Arpan, an NGO in R.K. Puram has started Project Rainbow Town – brightening up the city, one wall at a time!
Q. What is the motto of the NGO? What gap is it trying to fill?
A. Arpan has three basic building blocks- Art, Youth and Innovative Education. Our motto is ‘Defining Change’. Through visual and performing arts and getting maximum possible youth from our colleges/universities on-board who take on the role of ‘Mentors’, we wish to design innovative learning modules for children in most challenging environments like urban slums and shelter homes. We want to train the children in life skills, take literature and positive role-models to their door steps, without incorporating a classroom learning model. We make use of storytelling, theatre, dance, drawing, painting, wall-painting to get a message across. For instance, through comic making we can teach children about existing gender imbalance and what little changes each one can do to get past it.
Q. Tell us about the Rainbow Town project. Why did you initiate this project? What kind of activities do you do there?
A. Rainbow Town (RT) is very close to my heart as it is giving a voice to children from urban slums. It helps make the statement that talent and creativity is not bound by superficial factors like one’s socio-economic background. These are children who lack positive role-models within their surroundings. They can now get introduced to rich Indian and Western children’s literature, have ‘Mentors’ from colleges and universities to come interact with them and motivate them in realizing their dreams and also work towards achieving it.
At RT we use a well developed curriculum which would target one life skill everyday. For example, critical thinking. We’d have a story which shares the same moral, a theater activity for the same purpose and then the children would form a ‘reflection circle’ have an open dialogue with their mentors to discuss what they learnt. We want children to make a conscious effort towards holistic development. We actively work with each community for 3 months. And at the end of this tenure we try and paint as many walls of the community as possible with scenes from children’s literature and motivational quotes.
Q. Tell us about the wall coloring activity. How does it help bring behavioral change in the kids?
A. Wall Painting is an essential part of RT. I got this idea while painting the walls of my own room. I realized that it was the best way to leave a reminder behind for the children.
After a certain story-telling session and its enactment by the children, our team and the children go around the community asking for permission from households to allow us to paint their walls. Mostly we get lucky. The mentors, volunteers and the children then paint the walls together, illustrating any story of their choice. We also write quotes on the walls, and try to do as many activities as possible to get the message across.
RT has seen a significant change in the students. They become more cooperative, calmer, empathetic, critical and creative. Basically it has allowed them to go beyond the barriers of hesitation, self-doubt and other negative feelings that surrounded them.
Q. How do you plan on expanding the Rainbow Town project?
A. RT will target a new community every three months. More than anything, we want to put a system in place, get mentors to engage with the community that is close to their house. Soon we shall have an army of change-makers ready who will actively work to mentor, counsel, guide the children, and give them constructive and fun play activities. We plan to go on till every community is painted in the colours of Rainbow.
Q. What other projects are being run by Arpan presently?
A. Arpan has three more projects running currently – all art centered.
We are working with visually impaired students in a school in Paharganj. We give them constructive play activities and life skills training though theater and story-telling. The project is called ‘Count Me In’.
There is also ‘EcoLegends’, where we associate with each school for the period of 3 months and train the children in living green by recycling waste and making art out of waste.
Then at ‘Art-Kart’ we market the artwork of amateur artists
Q. Tell us about the team, the brainpower and the force behind Arpan.
A. The core team is very limited. I (Zeba Rizvi) and Sneha Thakur, are the co-founders. The basic designing and planning of any programme is done by us.
There is Jordan, our hippie friend who is, at the moment, travelling from India to Spain on his ‘Bullet’ to raise funds for us.
And then there is Reena Nain, the on-field guru. She is the main person as far as field execution of the program is concerned.
The most significant members of the team are our ‘Mentors’ who work on field. ‘Mentors’ as explained are the college students who we train to become active change-makers and engage with the community children. They are pretty much the back-bone of the program. We do not want to create dependence. We want to mobilize youth in making the difference.
