JoyFest
Joyfest 2013 was held at TAPMI from the 17th to the 20th of October 2013 as a part of our celebrations of the Joy of Giving Week.
Joyfest involves the aspects of giving to the less fortunate and sharing a part of our lives with them. It is a ‘festival of philanthropy’ to show our concern for and to the less privileged lot.
The Social Endeavour Group of TAPMI believes that the youth of India should take the initiative to sensitize people on the issues/problems faced by the underprivileged. The basic idea was to involve the management students of TAPMI in teaching underpriviliged children dance, music, arts and craft in campus and finally organize an event showcasing their talent on the 20th October, 2013.
Also, as part of Joyfest, we organized an NGO Mela at TAPMI campus on 20th Oct. Four NGOs from in and around Manipal namely Namma Bhoomi, Siri, J.K Fashions and Nikreeksha sold their products in our campus. Some of the products these NGOs offered were Bakery Items, Ladies Garments, Tera cotta, jute & cotton products, Bio organic products, ayurvedic items. To promote the sales of the NGOs, a marketing competition – ‘Parivartan’ was organized. In the competition student teams from TAPMI were allocated an NGO and were asked to promote their products in the TAPMI campus on 19th and 20th Oct, 2013. The students very enthusiastically marketed their products, by putting up banners, posters at various places in the campus. The teams came up with many innovative ideas to help the NGO’s increase their revenues. The efforts certainly helped NGO’s increase their revenues.
Students from Govt. School (Rajeev Nagar), Children from Viswas Mane, Girls from Nittur and members from Spandana participated in the four day festival this year, while the kids were being trained in their domains of interest, a small surprise was planned for them on 19th Oct, TOM & JERRY was screened at the Canteen in TAPMI. Genuine smiles on the faces of the delighted kids were worth a watch. A group of volunteers for each of the discipline facilitated their learning as their mentors, aiding them throughout the span of four days. On the final day i.e. 20th Oct, a performance was put up by the children who had been trained in the discipline of their choice, such as singing, dancing, arts, crafts and dramatics.
Close to 60 volunteers schooled the children in various aspects of dance, music and dramatics, and the children responded by putting up an excellent final-day performance in presence of chief guest Mr.Venkataraman – Founder of Education for All. Staff and faculties of TAPMI, which included Prof. Vinod Madhavan, Prof. Raghunath Rudran, Prof. Debmallya Chaterjee and family, graced the occasion to encourage the children.
During these four days, after getting permission from Viswas mane and Govt. School Rajeev Nagar for bringing the children to TAPMI, transportation was arranged for the children and representatives through TAPMI administration. Snacks were arranged for the children and the representatives.
Simultaneously, a group of volunteers travelled to Childrens’ Home, Nittur to teach various disciplines to the children there. Leaving the college every day after classes at 5.30 pm, they would go to Nittur every evening to spend quality time with the children, and, in the process, teach the children the various disciplines of music, dance, drama, arts and craft.
Children presented group dance and music performances. The children trained in dramatics presented a patriotic skit depicting our Nation’s freedom struggle, and the children associated with the arts and craft put up an exhibition of their work, all of which were highly appreciated.
The role played by some of our student colleagues/volunteers who acted as translators cannot be overlooked, as they were facilitators for the close relationship that the children shared with their mentors.
The evening concluded with the guests distributing toys to all the children, the toys were obtained from ‘Toy Bank’ an NGO based in Bangalore, the distribution of toys was followed by snacks and tea. After that, the children returned with promises of coming back next year, a promise which we look forward to, with great anticipation.