Skills for Life Session 5 - Leadership

Note: Names of the children have been changed to protect their identity. In addition, all details and stories of the session have not been shared here to respect the emotions of the children.

This blog post is the fifth, in the series of posts, describing the experience of conducting life skills sessions at Delhi's red light area, G.B. Road.

Leadership cannot be taught or explained. For me, leadership is about being passionate enough to take ownership of something I really care about. 'Leadership through Ownership' is what I have learnt from a non-profit I worked with. 

Therefore, as I set out to tell these bunch of beautiful children about leadership, the first question that popped into my mind was (I deeply regret to have this question in my mind) that how is it even going to help them in coping up with the surroundings around them? Is it even worth telling someone about leadership when they are dealing with more basic questions in life because of the discriminatory circumstances they are in? But then I thought - these children have shown extraordinary passion and love for what they dream to be. They all have a leader inside them. It is time to bring the leader out!

Before the session

As I entered the sprawling premises of the SPID-SMS Centre, I was once again greeted by the children. They exclaimed - Didi aa gayi! Aisha eagerly handed me a bunch of stapled papers, which was an attempt to make a personal diary. It was titled - My life book. I asked her what it was about. She told me that she is going to write her experiences in this. The first page of this life diary had the following words - Main kamaal hun (I am awesome!). I felt so happy that children actually remember and believe in what was being conveyed in the sessions. Adheer came and told me that they had watched the poem 'Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haar nahin hoti' on television. I was once again glad to witness how children remember the sessions, how they relate to it post that, and how they happily tell me their experiences about the sessions. Akshay (my scientist boy) showed me a model that he had made of a rocket, inspired from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. I know in my heart that he will be a scientist one day, and I will smile watching him on the television.

Start of the session

The children were told to make a picture of a leader. Attempts were made to explain that it can be a person or a thing related to someone they look up to. Many of them drew their class leader, which showed a failure on my part to explain the idea of the activity well. However, many of them understood it well. Some drew their teachers, others drew people they aspire to be like, and so on.

My teacher is my leader. These are my friends and me.

"I want to be a doctor.
And my leader is my teacher."

Then a small activity was conducted. Asmita was blindfolded, a pen was thrown at a distance, and she was asked to search for it. Next, Dheer was blindfolded, a pen was thrown at a distance, and Drishti was asked to give him wrong directions to reach the pen. Lastly, Shrishti was blindfolded, a pen was thrown at a distcance, and Parineeta was asked to give her correct directions to the pen.

Through this activity, attempts were made to tell them that a leader ENABLES people to achieve their goals without directly doing the work himself/herself for them.

Then, Dr A.P.J. Addul Kalam's video (Video link) was played which describes his journey to successfully launch a rocket; leadership traits such as team spirit, dedication, passion, and belief helped him sail through. A small discussion was then held to understand if they were progressing in their udnerstanding about leadership. By now, for them a leader was someone they look up to.

The video from the movie Lagaan was played next. In the video, the actor motivates and gathers a team of people in a village to learn, play, and eventually win a cricket match against the Britishers so that they do not have to pay taxes. Traits of a leader such as being able to inspire, motivate, have courage, and impart hope clearly came through. Children were intrigued as to how a common man through leadership can change not just his/her life, but also the life of people around him/her for good.

End of the session

A small discussion was triggered through questions surrounding an everyday situation. Children were asked - if two of their friends were fighting, then what would they do? Some remarked they will take sides, while others said that they will try and resolve. Attempts were then made to tell them that leadership is about enabling, resolving, and uniting the team together. It is not about blaming or taking sides. Lalitha ji then furthered their understanding on leadership by telling them the difference between being a boss and being a leader. This helped in engraving the concept in their minds, to some extent.

As the session ended, the following questions were asked (in an attempt to link the previous sessions to this one):

Can we achieve our dreams?

Do we believe in ourselves?

Are we awesome?

Will we be afraid of failures?

Can we bring a change?

Are we leaders?

The answer to all the above questions except the last one was a unanimous yes. To the last question, some siad yes while the others said no. I left satisfied that it had atleast triggered a thought in their mind. 

A small spark to walk an incredible journey of leadership was clearly visible.

Some songs were then played while children filled the box of happiness. Post this, I left, only to return for the next session.

Until next time,

Find the leader inside you! :-)

P.S. The next time you say anything derogatory against these children or their mothers, think twice. These children are same as our children. In fact, most of them seem to have better values and life principles than we 'normal' people are able to impart to our children. 

Special thanks to Skills for Life for designing this session. The session is far more enthralling than what has been described in this write up. :-)

*NOTE: It is suggested that anybody who wishes to work in this area, does so through an established and trusted NGO. This is not a place to explore casually; do take care of your safety first.