Stichting Childrenshome

  Family Reunion
&

Christmas Celebrations

2 Days’ Camp

Venue: Puthupunal- Children’s’ Home, SJDT,

 Genguvapatti

Date: 24^th to 27^th December 2011

St.Joseph’s Development Trust

Genguvarpatti

Theni District

DETAILS OF THE PROGRAMMES:

24.12.2011: Arrival, Distribution of New Dresses, Holy Mass, Christmas Celebration
25.12.2011: Rising and Cleaning, Cultural Competitions, Dinner and Rest
26.12.2011: Rising, Sports Competitions

INTRODUCTION:
St.Josephs’s Development Trust, ever since the time of its inception, has been running many homes and orphanage programmes for the orphan, semi orphan, neglected, abandoned, poor and underprivileged children in the districts of
Dindigul, Theni and Nagapattinam of Tmailnadu with the support of many foreign donor agencies. So far more than 1500 children have benefitted through these homes and orphanages programme and many have completed their college studies and have settled well in their life.  As of now five homes and orphanage programmes are run by SJDT in Dindigul, Theni and Nagapattinam Districts of Tamilnadu. Here below we give you the details of the Homes and Orphanages.

Pudhy Udhayam- A Home and Special School for Mentally Retarded and Physically Handicapped Children, Murugathooranpatti, Dindigul.

Pudhu Yugam- A Shelter Home for the Rehabilitation of Street and Working Children, Dindigul.

Pudhu Punal- A Home for Babies and orphans, Genguvarpatti, Theni District.

Pudhu Irudhayam- A Home for orphan and abandoned children- Thiruvidaikazhi, Tranquebar, Nagapattinam.
  

Founder and Executive Director of SJDT, Rev.Dr. Bro.I. Sebastian FSC, organized a special camp for these children on the occasion of Christmas 2011 to make the children physically and mentally happy. It was a family reunion camp where the old students who stayed in these homes were also invited to participate in the programme.

In this short report we give you various activities that took place during the camp for your perusal.

DURATION OF THE CAMP:
It was a full two days programme which started on the evening of 24th December 2011 and ended on the morning of 27th December 2011.

VENUE OF THE CAMP:
The camp was held in Pudhu Punal which is in the campus of SJDT’s head office at Genguvarpatti in Theni District.

The purposes of the camp were:
>To reunite the children who have benefitted through our homes and   orphanages programme in the past years
>To give opportunity for the current children to interact with the old children and learn from their experiences
>To educate the children on the importance of family relationship.
>To make the children happy both mentally and physically.
>To provide a platform for the children to exhibit their curricular and extracurricular talents.
>To refresh and orientate the children to have positive approach in their life.
>To enhance the children to make concrete decision to follow in the year   
2012.
>To create cordial relationship with the staff and children.

Consolidated Details:
Participants Details  Number of Participants
Present Students   325

Old Students  50

Staff   25

Total   400

PROGRAMMES CONDUCTED DURING THE CAMP:
Major programmes conducted during the camp are as follows.
Holy Mass and Prayer
Christmas Celebration
Sports Competitions
Cultural Competitions
Input Sessions
Cultural events
Interaction (Old students Vs. Present Students)

For each programme responsible persons were appointed so as to ensure perfect execution of the planned programme. Here below we give you the details of the persons who were responsible for executing the planned activities.

TIME TABLE:
The camp was held in the campus of Pudhu Punal which is in SJDT’s Head Office Premises at Genguvarpatti, Theni District. Children from the other four homes, (Pudhu Vasantham, Pudhu Yugam, Pudhu Irudhayam and Pudhu Udhayam) reached Pudhu Punal on 24th December 2011, by 6 P.M. On that day Holy mass and Christmas celebrations were held. On 25th and 26th December 2011, different competitions, cultural events and input sessions were organized and on 27th the children left to their respective homes. Here below we give you the detailed time schedule.

24.12.2011        04.00 PM          Children’s Arrival

06.00 PM          Holy Mass

08.30 PM          Dinner

10.00 PM to 12.00 PM  Christmas Celebrations (firing crackers)

25.12.2011        07.00 AM          Rising

07.00 AM to 09.00 AM  Cleaning (Self and Surroundings)

09.00 AM to 10.00 AM  Breakfast

10.00 AM to 12.30 PM  Leak round Competitions (Essay writing, painting, drawing, elocution, one word quiz)

12.30 PM to 02.00 PM  Lunch Break

02.00 PM to 04.30 PM  Competitions (Essay writing, painting, drawing, elocution, one word quiz)

04.30 PM to 06.00 PM  Tea Break

06.00 PM to 07.30 PM  Bathing

07.30 PM to 09.00 PM  Christmas Dinner

09.00 PM to 11.00 PM  TV Programme (Documentary Movie)

           
26.12.2011        07.00 AM          Rising

07.00 AM to 08.30 AM  Cleaning (Self and Surroundings)

08.30 AM to 09.15 AM  Prayer

09.15 AM to 10.00 AM  Breakfast

10.00 AM to 12.30 PM  Input Sessions

12.30 PM to 02.30 PM  Lunch Break

02.30 PM to 04.00 PM  Competitions (One word quiz)

04.00 PM to 05.00 PM  Tea Break

05.00 PM to 07.30 PM  Cultural Programme

07.30 PM to 09.00 PM  Dinner

27.12.2011        07.00 AM to 08.00 AM Rising and Cleaning
08.00 AM to 09.00 AM  Breakfast
09.00 AM          Leaving Back to Homes

24.12.2011 Arrival, Distribution of New Dresses and Holy Mass:
All the children from the other four homes arrived at Pudhu Punal by 24th evening 6 O’clock. 50 old children also arrived by that time. As soon as the children arrived they were gathered in front of the Pudhu Punal stage and all of them were provided with new Christmas dresses by Brother I.Sebastian FSC. Children happily received the dresses, wore it and got ready for the Holy Mass. Once the children were ready they were taken to RTU (Reaching The Unreached) which is near by Pudhu Punal for the Holy Mass.

Children were taken by our Tempo Traveler. Children participated in the Eucharist very piously and prayed for their well being and education. After the Holy Mass the children were brought back to Pudhu Punal for further celebration.

Christmas Celebration:
After the Holy Mass, children returned back Pudhu Punal around 9.30 PM. As children returned Christmas cake was cut in the home by our Brother and the same was distributed to all the children. After cake cutting cottage vise Christmas carols were sung by children. After the carols crackers were cracked on the open ground by all the children. Once the crackers were fired children were given nutritious meals with sweets. Children enjoyed the meals and sweets and around 11.30 PM all the children went to bed.

Rising and Cleaning:

On the Christmas Day, children woke up at 7 AM and after finishing their morning calls, they cleaned their cottages, stages and surroundings after that they did their self cleaning and got ready for that day’s programme around 9 AM. Children were served breakfast at 9 AM. Children were given good breakfast with home prepared sweets and chocolates. Children finished their breakfast by 10 AM.

Cultural Competitions:

Around 10 O’clock preliminary round cultural competitions were started. Children were divided standard vise. Competitions in essay writing, elocution, drawings, poem writing and singing were organized. Competition to know about the children’s knowledge about the institution and St.Delasalle were also organized. All the competitions were held simultaneously under different persons’ supervisions. Brother supervised the singing competition, Ms. Anushiya supervised Essay writing and drawing competitions,   Poem writing, Delasalle and Institution competitions were supervised by Ms. Shanmugavalli and Mrs. Deisyrani. Around 1 O’clock the competitions were ended. After that children were provided sumptuous noon meals and went for rest. At 3 O’clock children had their tea and snacks. Up to six O’clock children practiced for dance competition and the other children spent in playing different games. Around 6 O’clock dance competitions were held. This competition was held home vise as well as standard vise. Brother was the chief quest and jury for the dance competition. Brother selected 3 groups from the dance competition.

Dinner and Rest:
After the dance competition around 8.30 PM children had their dinner and spent some time leisurely in recreation and interaction and after that around 10.30 PM they all went to bed.

Rising:

On 26th morning children woke up early and got ready by 7 O’ clock. After finishing their morning prayers and breakfast all the children gathered in front of the open ground for the sports competition.   

Sports Competitions:
On 26th morning around 8 O’ clock sports competitions were held. From morning 8 O’clock to 11 O’clock preliminary rounds were held. Children were divided into three different groups. Children those who are studying above 9th standard were categorized in one group, children studying between 6th to 8th standard were categorized into one group and children studying in the primary school level were categorized into one group. For the children those who study above 9th standard, running race, sack race, brick race, stone collecting and tri-leg race were conducted. Lemon spoon and skipping competitions were held for the children those who study between 6th to 8th standard and running race, frog race and etc were conducted for the primary school children. Children from all the homes participated in these competitions and exhibited their athletics’ talents. Brother was the chief quest for the sports competitions. Brother and all the staff were very happy to see their children’s sportive spirit. These sports competitions ended around 11 Pm. after that children had bath and gathered for the input session.   

Input sessions:

From 12 PM to 01.30 PM input sessions were handled for the children those who study above 6th standard. Bro.I.Sebastian handled a session for the children those who study above 9th standard to up to college on the topic “How to face the current environmental scenario?” and Mr.Duraipandi handled a session for the 6th, 7th and 8th standard children on the topic “Positive Living”. This was a participative learning session and all the children actively participated in this input session. 82 children participated in the brother’s session and 79 children participated in Mr.Duraipandian’s session. Here below we give you the summary of brother and Mr.Duraipandian’s input sessions.

Brother’s Session:

Due to the development of science many new inventions have come up and that play vital role in our day today life. The whole world is moving along with the scientific inventions and development. People have started to adopt themselves as per the scientific improvements. This has led to competitive living. At this juncture we also need to cope up with the developing world and the environment. We need to learn to swim across the competitive world. For this we need to understand the factors that hinder our growth and how we can tackle them with due diligence. He also made the children to realize that nothing from outside of us can determine our growth or hinder our growth but it is an individual himself or herself decide his or her growth. We should not blame the outside factors as hindrance of our growth rather we need to adopt and accustomise to the changing trend and move ahead competitively. Further he said when we do something we first think of that, decide on that and foresee the impact of that and so it is we who decide our life and not the outside factors alone. An act is executed only on the basis of thinking, deciding and the impact expected from the act. First of all one need to realize and understand about oneself and recognize one’s talents before involving in any of the activities. We need to understand that whether we can perform a certain activity successfully before indulging in it. We also should realize the reasons for failures and try to overcome the failures in the future by addressing the reasons adequately. We need to understand about ourselves fully and then we need to understand the people those who are living around us for living in this competitive world. Brother also gave a simple exercise to the children. He asked the children to write down their talents. Once the children completed the exercise he asked some of the children to share it with all the children. After the sharing he informed the children that we all possess all the talents, but we don’t use them properly. Each one of us has got some unique talents and that need to be recognized and identified by any means. Once we identify the factors that control or hinder us from achieving our aims then we can use those factors positively for our growth. If we don’t identify the factors that control us then we become slaves to them. Only selfish people will think that we cannot do anything and let everything happen as per the fate. These people who believe in fate are those who cannot take decision on their life. They change themselves as per the changing environment without standing for their own set of values and priorities. They depend upon others to decide their life. We need to understand that we are not cheated by others it is we who cheat ourselves. To certain extend we inherit some of our characters and talents from our ancestors which is known as hereditarily inherited. We need to control and channelize our feelings and emotions. We need to identify our good and bad characteristics and take necessary steps to develop the good characteristics and avoid bad characteristics.  This input session helped our children with needed inputs to know about themselves more deeply and use the insights derived from the session for facing their life with more confidence and courage.  

Mr. Duraipandian’s Session:

Mr. Duraipandian through his session motivated the children to plan for their future, to enhance their skills, for participatory action and for self-actualization. He asked the children about their future aim. Children expressed that they want to become, doctors, teachers, IAS, IPS, social workers etc. and then he divided the children into different small groups and asked them to write down the needed qualifications and characteristics to become doctor, teacher, IAS, IPS, social worker etc. Children as a group discussed and noted down the points and shared the same in the common sitting.  From the common presentation he made the children to realize that to achieve specific aim specific characteristics and qualification is very essential and if you want to achieve your future aim, from now onwards you need to develop the characteristics and achieve the needed qualifications.  He also conducted some thematic games for the children to help them to understand his input sessions much easily. He also through his session motivated the children to be very active always, develop the inherited and acquired skills and work hard now itself to achieve their dream. He also emphasized the children to have positive approach in all walks of their life. Children were very happy as his session had lot of games and group interaction and at the same time children could easily understand the concept.

After the input session children had their lunch and went for rest up to 3 O’clock. From 3 PM to 6 PM final rounds were held for all the cultural and sports competitions. These were held in the presence of Brother. From the final rounds winners and runners were selected for each event.

Concluding Session:

At 6 O’ clock in the evening children had their tea and snacks followed by concluding session with cultural events. Children from all the homes displayed different cultural programmes to make the evening special and memorable. Old students for their part presented dance programme during the event. All the children enjoyed the cultural events. In between the event Santa Claus appeared in front of the children all of a sudden and distributed sweets and gifts to all the children. Children were very happy and enjoyed thoroughly. Santa Claus wished the children Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year.

The cultural programmes ended around 8.30 PM and after that children were given special meals to end the camp. After the supper children had interaction with brother and their friends and around 10.30 PM all of them went to bed.

At the end of the concluding session brother gave away the prizes to the children those who won in different cultural and sports events. Overall championship trophy was given to Pudhu Punal children for their extraordinary performances in all the events. Here below we give you the details of the children those who won in different cultural and sports competitions.

Cultural Competitions:

Sports Competitions: Girls

Sports Competitions: Boys

CONCLUSION:

On the 27th December 2011, children woke up early in the morning, refreshed themselves and had their breakfast around 7.30 AM and after that they thanked Brother and left to their respective homes around 8 O’clock. Old children also went back to their homes after thanking brother, staff, warden and cook. Before children left home they said that it was a wonderful camp where they got a chance to meet their old friends, staff, warden and kitchen staff with whom they stayed for many years. All the children thanked brother for organizing such a camp and helping them to reflect on their past life and plan for the future and requested brother to organize such a family reunion programme at least once in a year. Brother also assured them to organize such a programme every year and advised all the children to perform better in their studies and lead a good life with positive outlook and approach. Overall it was a fantastic event where all the members of the five homes were united as one family and lived together for two full days enjoying different activities and relishing their past memories. This event provided an opportunity for all the children to reflect on their past life and plan positively for the future. It also helped them to get relieved of their mental pressures and provided them opportunities to refresh themselves both physically and mentally.