able to earn more than ` 1200 for them in the same time.
Akshai Abraham, founder- director, Project KHEL, said he had worked in part-time jobs in his college days standing on streets and giving demos of mixer-grinders, selling at trade fairs in Delhi and also working as a call centre executive.
He added that he had a lot of respect for hawkers who earn by working, rather than begging.
Divyansha, a volunteer, said during the event she could understand the difficult life of hawkers.
The Project KHEL team members also organised food and fun activities for the hawkers. Ramesh Singh, who sells toys at Hazratganj traffic signal, said, “I cannot express my happiness in words. Someone actually found time to talk to us and wanted to know about us. I will remember it forever.”