November To Remember

Half term is here – and we’ve rounded up some lovely creative competitions to keep the kids entertained this children's day!

Many children in schools do art, illustrations, posters and stick them on the walls of their class rooms. They often choose a different felt pen colour for every stroke, and emboss each page with a border of stickers.

We thought why don't we hold this contest to give an opportunity for children of the future generation to become more aware of their global environment through drawing pictures.

The competition is for 6th to 9th standard kids and they can draw a story about ANYTHING THEY LIKE.

Full of imagination and artistic sensitivity, children will drew pictures about nature and animals, their families and the surrounding area. The pictures also contain the message towards global environment, beyond borders and difference in their background cultures and languages.

As the organizer, we hope that this contest provides the children an opportunity to think about the global environment, by expressing their inspiration from nature's bounty.
Come join us to volunteer and witness the Artists of the future.

Contact: 
Phani Samudrala: 09160049332
Subramanya Aditya: 09014088995





SWECHA - A Friendly spirit of competition and an incentive to progress

I always had a question..!
How to teach kids in the way they learn?

In search of answer to the question, we found "Crosswords" as one of the great ways for a kid  to develop their  vocabulary and spelling.



Kids were given few puzzles on sports, animals, professions and gruits. As expected, children were excited to participate in the event.  As soon as we started the event, their minds started racing, every kid went busy in solving the puzzles, thinking out of the box.

Few puzzles were above their standard but kids did not give up. They believed in a statement- "Never give up", tried to solve those puzzles and went successful.


Thanks to Volunteers!!! 


The support from all the volunteers was tremendous. In spite of few hurdles like time constraint, they all made it a well-organized and well-attended fun event.

Let us continue to witness the spark of kids..

A New Learning Model

Every year is a new learning and it adds to our experience.

Now it’s our 9th year, the good news is that we’re seeing progress on many fronts. We are stepping in with a new energy and with new ideas from our newly joined members and backed by experienced team.

At Sahaya; while learning many things, we evolved ourselves in many ways. We've learned to Remove boundaries among subjects. Since knowledge is naturally connected and kids have different gifts, we let them explore at their own pace and see how things connect when they are ready. Some may want to go deep into a technical subject, while others may pursue open-ended thinking and creativity.

Since various separate classrooms have been combined in this model, volunteers too can combine and help one another in a classroom. This takes advantage of various strengths to address this multifaceted job.

With like minded volunteers investing their time every Saturday at our sessions is enabling us to help kids of 4 schools. More the volunteers, more the kids we can help.


We are proud and excited with the kick start we had this year to bring in new learning models in education. But there is potential everywhere. Please join with us to share your thoughts and stories about innovation in education. We all must take a hard look at our own communities which give enough support which is necessary to create a transformational improvements in students' achievement.

At the Crossroads of a Career

    The Career Guidance program conducted at Aler village in ZPHS, Bachannapet, Warangal district, is by far one of the best events conducted by SAHAYA and is surely another feather in our cap. It all started with Sreeram anna, the founder of Sahaya, posting a Whatsapp message on the group asking for the volunteer availability for a career guidance program. The idea sounded very interesting to me and I knew it was an opportunity I will not want to pass up. Hence I impulsively said, “Yeah. I am in”. 
      The very next day, 5th of March, Sreeram anna, Eshwar anna,our beloved President accompanied by Akhil anna, Ravi teja and Sainath started our journey towards Bachanapeta. We began to discuss how to go about with the proceedings, brainstorming ideas to engage the students. For me, the journey was fun, inspiring, highly motivating, and unforgettable.
After a three-hour ride, we finally reached Bachannapet, Aler!  
       As soon as I entered the school, I could spot a group of students sitting around a tree and being taught a lesson in English. This was something I never witnessed earlier other than in few Telugu movies. But this made me ashamed of my ingratitude towards all the comforts I enjoyed as a kid. And it was rather amusing to be welcomed by the kids murmuring, “Namaskaram Teacher”.
    Without much delay we kick started the session. The Principal of the ZPHS school introduced our team to his staff and students. Sreeram annaya gave them an incisive introduction to Sahaya and its objectives. The man of the show, Akhil Annaya did a splendid job in interacting with the kids. His analytical approach accompanied by a quick wit helped him establish a strong sense of connect with the students. He hosted the entire event with passion and intensity.

     Meanwhile, two of the most amazing people I have had the pleasure of meeting, Sreeram anna and Eshwar anna, spontaneously came up with the idea of a 5 min skit to entertain the kids, impersonating two tenth class pass outs discussing their plans after tenth. The kids laughed their lungs out at this hilarious yet educative skit .This turned out to be the highlight of the entire event.

        Sainath and Ravi Teja put their best foot forward in sharing invaluable information with the kids and proved themselves to be stand out volunteers of Sahaya.
       This program has been conceptualized with the view to highlight the relevance of career guidance among the tenth grade students. We not only threw light on the plethora of opportunities that exist but also briefed them on the amount of effort required to reach their goals.
      Every child has been asked this question-"What do you want to be when you grow up?". Few kids have a lot of goals set and are filled with enthusiasm to pursue their dreams while few of them just follow the crowd and ape their friends' choice. No matter what the case may be, the real battle begins after their tenth grade. In many cases, we observe that the decision of a student is not based on their interests and aptitude, but is hugely influenced by the choice of their peers. To help children understand this point, we conducted a small fun activity wherein we have asked the kids to sign on a piece of paper and compare it with their friends around.  No two people have the exact same signature, and even two people with the same name do not sign in a similar manner. This reflects that every child is unique and hence, their choice also must be as unique as they are. We also emphasized on the importance of tenth class and their board exams which they have to face shortly.  It is at this juncture that they have to make an informed and calculated decision since this choice of theirs will decide the scope of their future. Hence, ideally a student has to pull up his socks right from his ninth grade. Kids need to be motivated to contemplate their strengths and weaknesses. They need to have a clear view of where they see themselves ten years down the line.
         Career guidance for students in the schools is indeed an important program to guide the students in an appropriate direction. The Students in rural communities who progress to Higher Secondary Education have limited exposure. The students are uncertain about which course to choose following their graduation. There is an absence of people in the community who have undertaken higher education studies that can be role models and steer children in the right direction. As a consequence in many cases, the interested and aspiring students cannot achieve their ambition. Hence, we at Sahaya shed light on all the options they have at hand once they pass out of their tenth grade. They were given excellent examination tips and briefed on Health and Hygiene. We organized a small cultural event to help the kids showcase their hidden talents. The kids turned out to be very interactive and way beyond our estimations of their standards. The Principal and the staff were very supportive and were in awe of the ideals of Sahaya. There was immense satisfaction and appreciation in the students and staff, alike.
         We are glad that this session has not just ignited those young minds but also helped them gain the courage to take a stand for their choice.
         At the end, school management complemented us with a memento for our (Sahaya's) self-less activities.
         This event was indeed a huge success and helped us grab media attention. It is a memorable day not just for us but for the entire Sahaya family. I fervently hope that Sahaya remains successful in organizing many many more events like this to foster a sense of awareness in students. 

Planning a Miracle, by Being Realistic..

It all started with an urge to witness the voice of creativity and expression of the kids.

A trial to judge the kids' talent on a single criterion can often leave the work half done. With this in mind, this time we came up with events, which best suit the kids' ability rather than their standards. All it took was a clear explanation of the idea and a proper guidance to nail it down.

Naming the events as Poster-Presentation, JAM(Just A Minute) and Picture Puzzle can be easy but only a person who had dealt with the process knows that it takes many things like formulation of the content, time-management, a lot of practice and a great desire to bring out the best in someone, to justify the task given.

Kids involved had two kinds of thoughts running in their mind..
One.. to fulfill the responsibility that they had taken up voluntarily.
Two.. to grab the rare opportunity they get to prove themselves.

A Plan aiming something bigger, can never have its path smoother. Yes, there were some hurdles like lack of practice sessions, clashing schedules between School management and Sahaya.
Reluctant behavior of students to take up the task, and the deadly "TIME" constraint.

With all these hurdles written on a paper, we decided to hide them under a large sized sticker with the words written on it, with even more larger font as "NEVER GIVE UP". So, we geared up with tick-tick of the clock, got hold of every moment we could get to tick the box "DONE". Though we couldn't tick the box on time, we are still on and on, to make it another tough yet successful story in the diary of Sahaya.

By looking at the participation of the kids and some of the presentations in Shamshiguda school, it was proved that all the efforts put in; made a difference. Each presentation had something special about it and at the end, all that we can do was clap, appreciate and feel proud. With this, it was clear that the students are capable of making miracles and our part is to sketch out a realistic plan to make that miracle happen. And I am glad, we are on the track :)





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