13-year-old Anjana used to be the kind of girl in class who cried at the drop of a hat. Her friends enjoyed jeering at her, because she was such an easy prey. Today, those who know her find it hard to believe that she is a leader,a gutsy citizen, and a team player. This little girl stunned everyone when she took the center stage and inspired her friends to come forward and take the initiative to change the society. She even led her team to dig barren ground, plant trees in the Worli-Koliwada region of Mumbai city.

The story of 11-year-old Nilesh is no different. A student of a municipal school in Govandi, Mumbai, Nilesh was shy and an introvert and did not have many friends. At the young age of 11, Nilesh was burdened with the responsibility of taking care of his two siblings and an alcoholic single parent. But what differentiates his story from the rest is that Nilesh today is an extrovert with many friends to play with and he also actively participates in his class room.

Anjana and Nilesh are not the only ones. There are many such inspiring stories of how Apni Shala, a DBS–TISS Venture has transformed the lives of children from underprivileged backgrounds.

"Children from underprivileged backgrounds often struggle not only to express themselves, but also lack basic communication skills. At Apni Shala, we help these children gain confidence and help them be better equipped to face the world."
– Shweta – Co-founder, Apni Shala

The thought behind Apni Shala

Growing up we were taught that food, clothing, shelter are the basic needs for survival, and with time the fourth element of education got added. We now live in an environment where education is not just considered to be a basic need for survival but an imperative force that equips individuals with skills needed to face different challenges in life. In this race to graduate from one grade to another, life lessons and soft skills get lost, and education is only limited to text books. The segment of children that suffers the most from this neglect are the children from low income groups. At Apni Shala, the counselors and instructors work with children from low-income communities and help build their emotional, interpersonal and thinking skills.

There are some individuals who find solace & inspiration in 'educating' people, through which they mould different individuals into better human beings who can face the outside world. The story is no different for Amrita, Shweta & Anukriti - the co-founders of Apni Shala. Their love for teaching, the urge of becoming entrepreneurs&the dream of working closely with children was the driving force behind their initiative.

Apni Shala works with an aim to equip the students from low-income/underprivileged backgrounds become reflective and inquiring individuals. The purpose is to enable these children develop into confident individuals, building healthy relationships around them and becoming problem solvers.

Anukriti and Shweta are engineers & have worked with large organizations, before they followed their passion for teaching. Amrita, on the other hand, has been a teacher with a few teaching stints, which motivated her to pursue teaching even further. They studied Social Entrepreneurship at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and then started Apni Shala with the objective of making a positive difference to the lives of the underprivileged.

Children from different communities and localities sometimes show different behaviour traits. The programmes delivered by Apni Shala are focused on addressing the specific attitudinal and behavioural development needs of the children it serves.

How Apni Shala works?

"Experiences make all of us who we are today."
Through experiential learning, students are able to develop skills like teamwork, decision-making ability, leadership abilities and self-confidence. This happens through activities like community work, creative hands-on projects, drama & games.

Experiential learning weaved with Expression learning gives a holistic approach to the teaching methods adopted by Apni Shala. By creating a platform for children to question, brainstorm & express themselves in an environment that is free of judgement develops structured reflections amongst them.

Apni Shala is not a school, but an organization that addresses needs of children from different communities by designing programmes that work on attitudinal and behavioral development needs of the children. It also delivers life skills education to different schools & NGOs that focus on the social & emotional development of children.

Apni Shala believes that teachers are important stakeholders in the lives of children. Through their orientation programme 'Kick Start Life Skills', it trains teachers in designing their own life skills education programmes for their children, and gives them the know-how of delivering such programmes in simple ways in the everyday classroom.

Games and art that involve problem solving, making decisions to make one's team win, or even those which require co-operation between team members are irreplaceable when it comes to understanding the importance of life skills. Infinite amounts of learning happen when children draw parallels between these games and their personal or social life. Needless to say, art is extremely powerful when it comes to children understanding themselves, their aspirations, their qualities and even their emotions.

Stories and drama are like mirrors to the young minds. When children listen to stories, watch movies or experience a drama, they identify with the characters in them, and take home memories and learning from the stories. Stories have proven to be an excellent tool for learning, imagination and reflection.Stories can help children connect easily with many difficult concepts such as effects of low self-esteem, need for appropriate expression of emotions and so on!

Community service, or service learning is another powerful educational tool used. Imagine when all the decision-making or empathy you learnt and experienced is put to the test in a very real world scenario such as arguing with the local police or working with different stakeholders to fix a community water pipe!

Apni Shala's pedagogical approach is therefore an amalgamation of these learning paths woven into the concept of 'life skills education'.

Impact

With a holistic approach, Apni Shala has been able to bring a change in the lives of number of children through their experience & expression styled teaching. Apni Shala aims to equip children with positive attitude & behaviors so they can effectively deal with life's everyday challenges.

DBS Bank India plays the role of an active partner and has helped the venture right from providing the seed funds to helping in strategizing and executing as well as managing their revenues. Apni Shala has collaborated with number of schools & NGOs. The idea behind partnering with these institutes was to capture the reaction & the impact that the teaching method has had on the students of the respective institutes. Within one year of its operations, Apni Shala has reached 1,200 students. In the coming months, it hopes to reach 800 beneficiary children across Mumbai & 500 more children through intensive workshops.

With the unique initiative Portraits of Purpose (PoP), DBS aims to share the stories of the Social Entrepreneurs with you. DBS is dedicated towards Apni Shala, who helps children get equipped with life skills with their experiential model and hope to bring about a significant change in the lives of underprivileged children. Watch their journey so far: