Few weeks ago I arranged for a Personal Safety workshop for the kids. I got about 10 kids together, paid for the community hall at our apartment and made arrangements for having colours, papers and pencils and helped Dr Shaibya run this work shop for kids between 8 to 10 years of age. The reason I did this is - one I believe that it is important for all children to be aware of personal safety and two I knew that I would handle this topic badly and was sure that Dr Shaibya would do a great job.
Dr Shaibya is easy to talk to and related to the kids in a fantastic manner. Without much fuss, the workshop started at 10 am at the Club house in our apartment complex. There was a small ice breaker session where each child was asked to introduce them selves with an action and the entire group mimicked the action and called out the child’s name. Some children were adventurous in the actions like Adi who decided to climb the wall backwards while resting his hands on the ground J
Post the icebreaker, Dr Shaibya introduced the concept of safe adults through a fun drawing / tracing of one’s hand. She made the kids write down name of an adult in each finger with whom the child felt they could share any information or go to when they were in trouble. Further, she coached them on saying an emphatic “No” when they did not like the touch from any individual. She advised the kids to leave the room or place if a troublesome adult did not heed to the “No.” If going away also did not help, Dr Shaibya urged the kids to tell any of the adults that the kids had written down in their safe hand drawing. Thereby, she beautifully put it as “NO – GO – TELL” principle to be followed.
As a parent I agonized over, how to explain a good or bad touch. I was worrying whether I would be able to articulate correctly how a child can recognize a bad touch. Dr Shaibya had a simple and effective mechanism. Any touch that the child feels uncomfortable with, he / she should be able to say no to. I found this principle at the core of the workshop. No one will need to put up with anything that we intuitively feel uncomfortable about and children have a great sense of intuition and how to protect themselves. As parents, we should encourage them to rely on these instincts and not curb their responses.
At the closure of the workshop, the beautiful neem tree story was narrated and each child was asked to envisage themselves as a tree and draw and colour it. These drawings Shaibya wanted to take away as her keep sake. Overall the session was interactive, easy and one child summed it all beautifully in the feedback round. When asked if she liked the work shop, my friend Ha Ha Hasini said, “I didn’t like the workshop, I loved it!!”
Dr Shaibya is easy to talk to and related to the kids in a fantastic manner. Without much fuss, the workshop started at 10 am at the Club house in our apartment complex. There was a small ice breaker session where each child was asked to introduce them selves with an action and the entire group mimicked the action and called out the child’s name. Some children were adventurous in the actions like Adi who decided to climb the wall backwards while resting his hands on the ground J
Post the icebreaker, Dr Shaibya introduced the concept of safe adults through a fun drawing / tracing of one’s hand. She made the kids write down name of an adult in each finger with whom the child felt they could share any information or go to when they were in trouble. Further, she coached them on saying an emphatic “No” when they did not like the touch from any individual. She advised the kids to leave the room or place if a troublesome adult did not heed to the “No.” If going away also did not help, Dr Shaibya urged the kids to tell any of the adults that the kids had written down in their safe hand drawing. Thereby, she beautifully put it as “NO – GO – TELL” principle to be followed.
As a parent I agonized over, how to explain a good or bad touch. I was worrying whether I would be able to articulate correctly how a child can recognize a bad touch. Dr Shaibya had a simple and effective mechanism. Any touch that the child feels uncomfortable with, he / she should be able to say no to. I found this principle at the core of the workshop. No one will need to put up with anything that we intuitively feel uncomfortable about and children have a great sense of intuition and how to protect themselves. As parents, we should encourage them to rely on these instincts and not curb their responses.
At the closure of the workshop, the beautiful neem tree story was narrated and each child was asked to envisage themselves as a tree and draw and colour it. These drawings Shaibya wanted to take away as her keep sake. Overall the session was interactive, easy and one child summed it all beautifully in the feedback round. When asked if she liked the work shop, my friend Ha Ha Hasini said, “I didn’t like the workshop, I loved it!!”
