We take things for granted, especially if someone is doing their job which has great impact on our lives. We tend to undermine that aspect, that effect. But this is the way things have been. Taking a little time out to appreciate the efforts of people around us, people whose negligence could cost lives is all what we are doing.[break]
Anuvuti International introduced a “Thank You Week” from September 1 to 7, 2012, during which 300 students from three different schools went around the city distributing cards to traffic police.
Students from Ace Institute of Management, Brihaspati Vidhyasadan and Kasthamandap Vidhyalaya prepared hand made cards and thanked the traffic police in and around the Valley.
The week was a part of Anuvuti International’s year long training for sixth to tenth grade students from both private and government schools. The training includes making the students understand society and how it runs.
“We wanted the young people to see the mutual dependence of various groups of people. We decided to start off with traffic police,” said Swastika Shrestha, Program Director for Anuvuti International, a social enterprise based in Kathmandu.
The participating schools arranged school buses which ferried the students around Kathmandu on different routes. Each section of the students, two or three in a group got down and distributed cards and candies.
“We gave students a small orientation on the bus and asked if anyone was interested. By the end of the class everyone wanted to go out and distribute cards,” shared Subuna Basnet, program facilitator at Anuvuti International who accompanied the students on three different routes, Mandikhata-Airport, Naxal-Tripureshwor and Naxal-Kalanki-Satdobato.
Sudan Wosti, an eighth grader from Kasthamandap Vidhyalaya who participated in the thank you week shared, “They work hard so that we can get to places on time. No one thanks them and when we did, they were very happy. Seeing them appreciate our little effort to acknowledge the work that they do for us made me very happy.”
Young people often self -indulged and they need to be taught to think and see beyond themselves. The prerequisites for day to day life do not come easy and there are people who are working to meet the demands of others.
This effort of Anuvuti International aims at making students understand and appreciate this aspect of social relationship and foster leadership component among these young people.
“The students were initially shy. They had mixed feelings during the orientation. I think it hadn’t hit them what was happening even after they finished making cards,” said Shrestha. “They understood what they were doing after they went around the city distributing them,” she said.
Basnet recalls how the initial shyness turned into enthusiasm and genuine appreciation once the students received warm response from the traffic police. “The traffic personals were really happy. They shook hands with the students and some even hugged them,” she said.
During the brainstorming session prior to the campaign, the students were nervous about the reaction and, if or not would they be welcomed. When asked why they thought this was being done, some said, “Because without traffic police, we wouldn’t be able to get to school on time or anywhere else at all. It is because they work hard that none of my family members and friends have gotten into accidents so far.”
The social enterprise is planning to celebrate this every year. “This year, it was more like an experiment. We are planning to send schools kits and make this more efficient starting next year,” shared Shrestha.
Service does not have to be something big, sometimes it is just about making somebody’s day and thank you week did just that.
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