by Father Kiran Salve
WALVANDA, JUNE 5, 2017: Bosco Samajik Vikas Sanstha (BSVS) in Walvanda organised two English speaking residential camps – that stretched a fortnight each in May 2017 
– for over 160 tribal children struggling to find fluency in the language.
Eighty boys from standard five to ten attended the first camp that began on May 2 and stretched to May 13. Eighty-five boys and girls attended the second camp which began on May 15 to May 28.
Sebastian Francis and his team provided the youth with basic knowledge of the English language, which included tips on grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing and basic sentence construction.
The camps also included morning exercises, yoga and computer classes for an hour. At 4pm daily, the youth were given manual work called ShramDaan. They took upon themselves a project of environment by building a small nursery of plants that would later be transplanted in the campus.
The youth participated in various cultural programmes daily, these included singing, skits, drawing and dance competitions. They also staged tribal cultural programmes which brought out the true and real tribal nature. Some social issue based movies too were screened to bring about social awareness.
Van Bhojan- a day's trekking was another achievement. The youngsters were taken for an outing into the fields and made aware of the rich wealth they possess. The youth also cooked food during the outing.
On the final day, the students were rewarded for their effort and hard work. Father Anaclete D'Mello, director of the institute, told them that Don Bosco had just given them a feather to fly, it's their ability and determination to soar high on the wings of the English-speaking world.