Vikas and his story of change

This is a story of willingness, curiosity, proactiveness and leadership. And the story comes from Sugamya Shiksha’s community learning centre (CLC) in BM Shree Nagar, Metagalli, Mysuru. An alternate learning avenue for the children of the locality, the community learning centre has been facilitating learning beyond school curriculum, devoting to teaching life skills too. The children are hosted at the centre with all the COVID-19 precautions in place - of sanitizing, thermal checking and social distancing. Ever since, a lot of behavioural changes have been observed among children at the CLC. 

Here we share one such story of change and the happiness this experience has brought about. Vikas, is a class 8 student from Saptaswara Higher Primary School. He was bored at home due to the school being closed. One day, while he was passing by, he found the CLC open and children doing activities and reading books. He walked in and asked the teacher if he could join the learning centre too. Hearing a yes, he ran back home to bring his books to attend the centre. With passing time, Vikas emerged a talented and bright boy. He proactively started taking initiatives bringing to the fore his creativity and leadership skills in managing the centre better. He also found emotional refuge at the learning centre, helping him overcome his grief of having lost both his parents in the past two years. 

“Learning centre helps me to spend time with friends, play, enjoy and learn, helping me to forget my sadness. Teacher and my friends support me” - Vikas, Class 8, BM Shree Nagar CLC 

Since his parents' demise, Vikas and his brother are being cared for by his paternal uncle. A masonry worker, his uncle has been extremely supportive of Vikas’s dream of wanting to join the Army. He is happy that the CLC is supporting him in every way possible. It has further kindled his curiosity for learning, by encouraging him to read books. After the CLC, he goes every day to the community library at 3:00PM and spends time reading books. To date he has read around 20 books. He has read books like ‘Amma helida entu sullugalu’, ‘Appa andare aakasha’, ‘Belaku’, and biographies of freedom fighters. Vikas has a special liking for books with achievements. One story he especially likes is the story of a boy with physical disability who worked hard to secure a job at Google in Bengaluru. 

Our CLC is supporting Vikas to read and learn. We are supporting him to build his dream and work towards it. By participating and engaging in the CLC activities, his attitude and perception towards life has changed in a positive way. We are always looking to support children like Vikas in their development. There are a lot of children who require this support. 

Vikas concludes the conversation by sharing his dream  - “I will become a soldier and bring a good name to our country”.