Knowledge Fair got us a New Family..

[Shahrukh Atpade]

“Knowledge Fair” was organized by Avani Organisation, Kolhapur with Global Fund for Children (GFC) support. Through Avani organization, work on salt is going on in the villages of Pirwadi, Vashi, Nandwal, Kandgaon, Kerli for the past two years. 

Knowledge Fair with communities was held on 21st May 2023. A few days after the event, I (Shahrukh) went to Vashi village to meet the people who had come for the knowledge fair. At that time I initially met the Anganwadi Sevika. 

They expressed their opinion regarding this program. All anganwadi sevikas said that "we liked this program very much. It was great to see everyone share their dreams for their village. We also loved the fact that everyone listened intently today as we shared our dream of Vashi village. We especially liked the lively discussion with us by Corey Madam from GFC, America...it was very engaging and uplifting." 

Then we were moved by the presentation by Faith Foundation and Rural Aid on various issues in their villages. We were listening very carefully to what they were saying, as our full attention was on them. After we heard all their stories, we also felt that we too can do all these things in our Vashi village by ourselves and with the help of other people in the village. We heard how they had engaged youth and adolescents. We so far had been engaging school children, mainly girls. Now we will engage adolescents and youth.

Also, before the Knowledge Fair program, Corey Ma'am and Rituu came to meet us. They had a nice chat with us. We told them about our village's dream regarding children. We are very happy because we are being guided by the one who asked us to dream and show us the direction to fulfill that dream.