|
REPORT OF
‘YOUTH SENSITISING & AWARENESS CAMP’
Date:
12th
to 13th
FEBRUARY 2011
Venue:
Montfort Empowerment Park, Gorai Village, Borivili (W),
Mumbai.
CSSS in collaboration with ‘Montfort Empowerment Park’,
Gorai, organized a two day ‘Youth Sensitizing &
Awareness Camp’. There were 56 students from Smt. Kamala
Mehta VWA College of Commerce, Andheri (W), who
participated in the two day camp. Staff from CSSS,
Montfort Empowerment Park and Smt. Kamala Mehta VWA
College of Commerce also participated in the camp.
Day 1
 The
first day of the Camp started with the introduction
about the objectives and rationale behind such a camp
including an introduction about ‘Centre for Study of
Society and Secularism’. The participant students,
faculty from the college, and other staff members from
CSSS as well as Montfort were formally welcomed to the
camp.
The formal introduction session was followed by the
session on ‘Vipasana meditation’ by Br. Chandy,
Superior, Montfort Empowerment Park. He stressed the
need for self realization in the context of today’s
conflict. One find time to learn everything and anything
about others. But never find time to look in to oneself,
which leads to internal conflict within oneself, which
have the potential to transform in to the society.
Vipasana helps people to see things as they really are.
Br. Chandy also lead a practical meditations session for
the participants.
The next session was a visit to Global Vipasana Pagoda
at Gorai, started by 11.00 am. This helped the
participants to learn a lot of things about Peace,
Meditation and the messages of Shri. Buddha. Br. Chandy
and the guide from the Pagoda gave information about the
Pagoda as well as the messages of Shri. Buddha. The art
Gallery, the video show and the book stall also were
useful and helpful for the participants. All together
the visit was a different experience for the
participants to learn and think about something which
they had never come across. By 01.30 pm the participants
reached back at venue.
 After
the lunch Mr. Noel Kinny, President, Gorai Machimar
Association, shared his experience in working with
fishermen community of Gorai. The challenges he and his
organization had to face when they started protests
against the establishment of SEZ, health, education and
related problems faced by the fishermen community, other
social and cultural issues faced by the people etc. were
shared with the participants, so as to sensitize the
youth about the life of the marginalized rural poor.
The next session was on ‘Understanding Prejudice & Bias’
by Riyas V M. The entire participants were divided in to
four groups and then with the help of few group games
the participants themselves came up with some findings.
Analyzing the findings by the participants, the resource
person could come to the topic what is prejudice and how
it is formed, what is conditioning and how all these
things works in inter-community relationship. The
prejudice and bias between various
religious/caste/linguistic communities and its basic
reasons were discussed in the session.
 This
was followed by the session by Br. Sebastian on
‘Conflict in Social Work’. He shared the challenges he
faced while working with Tribal communities in Andhra
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc. The qualities and ethics
necessary for a social work, problems in working with
people, challenges likely to phase from the authority
etc. were also been discussed. In response to a question
from the participant he shared why he choose to work for
the weakest section of the society. There were lots of
questions from the participants and thus the session was
interactive.
Day 2
The second day of the camp was started with assembling
of the students under the Guidance of Prof. Utham, in
which that day’s schedule was presented and general
instructions and other exercise were done. The
participants sang inspirational and national integration
songs in chorus.
After the assembly the participants made a transect walk
through the campus of Montfort guided by Br. Sebastian
and Prof. Utham. Many of the participants who
 were
from the city were seeing many of the plants for the
first time. The participants could see plants of Tomato,
Coli flower, Brinjal, Bitter gourd, drum stick etc. Br.
Sebastian also explained some traditional mechanism to
capture the insects that affect coconut tree. This was
followed by making a garden in the campus. The
participants discussed, designed, dig and planted some
30 saplings of ornamental plants in the site allocated
for making garden. After watering the plants, the
participants shared how they felt about the entire
exercise. The session was helpful for the students to
learn values like sharing, cooperation, team building,
dignity of work, need for planning etc. etc.
The second session was the screening of ‘The conflict –
whose lose? Whose gain?’, a 90 minute long documentary
film directed by Debaranjan Sarangi. The director
travels along with three tribal leaders to Kandhamal and
Kashipur in Orissa, soon after the violence in Kandhamal
broke out in August-September 2009. The film enquires
how corporate globalization and right-wing communalism
victimize the adivasi communities in India. It explores
the communal violence happened in
 Kandhamal
followed by the killing of Swami Laxmanananda in August
2008. It also focus on the issues of the tribal land
being taken over by the large mining companies. The
documentary was followed by discussion and sharing.
After the Lunch there was a session on ‘Conflict
Resolution’ by Riyas V M. The participants were divided
in to five groups and some group games were played to
get in to the topic. After that each group were given
different topics related to conflict such as root cause
of conflict, solution, who gains, who loss and the role
youth can play etc. After some 20 minutes of discussion
volunteers from each group presented the main points of
their discussion over the topic given. Compiling these
major points the topic ‘conflict resolution’ been
explained to the participants.
This was followed by the valedictory session handled by
Ms. Shazia Shaik. The participants gave their feedback
about the two days programme which included their
learning’s, experience, and suggestions. This has been
collected through ‘feedback-form’ as well. Certificates
for the participants were distributed by Br. Chandy, Br
Sebastian and Prof. Utham. Mr. Anwar Husain from CSSS
gave the vote of thanks.
| 
