Nyasa, an informal school run by students and community volunteers of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), successfully concluded a 10-day summer camp for about 90 children from neighboring villages and construction workers’ colonies of IITGN. The Summer Camp, which was held from May 30 to June 08, 2022, was aimed at helping these kids explore their hobbies and hidden talents.
The camp featured a plethora of exciting activities and learning modules to inspire and motivate kids while having fun. The activities included sessions on arts and crafts, origami, dream catcher making, preliminary English, basics of computer skills, introduction to archaeology, science experiments, pottery, music and dance, yoga, fun games, and sports. About 40 mentors, including students, faculty, and community members of IITGN, conducted various sessions with the help of about 50 student volunteers from the Institute. Team Nyasa concluded the summer camp today by putting together a gallery/exhibition of memories from the camp in the form of photographs and children’s artwork.
Sharing the idea behind organising this activity, Anukesh K A, a PhD scholar at IITGN and one of the student volunteers from the Nyasa Team, said, “The idea of the Nyasa summer camp is to introduce these kids to different new avenues of opportunities mixed with fun and learning sessions using IIT Gandhinagar’s facilities. The camp aims to impart the seeds of motivation among kids to equip them with various skills.”
Sharing her experience, Kinjal, a seven-year girl from IITGN construction workers’ colonies, said, “I enjoyed these ten days a lot. We studied English and computer skills as well as played a lot of games, and learned to make different things like paper rabbits, whistles, and so on. I enjoyed the dance sessions the most.”
Expressing his joy and excitement from participating in the camp, Yashpal Vaghela, a 10-year boy from Basan village near IITGN, said, “I had a lot of fun at IITGN summer camp. I learned to make a water sprinkler, and whistle did digging and made vessels from olden times, painted earthen pots, made paper flowers, met a faculty, and talked about the environment. I also enjoyed the library visit and reading books on plants. Today I went with my father to a plant nursery and brought many flower and tree saplings to plant at my home.”
