[On September 2nd a group of enthusiastic parents, kids and local volunteers birthed a small idea of a Kids retreat in Surat. What started off as an experiment to learn and do small acts of kindness with kids & through kids has now culminated into an ongoing series of explorations, experiments and deepening of values. Below is a summary of the experience that Meera Ben and Manish Bhai penned down and spearheaded along with many love warriors of the local Surat community - on October 2nd, to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.]


When 25 kids (with their parents) walked into GANDHIBAUG, on October 2nd, we didn't know how we would co-create an act of serving.

On Mahatma Gandhi's 150 birth anniversary, 25 kids and their parents came together to practice small act of kindness at Gandhi-Baug, A local Public Garden in Surat.



The core idea was to celebrate his birth anniversary by doing small act of kindness in public garden which was named after him. The very first circle, started with Gandhiji's favorite prayer "Vaishnav Jana Toh Tene Re Kahiye" in chorus, which brought some stillness within all of us and also in the atmosphere. We had a round of quiz for children and the questions revolved around Gandhiji. The game brought lot of enthusiasm in children thinking about Gandhiji and his life. Some of people who were present were drawn to the circle and they too participated in the quiz.

The second activity was to divide ourselves into 5 groups and every group was given different areas to clean the Garden. All the waste was segregated into 2 bin bags which were labeled ‘wet waste’ and ‘dry waste’. The level of enthusiasm and spirit in children was amazing and difficult to describe in words. The cleaning circle - "safai abhiyaan", went for 45 minutes and the level of engagement was so high that most of them didn't realize that the time was over. Yet there were smiles all around us.


After the cleaning circle, the anchor organized a small interview with the sweepers Vinodbhai and Kavitaben which was extremely insightful for all us.

Few questions that the children curiously asked were:

"How do you feel while you clean this place regularly?”
"How many hours do you work here?"
"Any incidents when you got hurt while taking glass waste or snake bites?"

Everyone was touched by their simplicity and love with which they cleaned everyday and in some sense the importance of not littering on streets was inculcated in all of us. As a take away of this event and inspiration from the life of Gandhiji in general, everyone of us committed to do one small act everyday for next 150 days!! Everyone wrote their commitments on a paper and we decided to put in on the walls of our homes for a gentle reminder to do the acts with full solidarity.

Here are a few highlights of commitments that everyone shared to practice for the next 150 days:

"I'll clean my bed for next 150 days"
"I'll clean my table and room for next 150 days"
"I'll clean my bathroom"
"I'll help my mother in dusting”
”I'll never throw waste at any place”

I am left wondering about the ripple effect of such small event and how in small ways it can bring profound change in our lives effortlessly. Some of the volunteers meanwhile had organized a table for snack and everyone enjoyed the food. The smiles were in a constant flow that day.

There was a lot of learning for children in the process as they had so many questions around waste management and they all understood what it takes to process all the waste and what are the products made from waste.

We all said good-bye to each other with a return gift of 2 dustbins, Blue for dry waste and Green for wet waste with Gandhiji's quotes.

We all parted with intention to come together again for such small acts of kindness and we said good-bye to all with smiles:)

Posted by Meera Moradia on Oct 11, 2018 | permalink