Keeping kids entertained

For children confined to their homes due to the pandemic, two community organizations, Parzor Foundation under their Jiyo Parsi (JP) program and XYZ (Xtremely Young Zoroastrians) hosted summer camps this May.
"When children can participate in a pandemic from the safety of their own homes, enjoy, learn new ideas with hands-on guidance from professionals, it adds to the learning experience,” noted Dr Shernaz Cama, founder, Parzor Foundation in communication with Parsiana. The first camp organized by JP was "basically to ensure that the children could wind down after a year of hard work and adjust to the new normal.” Not wanting the event to be too time consuming (and) keen that the children learn something and also have fun at the same time,” the events were held between 11.30 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. between May 16-22, 2021 for children between six and 13 years of age. Nearly 60 participants, mainly from Bombay, took part.

The program included a virtual tour of the galaxy Milky Way. The children "were completely involved in getting to know what all was there in space and in the life of an astronaut,” via a virtual visit to the International Space Station, stated the write-up. A multi-agency initiative, this space module is moving in low orbit above Earth. Other programs included a virtual walk through a spice plantation in Kerala; making soft toys with materials available at home; lessons on self-defence; jamming, aero modeling; making pots from Styrofoam and how to grow herbal and other plants from seeds of fruits and vegetables; and doodling. "A great learning experience, with a lot of fun and frolic,” summed up Shamla Anand of JP’s Bombay office in conversation with Parsiana on May 26. "The campers wanted it to go on and JP promised to be back, maybe with a winter camp, with a whole lot of activities.” JP was assisted by learning company Team Adventure to organize and conduct the camp.
The XYZ summer camp was organized in-house from May 14-22 for the age group five to 15 years. "We gave responsibilities to all our XYZ presidents (who head each of the dozen odd locations in Bombay) to host and organize three activities a day, involving their parents and volunteers for help,” founder president Hoshaang Gotla noted in an email to Parsiana. He said he was thankful for the support of the XYZ Seniors group "who were there every day ensuring that the camp went off without any glitch.” The Seniors group are XYZ alumni.
The number of participants came as a pleasant surprise to Gotla. "We thought that kids are exhausted with doing things online.” Having activities online regularly since the beginning of the lockdown, they even had two-to-five-day online camps since March 2020. "We expected 60-80 kids to join the (current) camp but in the first five days after we announced the program, we had over 150 participants. We had to stop registration when we reached 180 participants.” Besides Bombay, Surat, Navsari, Bangalore and Nagpur, 10 children from Karachi participated in workshops, dance competitions, tie and dye work, Zumba, bottle painting, antakshari and trivia games that lasted about seven hours each day.
Initial challenges included limitation of their online package Zoom. "We bought the professional version of Zoom (to host) meetings without any time limit and also took the 500-person package so as to accommodate everyone.”
The president reminisced that "XYZ was conceived seven years ago and our pilot project was the summer camp. It was amazing to see the kids who had participated seven years ago were now organizing the camp… This showed that the organization will continue to run even after we are not there.”
While Parzor charged Rs 500 for the first 50 registrations, fees for the other participants were Rs 2,000 each. The XYZ members paid Rs 500 while the rate for non-members was Rs 750.
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet sponsored Holiday Programme for Youth had its online inaugural function on May 26. The 10-day program is for students who completed their schooling in 2020 and 2021. F. J.