On 2nd May 2014, IMPA Thane chapter members Jyothi Kammela and Seema Lahiri held the inaugural session of the month long summer camp organised by Udaan Welfare Foundation. The summer camp is meant for imparting knowledge and life skills through fun filled activities for the children aged 12 to 15 yrs, from the slums of Patlipada.

On behalf of IMPA, the members would be devoting four hours a week to teach the children various life skills, personal hygiene, grooming, etiquette, body language etc. The contribution would enable an overall personality development and impart the children with skills to cope with the pressures of their lifestyle and to pursue their goals with confidence and determination.

There were a total of 32 children bubbling with enthusiasm and eagerly looking forward to the session. As it was the inaugural session of the camp, we started with candy introductions which involved the children picking up a few candies and answering different questions for different colored candies chosen by them. The children were quite eloquent, introducing themselves confidently, stating their full names and passionately declaring that they would like to become a doctor, engineer, collector, chartered accountant etc. This was followed up by a teaching session involving self- introduction, meeting and greeting etiquette, facial expressions, body language etc. The session closed with an exercise of ‘giving & accepting compliments’ where each child was complimented on various aspects by the rest of the children, which was accepted by the child graciously thanking the entire class. The self -esteem and energy levels of the children were very high by the end of the session. The Udaan foundation organisers were very happy with the tempo set in the first session and appreciated the teaching methods.