These are the best days of my life

This past Friday was one of the best days I’ve had yet here. Even though I’ve had some bumps (big bumps!) along the road with my practicum, I’m happy to say that I really think I made the right decision with being here. And Friday just further insured that for me, for a number of reasons.

After a quick lunch, my supervisor, a co-worker and I went to the two juvenile program sites that SPYM has, Kingsway Camp and Chandichowk. The first site we visited, Kingsway Camp, was a little over an hour away from our main office by Metro. New Delhi is constantly surprising me and the Metro was no exception. See my blog post on my Metro experience, here. 

Kingsway Camp, is a de-addiction and rehabilitation center for adolescent males who are in conflict with the law and currently have a substance dependence disorder. Though many of the services they offer fall in line with other juvenile rehabilitation centers, the way that SPYM provides the treatment, education and rehabilitation is one of a kind.

Three times a week, The Tehelka Foundation comes to the center and offers an expressive arts therapy and skill training program for the juveniles. The Tehelka Foundation is a non-profit trust that works with youth on “issues of governance and social justice, inspiring them to become agents of social change”. They use workshops, conferences, street plays, and youth festivals as a way to form relationships between marginalized youth and mainstream society.

I was so excited when I heard that an organization like this comes to Kingsway Camp. Experiential learning programs such as the art therapy program through The Tehelka Foundation is one of the best ways I think people can learn and change for the better. While in New Delhi, I hope to be going to Kingsway Camp a few times a week to help them with documentation and to get a better sense of their methodology and approach.

There is also a library that has been started at Kingsway Camp. Through the Fun of Learning (their literacy class), the boys develop comics about their experiences as a way to work out various issues. After drawing the comics, they record the description of each comic strip into an electronic pen. Once the comics are developed, they’re placed in the library so other boys can read them.

For boys that are illiterate and not able to read the comics, this talking pen is an excellent way for them to still grasp the concept of the comic. Similar to scanning a QR code with your smartphone, the boys can take one of the talking pens and place it on a coded box next to the comic, and in the author’s own voice, they can hear what the comic is about. 

For a program that just started up about two years ago, I was amazed by the amount of progress already. With counselors at Kingsway Camp having to go to an average of 4 court cases a day, you can tell that running this center is a group effort!

Recently, they started a canteen (small corner store) and a tiffin service (a service where someone delivers 4 food dishes to you, usually consisting of a vegetable, rice, dal and another dish). The program staff hope that soon the canteen and tiffin service can make the program self-sustaining. One can only hope!

Note: I’ll update this post with pictures once I can.