To develop social awareness and sensitivity, students and teachers of Std IX spent a day in the villages of Manor, in Palghar district, not very far from Mumbai. On reaching Manor, students first visited the Jyoti Nivas Adiwashi Mulinchi Hostel, a hostel run by the Sisters of our congregation. Here, students were given an insight into the work of the Sisters in the rural areas and their assistance to the boarders of the hostel. Students, accompanied by their teachers, then split into groups of the four divisions, and headed to the villages. Here, villagers eagerly came to greet the children and students were assigned families with whom they would spend a few hours and share a meal prepared in the village homes. In addition to a simple, nutritious meal of rice & dal, our students got a taste of village life when they assisted the villagers in the fields, herded goats, and helped in chores like cooking, fetching water and looking after toddlers and babies, if any. At many places, students even conducted little games for the children. Many of our students also visited the Zilla Parishad schools in the villages and interacted with the students there, giving out little gifts that they had brought for them. At the end of the day, it was a happy group of students that returned to school, tired, but still with much to share about the experiences they had had.
