Hema Shah
BARODA, MARCH 11, 2010: The Sixth annual day and sports meet of the Roshni Project of Don Bosco, Makarpura Road was celebrated on February 27, 2010 with great enthusiasm and happiness by 435 children from 16 slums of Baroda city. The annual day has been conceived as an important event under the Roshni project, as it provides an opportunity to showcase the multifarious talents of the underprivileged children regularly attending the non formal education program in the slum communities. The cultural program comprising of plays, dance dramas, folk songs and dances, bal geet or nursery rhymes brings out the confidence, grace and creativity of these young children.
This year’s cultural program had 15 such items –one from each slum community – and 272 children got the opportunity to participate in the cultural program whose broad theme was ‘Shikshan’ or Education. Thus each item talked about the various aspects of education including girls’ education and environment education. A play and a few songs also clearly highlighted the objectives and activities of the Roshni program.
The program was graced by the Chief Guest of the function, Mr. Joshi (retired DGM of ONGC) and the Guest of Honor, Mr. Patankar (an industrialist and a long time friend of Don Bosco, Baroda). Other guests included many Salesian friends such as Fr. Steve Director, Don Bosco Snehalaya; Sister Superiors from Auxilium Convent and Mother Theresa’s Home; Executive members of the ONGC Mahila Samiti and Fr. Brian from Narukot who very kindly helped with the sound system. The one hour forty five minutes cultural program began at 10.15 and by 11:45 Br. Tony, Administrator and In charge of the Roshni project gave the vote of thanks to all the benefactors and friends of Roshni who had contributed and had been instrumental in making the program a success .The guests were then taken for a small snack and the children enjoyed a free for all dance program. This was followed by a sumptuous lunch and by 3:00 pm the children were ready for the sports meet. Every class put up a small drill for the sports meet and every child participated in the drill. Thus all the 435 children got the opportunity to participate. However, the highlight of this program was the lezim drill done by the Akashwani class; this difficult traditional drill was performed to perfection by the young children. Later the children competed in different races organized for each ability group from all the classes.
The semi finals for all the races had been conducted on the previous day when the children had come for the stage practice. By 5 pm the children had their fill and were taken back home by the special transport arrangements made for getting the children from the different areas of the city. Before departing each child was given a small gift and a snack to remind them of the wonderful day spent with friends and teachers at the Don Bosco School, Makarpura Road.