Fighting Covid-19: Mohali youth holds online workshops for fundraising

TNN | May 27, 2020, 23:41 IST

Screen grab from Markr's online workshop on argument building

By- Piyush Sarna
MOHALI: Aaftab Singh, the founder of social venture Markr, and other recent graduates of VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) organised a four-part modern education online workshop series to raise money for the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. The series ended on May 22.
The participants were from 17 states and their objective was to both help the country fight Covid-19 and teach youth to use the lockdown productively, so that they don't have negative thoughts.
Aaftab, who lives in Sector 64, told TOI: “Coronavirus has changed the education sector in just a few weeks. The shift from conventional classrooms to videoconference has helped students be a part of diverse groups with common goal, while staying safe in their homes amid the breakout."
In this series, Decrypting MUNs with Vaivab Das, the participants were introduced to the concept of ‘Model United Nations’, covering a range of topics from argumentation to foreign policy. Markr co-founder Raghav Sharma said: “This sort of modern education and training isn't provided in conventional classroom. We also teach debating, a sought-after skill in today’s world where voicing one’s opinions in a coherent manner is not just appreciated but is also necessary."
The nominal fee of Rs 400 taken from each participant was all contributed to the PMNRF. The workshops were organized over Zoom video-calling platform. The April's session on argumentation introduced participants to building and categorising arguments, besides logical fallacies, and rebuttals. The next three workshops organised over a month covered topics like stakeholder analysis, economic models, political compass, and the rules of Model UNs.
Sujana Bora, operations head at Markr, said: “Bringing great minds together and creating learning experiences that go beyond conventional ideas is what keeps us going. Every endeavour brings us closer to extraordinary individuals who help us build a more rational and compassionate community.”