Sponsorship
Giving children the opportunity to discover their talents, extracurricular, and enable them to develop, sometimes to a very high level, is very important for self-discipline and for an added value to education. Already, that experience drove many of them in a professional field they would never have thought possible. Unluckily, many children and their parents do not understand the value of such reasoning.
So Volontariat has developed, according to its opportunities and resources, various activities for girls and boys in the fields of sport, dance and arts. These extracurricular activities are scheduled out of school hours: evenings, Saturdays and Sundays. They are taught by qualified teachers and are in the fields of South Indian classical dance (Bharata Natyam) and music, North Indian rhythm (tabla), Western classical flute lessons, guitar, electric keyboard, checks, sculpture, drawing and painting, yoga, karate, taekwondo, etc, and classes in computer science for beginners and advanced.
Details on some of these activities follow:
Yoga: The practice of this discipline, from 1991, requires a mastery of both body
and mind and the discipline has a positive influence on the person’s entire life. Many children who have started this discipline have reached a high level. They have participated in many competitions and won Awards. [An ex-sponsored became an expert in Yoga, although he was physically handicapped, and has set up a yoga school at Pondicherry. Another one is teaching at an international yoga school in Hong Kong, where he has a good job. One who settled in France gives regular courses]. Courses are given regularly to Nila Illam children who often win medals at regional competitions.
Classical South Indian dance “Bharata Natyam”. Many girls are regularly trained and participate in cultural programs organized by Volontariat on the occasion of events and celebrations. Every year, many of them are presented at the traditional arangetram, the first public appearance as an artiste. This is an indication of the quality and application of both the students and their teachers. One of them integrated the most prestigious Bharata Natyam school, Kalakshetra, of Chennai.
Flutists: From 1998, a group of sponsored children have had the rare opportunity of studying Western music. After a little research, the Recorder was found to be the most suitable instrument, easy to learn and inexpensive. Several years passed, today four of them are grouped as a quartet of recorders (descant, treble, tenor and bass), playing baroque music (including French) and giving concerts. They have all passed the competitive examinations of Trinity College of London. A success story that Volontariat owes to Madam P., her passion for music and her constant concern for the young men she initiated and now leads to greater heights! Two of them are giving flute lessons to children of the sponsored group. One flute player opened his own school of music.
Computer training and practice: see in this website, chapter on Crafts.
Karate and Taekwondo: For years, boys and girls were trained in karate, the sport of self defense that girls found too rough and quickly abandoned. So when Volontariat met a woman coach of taekwondo, this was a good opportunity for many girls to engage in it, supposed te be a less violent discipline. Today Volontariat runs both classes for boys and girls with two Masters (1 man and 1 women).
