LockdownTales Ep #1: Poems, rhymes, stories and songs of hope to reduce stress of kids secluded from outdoor activities

Ground Tales

When the whole world is under distress due to Corona pandemic, 22- year- old, Shloka, a resident of Malviya Nagar was concerned about the children especially from underserved communities who are compelled to cut-off from the external world. To release the stress of these children, Shloka and her friends who are a part of volunteer group of Child Rights and You (CRY) decided to make small videos reciting poems, stories, DIY ideas etc for them and shared it on social media.

Shloka had never thought that she would get such a beautiful response against the poem which she recited. The very next day a 13-year-old Shama (name changed) who resides in Bharat Vihar Basti sent a video in reply to Shloka reciting another poem to her. The video of Shama came as an encouragement for these young minds and their small efforts turned into a campaign.

In the midst of these trying times, while we reach out to each other with messages on social distancing and self-isolation, this group of youngsters were thinking about the huge impact this will have on our children from privileged and underprivileged spaces alike. Not having the volunteers come for sessions, not being able to go to their hobby classes, having limited or no access to their friends etc.

“Keeping this in mind, we the volunteers from CRY are developing a series of online resources both in Hindi and English that our little ones can get access to. My team has all kind of videos from easy cooking, good daily habits, maths tricks, easy at and craft. Our aim just to engage children and make them realize that they are not alone in times like this and that we, their mentors, are looking forward to watching them learn and grow even while we can’t physically meet them everyday”, said 20-year-old, Areeba Khan, who resides in Okhla.

The campaign has already started getting a lot of responses and volunteers and their friends across the capital are now making more and more such resourcesfor the children.

Another volunteer said “I felt heart-warming when we started getting responses on our videos. It also gave us the opportunity to engage ourselves to do something productive, while being quarantined at our house”, said 19-year-old, Mrityunjay Kandpal.

Children who might not have experienced such situation where they are restricted to go out for days might be facing certain uneasiness as well. With the intent to add some fun and learning in the daily routine of these children our volunteers have decided to produce small engaging fun videos.

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