A Special Camp at The Yoga Institute – The Reach Out Camp
The Yoga Institute has always been involved in promoting and working towards betterment in relation to various social causes of our Society at large and it took yet another strong step towards the care and happiness of special children of our society. This was a special camp for very special children conducted on 23rd Dec 2016 at The Yoga institute. Camp started with our very special guru Smt. Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra talking about importance of being obedient to one’s parents and elders. Smt. Hansaji gave learning to all children including the volunteers that one should never get angry on their parents because they are our support system for life. Smt Hansaji taught all the special campers certain asanas and stretches to keep our mind and body supple. Camp was then ensorcelled by bhajan session performed by special children from ‘ARPAN’. They sang a classical raga. The vocalist was Arti, Tabla maestro was Anand and sitarist was Prathibha with an amazing jugalbandi which was appreciated by all. As the theme of the camp was Christmas, our Sutradhar Ms. Varijaji told the campers a story of how Santa and Reindeer met? She made all campers sing Christmas carols and do asanas based on jungle theme. Asanas were made fun and interesting for children as Santa (Abhay Jain Sir) and Rudolf Reindeer (Amrita Sharma) were demonstrating it to the children Talasana to be tall like trees, Utkatasana to sit in air without chair, etc. To bring in more fun and high spirits Ms. Mamtaji started a dancing session with children on songs like bham bham bole, Zubi Dubi Zubi dubi.
Reach out
All the children were enjoying and were happy to their hearts content. After so much dancing, children were famished and went for lunch with their respective volunteers assisting them in every way possible. Calming ourselves after amazing dancing session and delicious lunch, we had relaxation session with Nishpandhbhavana. This session was so beautiful and serene as children and volunteers were sitting back to back with closed eyes and calmness on their faces. To get on with Christmas celebrations, Ms. Swati conducted craft session with children and taught them to make Christmas wreaths with assistance of volunteers. The view of all them working together goes just right with the saying “we shall overcome”. A new way of learning for children and to make them interact with each other there was a skit session wherein the concepts like Satya, ahimsa, aparigrah, krodh, Karuna, Ahar, etc. were the morals to be learnt. Mr. Abhay Jain Sir always good with Children took over the camp with singing of various learning based songs like “Follow Yama Niyama”, “we shall overcome”, “hum honge Kamayab”, “yeh dosti hum nahi todeng”, etc. Ms. Varija ended the camp by singing the Reach Out Anthem with all campers and volunteers. And a vote of thanks was given by Madam Rekha Balgi to Abhay Jain, Varija and Amrita and all the volunteers who made this camp a huge success. The Reach Out Camp at The Yoga Institute is a strong step towards putting forward a helping hand to someone who is specially abled and to make their world as comfortable, confident and colourful as ours.