Benevolence - “The Abandoned Ones”

 

The joy of giving is accomplished when you are happy, and satisfied, with a sense of gratitude, fulfillment, and sympathy, empathy for people suffering. It also instills a feeling of generosity in our lives and would like to continue with good physical and mental health. The first and foremost gesture expressed is kindness to all, not minding about religion, caste, and creed. When the attitude of giving develops it is only helping an individual or a group with a need they are into. 

“Helping the poor and needy is to serve God”. I follow this in my life and feel that every child in my school needs to follow this wholeheartedly and think about the abandoned ones.

 

We also believe in this phrase:

 

 “The more you give, the more you receive” 

 

and this lingers in our minds and we must try to move on and tell aloud to people who also receive.

The joy of giving connects people with bonding and enhances the relationship with the individual or a family and creates a sense of positivity.

 

Giving - good for health

Clinically proven health benefits associated with giving are Lowers stress levels, longer life, increased self-esteem, less depression, and great happiness and satisfaction. Biologically giving creates a “warm glow” in the brain connected with people, their trust, and pleasure making you experience excitement when you give. 

 

Medical evidence says that during gift behaviors, humans secrete “feel good” chemicals in the brain like serotonin, and dopamine (a feel and good-mood chemical) also, releasing endorphins and creating a factor called “helper’s high”. Truly speaking when you help people your heart is lightened without any expectation. 

As Gandhiji said, “To find yourself, lose yourself in the service of others”.

 

“A human example of giving yourself” - Mother Teresa, where found fulfillment in giving herself to others, to change people from distress, sorrow, and pain with her comforting speech, touch, and help according to their needs. Giving makes you magnanimous and not self-centered. When stepping out of your world and venturing into others’ world your problems and worries seem to be less significant than others. It makes you rediscover the purpose of living by giving to achieve genuine happiness. 

 A Chinese proverb says “If you always give, you will always have”  

And a famous American author Ken Blanchard declared 

 “The more I give away, the more comes back”

At St. Britto’s, to inculcate the joy of giving, the students with the staff visited, Assise old age home, Kakkum Karangal, K.S.S home, Udavum Karangal, Shadow Trust, All Children Trust and gave them grocery items, medicines, clothes, stationery items, one meal a day. Laughter Clubs, Music Clubs, and Film Clubs were organized to provide a piece of entertainment. The school installed “Wish Trees” in children's orphanages so that they can hang their wishes on the tree branches which were fulfilled. The dramatics club along with class IX students performed a street play, to raise awareness about the joy of giving.

Values learned

 

Learning for a lifetime with a helping attitude, happiness, motivating other students and family members, sharing, and caring. In “Anandam” old age home, the senior citizens who had been in any professions, teach children nearby, by conducting tailoring classes, and yoga, and act as volunteers by packing food and other essentials in times of emergency like a flood, Covid, etc., The value taught was - “To do the work by themselves at home and helping parents and teachers, to respect and show love for elderly, serving voluntarily, not to abandon your loved ones in future.

 

Like any other habit, giving is an “addiction” so go ahead, reach people in need, identify the opportunities, and give back to your community. Your mental and physical health will thank you and so will the people you help too. When we give we reap the joy of seeing a bright smile with laughter, tears of joy, and gratitude for life. The gift of joy comes when you give yourself to others. Let's all practice and commit ourselves to achieve it. Try it, it works! truly.

        

 Books to Children’s Library

 

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” - Garrison Keillor

 

“The journey of a lifetime starts with the turning of a Page.”

 - Rachel Anders

To plan for a children's library, a community-level program to encourage reading skills in children has to be organized. This library would develop a love to read books with quality time and promotes a sense of learning together. The habit of donating books to create a library in a village is a noble attribute, which every child should possess right from home to school which can be initiated by a parent or teacher. 

 

A teacher in school, tells the importance of reading and would connect to children or people who are deprived of it. The village school students would be benefited by looking, touching, and slowly starting to read which can improve the basics of learning language and vocabulary to some extent. This might lead to the total refreshing, refurbishing, and reviving of a community. One’s language skill is a real boon. So, only through books, knowledge can be improved because it is the easiest and strongest resource available even for a common man. 

 “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but what we give.” 

- Ben Carson

If an individual is gifted with books, the smile is small and short but, if gifted for a group, the reaction is too high to be explained. While gifting, we can know the genre of interest and their reading levels. Books always adorn the library, but not any other gifts which might break or fade away. When a book is given the importance of reading its benefits should also be shared which will flash in the minds of children when they get a book.

 

The book is gifted, with a touching inscription or quotes on the first page, which will make the reader devote time to reading and will be motivated and pass it to the next person. When you read, you will grow in thoughts and imagination. One day, reading might take a person on a voyage of discovery of unpredicted things. For a student in city schools, reading is an extracurricular activity, but for children in rural areas, it might trigger the spark of reading to eradicate or lessen the literacy level. 

 

The children have the privilege of raising questions with clarity and expecting the same when they get answers for it. When the child starts to read, it becomes a habit and gets clinched to his / her daily routine and makes them develop conversational skills. In my opinion, a student with a good, regular reading habit is found to be smart, innovative with mature thoughts, and able to handle situations like problem-solving with the topmost quality of building “self-confidence” to keep them in progress irrespective of hurdles and obstacles coming their way.

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” - Charles Scribner, Jr.

 

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” - Ernest Hemingway

 

Many students have started following this for their birthday and their family celebrations and in a way showing their love and concern by donating money, food, medicine, and books. I am happy about the noble gesture exposed by the students.

Testimonial

Hi, I am Afsar Jumail doing my Artificial Intelligence and learning   at    Chennai Institute of Technology. My school days at St. Britto’s MHSS made me change my inner self with the good qualities of a human being. Many programmes and events where old people and abandoned children were benefited were conducted in our school. This made me sympathetic and urged me to do something good for them. I and my school friends and others gifted old people and kids with food, clothes and medicines. This made me feel happy.

This practice will continue at college also along with the fellow students will do more for the upgradation of the quality of lives of old people and children too. I’m really thankful to our school which inculcated such good qualities in my life.