As the school would be closed in the next week, the staff at Deepalaya SDMC School decided to celebrate Mothers’ day on 5^th May, 2017. The idea was to inform the mothers about our plan for the next year, get an idea how they want their children to be and also help them in understanding the relevance of nutrition in their diet.

The teachers came up with an idea of inviting the mothers by their children. Mr. Himanshu, Music and art teacher motivated the children to prepare cards for inviting their mothers to the school. They wrote “I love you Mom”, “mein apko apne school mein amantrit krta hu” on the cards. The children gave those cards to their mothers.

Finally the day came when we were expecting the mothers to be in the school at around 11.00 a.m. The day started with new energy and excitement for Deepalaya staff who were busy decorating one class where mothers would sit and celebrate the Day at SDMC Primary School, Sewage Treatment Plant, Okhla.

The newly appointed project in-charge for this partnership Ms. Abha Kapila and two teachers Ms. Komal and Ms. Ishika had done all the arrangements for the mothers to come. The room was decorated with beautiful drawing and art work made by teachers and students. At 10:30 am some mothers started coming for the celebration. Ms. Jaswant, Director CRM, Ms. Nonita and Ms. Sadhna from North-West Delhi projects were there to conduct the session on nutrition. We asked the mothers to help us in cutting the vegetables and extracting pulp from Bael fruit. They happily took the responsibility.

By 11:00 am, the room was jam packed by 45 mothers. Some ladies from the nearby community also came. Their name and other details were taken note of for further communication by our teachers in a register. As they assembled, Ms. Abha and Ms. Jaswant interacted with ladies and learned about their expectations from school adopted by Deepalaya. Mothers were given information about how their kids will be given quality education through English, Music and new methodologies. Most of the ladies were very happy after seeing the new avatar of this SDMC School. They felt satisfied after seeing the changes in their kids too. One lady said that “I have noticed, her child’s notebook is being checked everyday. Earlier, it never happened.”

As the day progressed, Ms. Sadhana, the teacher from EOW project told the women about the importance of being a mother in this world. She emphasized on their role in development of this country as a whole. She has told that mothers always treat its children equally but under the influence of this patriarchal society our girls lose their value. She told that we as a mothers, sister, and wife should give equal opportunities to both girls and boys. We should not discriminate on the basis of gender. She then moved onto the topic of healthy food habits and rich nutrients that we as mothers should regularly include in our diets so that our family, including children is happy and lead a healthy life. She then asked Ms. Nonita Aggarwal to come forward and share her thoughts on a healthy diet that these mothers can add to their food.

Ms. Nonita informed them about the kind of diet that the mothers should eat. She emphasized the importance of healthy nutrients for lactating mothers, pregnant women and old woman. She asked the ladies to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables in addition to their regular meals.  After this, she talked about iron deficiency, which is commonly found in all women and starts when a girl achieves puberty. She informed that iron is readily available in green leafy vegetables but should always be had alongwith vitamin C, which is available in orange, lemon and amla etc.

Thereafter, she demonstrated the recipe of bael ka sharbat and a chat made with sprouted chana and moong dal. The women were given hand bills, which carried detailed information on Iron & Vitamin C on one page and recipes on the second page. After the demonstration, the bael juice and chat was distributed amongst them.

Then Ms. Jaswant Kaur, Director CRM asked all the mothers about this Mother’s Party. Did they enjoy the camp? Was it beneficial for them? Will they be interested in more such camps? All mothers raised their voice with a loud Yes. She also asked the mothers about how many of them learnt from their kids about the changes that Deepalaya has done in this school. Some ladies raised their hands and spoke about the recent activity that was done on Earth Day in which students drew trees and created a collage out of it.

They were informed that their kids will be learning English in the school. Ms. Jaswant asked the woman how many of them are illiterate. If given an opportunity will they be interested in joining the adult literacy program. Around 10-15 ladies raised their hands and expressed their willingness in joining the class. Then she also asked how many women would want their kids to be part of our tuition classes that after 1 p.m. from July, 2017. All of them cheerfully showed interest in the remedial classes as well.

Towards the end, all the mothers interacted with our staff members and refreshments were also distributed. Some mothers were really moved by our work and asked us whether they can get their children enrolled in the school, who are studying in other MCD schools. Overall this, meeting with the mothers was path breaking, where all the mothers showed their interest in bringing their kids to the school and showed interest to be part of our new journey with them and community as a whole