Alumni reach out to govt school kids through 'Art of Giving' project

A group of 20 enthusiasts from Bengaluru wish to give back to a place that laid the foundation for their education.

They have been doing so not by spending crores of rupees, but by investing their time. Alumni of the Government High School, Police Colony (GHSPC) have started teaching children under the ‘Learn a skill, Gain a Career’ programme.

The alumni of 1984-85 batch of the GHSPC have taken up the initiative of teaching vocational and skill education to all the government schools free of cost under the ‘Art of Giving’ project.

In 2012, during the alumni meet, it was decided that the group would do their bit to help government schools across the City Under the programme, the students of Saneguravanahalli Government School, on Saturday, learnt the art of making greeting cards from recycled or waste paper.

For Mamatha N Swamy, teaching craft started off as a hobby. She gradually began conducting classes. 

“I would teach women earlier who managed to make this a source of income. Many began enquiring with us about it. Then came the idea of putting this to use by teaching students from government schools,” she added.

Swamy, who leads the group, said that they have had such sessions in 15 schools so far. The alumni of GHSPC conduct these sessions for the government school children free of cost.

“We do not have any sponsors right now. We pool in the money ourselves for these sessions,” she said.

Apart from craft, they also teach the students music and meditation. H C Dodde Gowda, a psychotherapist by profession, has been teaching the students to meditate.

“We also counsel the students on exam preparations,” he added.
The students were a happy lot with their Saturday noon being a fruitful one.

Hemalata, a student of the class said, “I would try to learn from television channels. However, I was unable to understand several things. Today’s session was interactive.” “I will go back and teach this to kids in my neighbourhood,” she added.