| Another Mobile Toy Library |
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Tsunami devastated many villages in coastal areas of Tamilnadu. Nagapattinam and Cuddalore were the most affected districts losing thousands of lives, leaving hundreds of children as orphans or semi orphans and hundreds of houses, fishing boats and equipments destroyed. The affected villages bore a sight of dead livestock lying all around. The children at the tender age witnessed the tragedy of their own parents and people being washed off by the furious waves. They were mentally filled with agony and were afraid of coming out of their houses. They refused to resume schooling. Some psychotherapy treatment for children was urgent. Vidyarambam came out with a novel idea of gathering Tsunami affected children in indoors & outdoors and engaging them with many toys of fun and information and games. Thus the concept of Mobile Toy Library was introduced. All educational, memory power packed and attractive toys and curriculum based quizzes to play more than 700 games were made available to children. The result was unbelievable. Within 8 weeks the children whoever were introduced to the toys became normal and resumed going to schools. This was continued for one year in Nagapattinam district. Looking at the performance and the outcome, Reiyukai Care, a Japanese NGO operating internationally came forward to provide the second van to be used in Cuddalore district.. This second van was dedicated to Vidyarambam by Mrs. Uma Maheswari, Director, Dept. of Elementary Education, Govt. of Tamilnadu in the presence of Mr. N.S. Rawat, Manager, Reiyukai Care, New Delhi. The second Van was also successful and there is heavy demand for the visit of the Mobile Toy Libraries to the schools. Both vehicles have made about 620 visits and more than 66,000 children have been exposed to such games and toys the kind of which the disadvantaged children of rural areas had never seen before. Complying with the request from Vidyarambam, Reiyukai provided one more van to be used in the Tsunami affected places. The ceremony of dedicating the vehicle took place at Chennai on November 14, 2007 (Children’s Day). Mr. Sushil Dahiya, Director, Riyukai Care, New Delhi formally handed over the vehicle to Vidyarambam in the presence of Dr. Sujatha Mohan Associate Medical Director, Rajan Eye Care Hospital, Chennai, all the board members, coordinators, assessors and other volunteers. The symbolic key was received by Lion Professor S. Sivaraman , the honorary coordinator, Vidyarambam Trust, Nagapattinam District and the real key was received by the vehicle operator Mr. K. Karunanithi. |






