know your special friend --> chrysallis

There'z something great that happened in my life, and a feeling that I did something different, something which gives me immense pleassure,which I haven't experienced from my job and my funs i had. It happened on Saturday 25th Feb 2006.
I went for "Know Your Special Friend" program organized by Chrysallis for challenged children. And this time there was a difference. That is i went there not as a part of audience, but as an volunteer. I was there at the venue by 7.00am and were busy arranging the space given for us (the interaction team) with posters, birds, sun, rainbow which we sweated out on prev weekend. Then by 9.30 children started pitching in from different schools. They were from different schools, different backgrounds, and different places. Moreover it was a combination of regular and challenged (visually/hearing impaired, mentally/physically handicapped) children. Most of them didn't knew each other when they came. Then they were grouped in to teams and each volunteer was assigned to every four groups. Similarly I was given four children. Out of that two were normal and two challenged. Till then i haven't interacted with any of these people and because of that, i was very nervous with lotza questions in my mind like how am I gonna deal with them ?, how i make sure that these four will turn good friends end of the day ? and lots more ...

Thank god for giving me confidence. I talked to them very slowly and in low pace "Hi friends, I am Arun, and may I know your name?” They responded with a gentle smile and said Ajith, Chandra, Deepthika, Nayna. I started from there and went on with their hobbies, their likes and dislikes and so on.... After the 30 min initial session with them, I gave them a small assignment. It goes like this "You guys have to know each other pretty well and when I come back, I will point anyone and ask u to narrate about his/her neighbour". Seems they too were very much interested in that and it was evident from their smiling faces.

Then followed the breakfast. We served them initially and then joined them for breakfast. Once that got over, Ajith called me pointing to Chandra, "Arun sir, this is Chandra, from Tamilnadu and started explaining me about her hobbies.. Infact everything about her". I couldn't believe myself. Those children were simply intelligent and i am sure that their IQ level makes them way ahead of me and they are too creative. Then we gave some words like love, dream and care etc... And asked them to write down something that they feel about it. They wrote about their parents, school mates and to my wonder about me too :) Once that was done, we took back the sheets from them and gave them synthetic clay and gave them the freedom for creating something which represents the words which we gave them in the prev session.

There was a gap of 30 min and I was eagerly looking them and their creativity in work. They started mingling with each other well and looked like a small family. To my truth, I went emotional at times and thanking god again for giving me strength to sail across.After lunch we all very busy preparing for the main show. Children grouped themselves to elves and snowman who were the characters of the program. I was there with the kids, the volunteers and the coordinators till 7.15 and honestly it took me a long way and i had a very nice experiment with those innocent chaps .In fact i took back home a very valuable lesson which will be there with me till my last breath. So if you people are still curious about that Great people and those with Great Mind find them here.