‘Thank you frontliners for your service to the nation. We salute you. Please stay safe’. These are words from a ‘gratitude card’ made by Diya K. Meanwhile, in her ‘wisdom diary’, the class two student has written about what she learnt about personal hygiene from her mentor, “Aleena chechi.”
Diya is one of the 10 children who are part of Mentor A Child (MAC), a programme of Fireflies, a non-profit organisation founded by alumni and students of the Central University of Kerala (CUK), Kasaragod in Kerala. Under MAC, 10 mentors of Fireflies work with one child each in the age group of seven to 10.
Vishnu Narayan, a mentor of Fireflies during his session over video call | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“MAC was launched to enable children to imbibe the concepts of personal hygiene and social distancing against the backdrop of COVID-19. For seven days, our mentors interact individually with the children over a one-hour video call. This is a seven-day programme and we have completed the first such session,” says Gautham NC, secretary of Fireflies. At present, he is working as project manager at the Department of Public Health, CUK.
Token of gratitude
The mentors worked as per the module that covers topics such as personal hygiene, importance of wearing masks and their proper disposal, social distancing, waste management and segregation. They were asked to prepare a token of gratitude and appreciation, in postcard format, for those who have been at the forefront to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Thus, they made ‘gratitude cards’ for health workers, cleaning staff, ambulance drivers, the police, the government, society at large, their family and themselves. They also had to jot down brief descriptions about each day’s session and something positive about the day in the ‘wisdom diary’.
In addition, they encouraged the children to take up craft work and also do something related to nature. “Parents were also involved in the efforts. The project aims at empowering the society through these children and their families,” says Gautham.
A gratitude card for the police force by Archana M | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Entries were invited to select the mentors and from the 30 applicants, 10 were short-listed, which included students and professionals. They went through a training session before the project began. After assessing the results of the first phase, the team intends to take it to more children in Kerala.
Fireflies, which “aims to create change in the society through changemakers”, has been focussing on children and environment. Under its ‘Colour a Smile’ initiative, it has beautified the walls and premises of 10 institutions in various districts. While ‘RE-Cycle’ is a bike-sharing project implemented on the CUK campus, it also conducted an art exhibition in Kanhangad, Kasaragod district, to raise funds for the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund during last year’s flood.