Venue: Auditorium Hall, THS Rajpur
Date October 03, 2019
School Exchange Programme under ENVISION’s Building Bridges Project has been facilitating various exposure and exchange opportunities to bring together young people from Tibetan and Indian communities;
- To foster a better understanding of cultures, learning and sharing.
- The programme also aims to expand comfort zones and broaden horizons of young Tibetans
- Also, to nurture friendships between young Indians and Tibetans
School Exchange Programme
Towards this effort to facilitate exposure and learning, ENVISION in partnership with Sambhota Poanta, TCV Selaqui and Tibetan Homes School Rajpur has been facilitating School Exchange Programme for high school Tibetan students. So far for 2019, ENVISION have had organized school exchanges programmes for TCV Selaqui (with Cambrian Hall), and Tibetan Homes Foundation Rajpur (with Olympus High School). School Exchange Programme between Sambhota Tibetan School, Poanta and Guru Nanak Mission Public School is scheduled on 19th of October.
The return leg for Tibetan Homes Foundation, Rajpur and Olympus High was organized on 3rd October 2019 at the former school’s Auditorium Hall. The first School Exchange programme took place in April and since then Tibetan students were eagerly waiting for their Indian friends and buddies to visit their school. A total of 86 students (43 from Tibetan Homes Rajpur and 43 Olympus High School) participated in the programme.
The Exchange Programme agenda includes buddy activity, an activity introduced with the objective of helping Tibetan students make personal connection with at least one Indian student, School campus and classroom tour led by their paired buddy, friendly basketball match between the two schools for boys and girls, and finally, a skit performance added to the agenda this year. Theatre is another engaging medium which helps in breaking barriers and building confidence. Students of both the schools were divided into eleven groups comprising 7-8 students each and were made to work together to come up with a script, rehearse and perform a skit addressing various themes such as on anti-bullying, time management, compassion in action, and family bond.
At the end of the day, in order to gauge the impact of the school exchange programme, a feedback session was conducted wherein students (both Tibetan and Indian) shared their take on the day’s programmes. Tibetan students expressed how the programme helped them understand and learn Indian society and culture while their Indian friends shared how they gained more knowledge about Tibetan culture and community through their Tibetan peers. Many students also shared how the programme helped them foster friendships through the buddy activity and that they plan to stay in touch with each other in the future.
Testimonials:
Tibetan Homes Foundation, Rajpur school
has a beautiful and tranquil location surrounded by mountains. The staff and students warmly welcomed us with traditional white scarves. I share a close bond with my buddy Lobsang (with whom I was paired during the first leg of the programme in April). He was shy earlier but I am glad he is more open with me now. He is quite and talented. I hope our friendship would grow stronger. I would love to meet him again after the exchange programme.
-Nishtha Chaudhary, Class X, Olympus High School
At first, I thought my buddy will not recognize me and that he must have forgotten my name but to my pleasant surprise, he remembers me! I prepared a homemade flower as a gift for my buddy. I am glad I got to meet him again today and that he got exposure to our culture and tradition.
-Yougyal Damdul, Class X, Tibetan Homes School, Rajpur