Bandra with a Heart
The Celebrate Bandra Festival, in keeping with its spirit of 'by the community, for the community' would like to create opportunities for Bandraites to get involved in social action. The hope is that this would lead to a deeper and more sustained engagement within the community.
To that end we've put together a couple of initiatives.
The Bandra Citizens' Action Directory - a user-friendly informative booklet on community related information will cover all bonafide citizens' initiatives, NGOs, activists, help- lines, social services etc, both Bandra specific and for Mumbai in general, allowing people to choose how they want to get involved in a local citizens' initiative or reach out easily for a service they require. Spaces within/around the performing areas will be created for Bandra's Citizen Action groups to share their work.
Celebrate Bandra With A Heart Committee organized an Art Workshop conducted by The Pomegranate Workshop with students from Petit Municipal School, (Opp. Bhabha Hospital) post the tie-up with English, Marathi & Gujarati medium Petit Municipal School & conducted 2 day workshops at each of the institutions. The reason behind this association was to introduce students to art & creativity. Students were identified and would meet at 10:00 a.m. i.e. before school so as not to interfere with their normal schedule.
The students were explained about the environment & subsequently guided into a creative thought process wherein they were encouraged to think about what the environment meant to each of them, so that they could express it through water colours on paper. After each workshop, Bandra With A Heart volunteers would interact with the children checking on their progress, their understanding on what they were involved with and would distribute snacks and soft drinks greatly appreciated by all.
Art Work done by Children
A) Art Poster 15 ft x 5 ft– 2 pieces: The children worked with a range of material (paints / brushes / sponge / cloth / textured surfaces to name a few and were asked to express their view on nature on a specific designated square panel.
B) Art Work A4 size hardboard– approx 20 pieces: Children were asked to express themselves on kite paper with brushes & paint & subsequently asked to illustrate a scene from their favourite animal story, shred the kite paper and create a collage.
C) Lanterns with cutwork art – approx 40 pieces: Children were explained about nature and then toured around the school compound to gather textured surfaces such as leaves (only fallen leaves – no plucking), stones and other inspirational matter which helped them form block panels to imprint on paper which was subsequently converted into lanterns.
For more information on The Pomegranate Workshop, log on to www.tpw.in
Celebrate Bandra With A Heart - Theatre Workshop conducted by Prabha Pandey with Navjot Foundation's street children from Carter Road & Khar-Danda
The Bandra with a Heart Committee has tied up with Navjot Foundation an organization working with underpriviledged street children & Prabha Pandey to conduct an environment based theatre workshop hopefully culminating in a theatre performance at the festival to be held 14th – 29th November 2009.
The group of about 20 children gather every morning at a government school in Bandra and are kept actively engaged in the theatre workshop, rehearsing lines with takes & re-takes of the enactment. Children are also educated about the importance of the environment and how they should look after & appreciate the available natural resources. The children are trained in theatre and encouraged to bring their own creativity to the fore. After each workshop, Bandra With A Heart volunteers interact with the children checking on their progress, their understanding on what they are involved with and finally snacks & softdrinks are distributed which are greatly appreciated by all. The play titled 'Rahul Nagar Mein Bhi Slumdog' is a play based around the local 'basti' where the children live & the difficulties that they face in their daily life to get water which is so easily accessible to most of us.
Celebrate Bandra with a Heart aims to create & boost the confidence of these children & seeks to create an equal platform at the festival wherein these marginalized and generally overlooked section of children could showcase their talent. The play is being developed for Celebrate Bandra & will culminate in a performance at the festival.
For more information & if you would like to assist in the Bandra With a Heart workshops for Celebrate Bandra, contact
Parul : 98206 57647