Heal’s team of Cub Reporters describe life at Heal

An exciting new project is underway at Heal – a team of junior reporters has been assembled to give us their views of life at Heal Paradise.

We normally receive reports from staff and adult volunteers, and we wanted to hear from the children who live there, so thanks to School Head Sridevi and Deputy Lakshmi Bharath Songa, and Jayasree Devineni, we have assembled a team of seven (soon to be ten) cub reporters*

Here are details of our current team:

Sasi Praveen, Grade 10 student,  expert in wet waste management, Heal radio participant and future agronomist.

Satish – School Head boy, completed Grade 10 student. Good at sports, maths and science, who appreciates Heal’s approach to learning.

Aravind – in Grade 10. ‘the quiet one’, who is good at studies and learning, and enjoys finding out new facts.

Lalitha Devi – in Grade 9. Loves drawing her friends and nature and a keen participant in the arts and crafts classes.

Kamalini – in Grade 10. A friendly person, who likes to mingle with everyone and enjoys reading books and novels and interested in science

Ravi Kiran – completed Grade 10 exams. An academic student, who loves maths and science. Inventor and Secretary of the robotics club, and school cabinet member.

Rishi – completed Grade 10 and proud of his progress at Heal and learning to organise himself. Enjoys games and good at maths.

* A ‘cub reporter’ is the name given to young reporters in their first job on a newspaper.

This is how they described their life in May at Heal Paradise Campus

 PARADISE CAMPUS REPORT:  MAY – 2020

Each member of our team concentrated on a different aspect of life at Heal.

The people at the Campus during May consisted of:

• Non-Academic Staff :            37
• Academic Staff             :           5
• School students             :        38
• College students :                     6
• Total :                                        87                                  – Mas. U. Ravi Kiran – X

 How our Day is……….

It starts with a nature walk, then mediation, yoga and mindfulness classes by Mrs Krishna Kumari.

During the day we are given training in Telugu, English and creative works including writing, drawing, singing, story writing, online classes, listening to stories, reading books, making cards, home cleaning and cooking and selecting the best parts from the waste. There is also peer teaching, hair cutting and getting supplies to the people who are self-isolating.

We play family games with the both the younger and older residents: musical chairs, tug of war, running races, old village games, cycling, and gardening      – Mas. M. Sasi Praveen – IX

Pantry Department:

We provide the utmost care in feeding all the people at HEAL, taking serious precautions against COVID–19. Our kitchen department is continually on guard while doing the cooking, washing, cleaning and serving the food.

Those working in the kitchens are made aware of the need to continue to maintain regular hygiene to avoid the contamination, as well as the importance of providing a healthy diet.

In the morning we drink milk/ Ragi Malt with jaggery and take ginger and black pepper.

As it is the hot summer season, we eat watery vegetables: cucumber, radish, green bell peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, zucchini and drumstick. We also eat potatoes, carrots, beans, hemp, and Amaranthus leaves.

Our fruit diet fruit includes mangoes, watermelon, lemon water, water apple, ice apple, papaya, coconut, sapota, and palm dates.

Soups: Kashayam with spice          – Mas. G. Satish & Mas. T. Rushi – X

 

Precautions and Extended services:

We are supplying the poor and handicapped in the neighbourhood, who were unable to earn their bread and butter because of Covid-19, with groceries, vegetables and rice.

To fight against COVID –19 Heal staff visited the nearby villages of Narsingapalem, Chinna Agiripalli, Agiripalli and our village Thotapalli to raise their awareness through microphone announcements and pamphlets in the local language. Public visiting places were sprayed with Sodium Hypochlorite every 10 days. The villages were also provided with 6500 masks, 2800 sanitizers and soap.

All is done with awareness on COVID -19, maintaining social distance and using sanitizers.

– Mas. D. Aravind – IX

 

Jyothi could be on track for sporting stardom!

by Jem King, HEAL Head of Communications

One young student has become something of a celebrity at Paradise Village lately… ninth-grader Jyothi is the talk of the school after being selected for state-level sports academy training in the popular Indian sport of kho-kho.

Jyothi missed most of the recent HEAL Silver Jubilee celebrations at Paradise Village after spending a few days rubbing shoulders with the cream of the Andhra Pradesh sporting crop.

It was quite an eye-opening experience for the teenage athlete, with standards at the training camp obviously higher than anything she had encountered before.

Jyothi returned with a new  sports bag, a trophy, certificate and some prize money after her team claimed runners-up spot at the academy try-out.

And HEAL founder-chairman Dr Satya Prasad Koneru was quick to lavish praise on the promising teenager as he called her up onto the stage to be honoured in front of her admiring classmates by HEAL Day chief guest Mr Moncho Ferrer.

Her picture is also posted up around the school and she has even featured in one or two newspaper reports in the Telugu Press.

Such achievement as Jyothi’s gives immense satisfaction to all HEAL staff and volunteers as it serves to demonstrate how children from severely disadvantaged backgrounds can go on to make their mark in life if given the right start.

Jyothi arrived at HEAL in distressing circumstances, as she said in a recent newspaper report: “I did not know my father at all. When my mother died in a traffic accident, I was all alone with no place to call home. Fortunately, some relatives joined me at HEAL. This is not something I could have ever dreamed of. It is now my home, family and future.

“I am so lucky and happy. I have not missed my parents since I came here, though I remember my mother. All this fortune is only possible because of Doctor Sir.”

But Jyothi is not letting her successes go to her head and remains determined to press on with her studies – even at the expense of sporting success.

And whatever path she decides to take, she knows that her HEAL family will be behind her all the way!

Dinesh reports on Kho Kho

Kho Kho is an Indian game that is often played at HEAL children’s Village.

To win the game a team has to tag all the opponents in the shortest time possible. The game is played on a rectangular pitch which is usually 29 meters long and 16 meters wide.

A kho kho team consists of 12 players but only 9 can take the field. A match consists of two innings. each innings consists of chasing and running for nine minutes each.

One team (chasers) sits/kneels in the middle of the court, in a row, with ajacent members facing opposite directions. The other team (dodgers) play in batches of three. The chasers can only run in one direction and cannot cut across the sitters. The dodgers can run anywhere and can go inbetween the sitters. The chaser has to run around the entire row to reach the other side.The chaser can pass the chasing job onto a sitter whose back is facing the chaser as he/she is running. To do this the chaser touches the back of the sitter and shouts “kho” which signifies the change of chaser.

The objective of the game is for the chasers to tag all the oponents in the shortest time possible.

Lokesh and Ravi Teja report on Volley Ball.

Volley Ball is played alot at HEAL Children’s Village by both the boys and the girls.

Volleyball is a complex game of simple skills. The ball is spiked from up to 60 cm above the height of a basketball hoop (about 3.65 metres) and takes fractions of a second to travel from the spiked to the receiver. That means the receiver must assess incoming angle, decide where to pass the ball and then control their pass in the blink of an eye. A purely rebound sport (you can’t hold the ball), volleyball is a game of constant motion.

• Volleyball has developed into a very specialised sport. Most teams will include in their starting line-up a setter, two centre blockers, two receiver-hitters and a universal spiker. Only certain players will be involved with service reception. Players will also have specialist positions for attack and defence. Substitutions are allowed during the game.

• Since 1998, volleyball bas been using a new scoring system. Teams scored a point on every rally Point System), regardless of which team served. Formerly, a team could only win a point if it served the ball. Winning the serve back from the opposition was known as a side-out.

• Matches are played best of five sets. The first four sets are played to 25 points, with the final set being played to 15 points. A team must win a set by two points. There is no ceiling, so a set continues until one of the teams gains a two-point advantage. Previously, all sets were to 15 points, with the first four sets having a ceiling of 17 and the final set requiring at least a two-point winning advantage.

• In 1998, the FIVB introduced a new specialist role: the libero. This player wears a different coloured uniform from the rest of the team and can be substituted in backcourt for any player on the team. The libero cannot serve, spike the ball over the net or rotate into the front-line positions, but plays a vital role for the team in serve reception and backcourt defence. There must be at least one point played between a libero substituting off for a player and going back on the court for another player – hence he/she cannot be on the court for the whole game. The libero has added an extra dimension to backcourt defence, improving the reception of teams, lengthening the rallies and giving a vital role to shorter players.

Volleyball, an Olympic team sport, is the second most popular sport in the world today. There are over 800 million volleyball players worldwide.

History of Volley Ball

In 1895, William G Morgan, a physical education director at the Holyoke, Massachusettes YMCA, created a game called Mignonette, as a low contact indoor sport. After observing the first game, Alfred Halstead, renamed the game Volleyball due to the volleying nature of the game. Numerous other variations of Volleyball have developed such as Beach Volleyball, Footvolley, Hoover ball, and Newcomb. Both Men’s and Women’s Leagues are popular, and there are many clubs and tournaments throughout the year in the US.

A Volleyball team is composed of between 6-8 players on a team, and a match is played between two teams with an equal number of players. A volleyball court is 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, divided into two 30 30 ft halves, by a 40-inch wide net, placed so that the top of the net is about eight feet above the centre of the court. The first team to score 25 points (and be two points ahead) is awarded the set. Matches are best-of-five sets or best-of-three sets.

Srikar reports on Cricket

Cricket is a very popular game in India. It is played at HEAL alot.

Cricket is a bat and ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields. Each turn is known as an innings.

The bowler delivers the ball to the batsman who attempts to hit the ball with his bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run. Each batsman continues batting until he is out. The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat.

In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from 20 overs per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.

Cricket was first played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed to be the national game of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international match was held. ICC, the game’s governing body, has 10 full members. The game is most popular in Australasia, England, the Indian Subcontinent, the West Indies and Southern Africa.

Ravi Teja reports on the resurfacing of the HEAL Football Pitches

HEAL Paradise recently constructed two pitches, one for girls and one for boys.

Though all the large stones and surface stones had been removed the surface was still quite bumpy and covered with small stones. Lots of people were cutting their knees and a quite a bit of blood was being spilt.

So the arriival of six lorry loads of soft surface soild was a great sight to see. Workers soon spread the soft red soil across the surface of the pitch and a big yellow roller flattened it.

The boys remarked out the pitches and erected goals on both.

We now have a good soft surface to play on so our football skills should greatly improve and out injury rate decline. Maybe we will be able to get grass to grow on the pitch. For this to happen we will have to extend the irrigation. That will be a project for later in the year.

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Sharing experiences

A visit of Anjana: Voluntary teachers visit HEAL school often to spend their precious time to teach the children at HEAL school.  Ms.Anjana, working as a teacher in U.K visited HEALl and spent a few weeks with children.  She taught English in a play way method and also trained the teachers at HEAL school.  She made learning a joyful experience to both children and teachers.  She is very helpful, punctual and dedicated person.  Everybody at HEAL including kitchen staff love her for she is very amicable and never troubled anybody.

A visit of Colin : Colin  a 67 years old mentor, a University retired senior lecturer in U.K. visited HEAL school and spent for a few weeks with children.   He likes children and teaching is his passion.  He loves observing birds flying in the sky.  He enjoyed the nature & lake view at HEAL Paradise.  He spent most of his time to teach communication skills, computer, social studies, using tablets, binnoculas, Telescope and playing football.  He inspired pupil to become self-learners. He motivated and inspired the staff to involve children in project works and activities.  Both Anjana and Colin helped teachers in preparing behavior policy both for teachers and children to create a happy and healthy environment.  Children and staff bid a farewell to Colin and Anjana with great love on 6^th Feb,2015.

Heal Children Build Their Own Football Pitches

Following the donation of footballs and football kit by Liverpool Football Club, the children of Heal all participated in the preparation and construction of two junior football pitches- one for girls and one for boys.

All the children in the school gave up their playtime on two successive afternoons, to clear the ground of large stones. They used their initiative to find ingenious ways of extracting the embedded stones! Fifteen large sacks were filled. Four of the older boys used wheelbarrows to remove the sacks. The stones were later reused as part of the foundations for the stage in the performance area, which is currently under construction.

The pitches were marked using string and white powder. The children erected goalposts which had been constructed from plastic piping. As soon as the goals were raised, the children enthusiastically took part in a football match. The girls initially had reservations but were soon just as enthusiastic as the boys. Most children wore flip flops or sandals and this highlighted the need to provide suitable footwear. The success of this endeavour has prompted the purchasing of sport shoes for all the children as well as track suit bottoms for the girls.

The rapid development of football skills is eagerly anticipated.