Horlicks wizkids Workshop–Report -2007

The Indian Charter facilitation team, in association with Activity, an edutainment company, has successfully facilitated the drafting of Indian Children’s Charter of Social and Environmental Responsibilities for the second year.

Wiz kids 2007-08 endorsing CHR

Horlicks Wizkids – 2007, a personality competition that recognizes the outstanding students, who are all-rounders and have a good balance of character & competence. By endorsing the Charter, The Activity introduces it also in the corporate sector.

The event, one of India’s largest literary & cultural events, witnessed participation of 250,000 participants from over 1500 schools across the country from 27 cities in the age group of 8 – 16 years. Preliminary selections were done through competitions in the schools at city level. Further competition between the winners of the schools lead to the selection of two representatives of the 27 cities. 54 students gathered together for the final competition and lived a collective studious and entertaining experience in Bangalore.

The process of kindling the value of practicing social responsibility as a fundamental value is being continued with the new WIZ kids of 2007.

Proceedings of the Workshop

The workshop started with a brief introduction of the Charter by Sudha. The children were introduced to the history of the Charter and explored its relevance in the social, environmental with a special focus on educational context of today’s world. A brief interaction with the children showed that most of them were well informed about the various woes and wrongs prevailing in the present world, while some of them came up with lively relevant examples. The facilitators of the team were Sudha, Deepa, Mahesh, Dinesh, Nakul and Gautham.

After this introduction the members of our team organized the children into three groups. Each group included a mix of boys and girls, both senior and junior. The idea behind forming these smaller groups was to facilitate the presentation by a representative of the group about the collective responsibilities which the team had prepared in coming together and gradually guide the children of each group to come up with a summary of the discussion constituting the Charter of the group. Two groups moved into two corners of the hall while the third group went to an isolated spot in the vast garden of the The School of Ancient Wisdom, venue of the workshop.

The groups’ discussions lasted for about one hour. When the children reassembled in the conference hall, three drafts had been prepared by the groups. Last consultations were still going on within some of the groups, as each one expected their approach to prevail in the mind of each and all. It was all very lively and students were deeply involved.

After the children had prepared the final draft of their Charter, some time was spent for sharing with them the Brazilian children Charter of Environmental Responsibilities. They were pleasantly surprised and glad to realize that there are also children on the other side of the world who have similar concerns and willingness to assume responsibilities for the future of their lives and the safeguard their surroundings. The relevant points from the presentation of each group, which would constitute the comprehensive basis of a final draft was taken and “Indian Children’s Charter on Social and Environmental Responsibilities” drafted by Wizkids contest participants of 2006 were combined to draft a new charter with the involvement of facilitators.

Out of the discussions, one slogan emerged:
“Inform, Include and Implement”

On the final day of the event, when 4 Wizkids were selected, the Charter prepared by participants of Wizkids contest 2007 and the Charter of Human Responsibilities were presented to the print media and dignitaries of the day. The final event was given a good coverage in the leading dailies of Bangalore on 23rd November 2007.

Winners 2007-08

Ms.Isis Pamela, Coordinator of Brazil and her team has graciously agreed to host the young winners of WIZ kids in Brazil in 2008.

The consolidated Indian Children Charter of Human Responsibilities drafted by the Indian children with the charter of 2006 and 2007 is presented below in this article.