Sports and games can be used to support children and youngsters in their way to become adults, to keep up with the contemporary society and to make responsible choices. The development from child to adult is not easy; to cope with your own body and its feelings and thoughts, the development of perseverance, body knowledge, confidence and independence.... A secure and stimulating learning environment is of great value; at SISP we try to offer this to our children. So, beside the regular classes the children are getting sports classes. Since September 2016 SISP is having its own professional physical education teacher for a 2 year project. Saskia, from The Netherlands, gives weekly sports clas
At the beginning of this year, India’s capital city Delhi had introduced a ban on disposable plastic. Cutlery, bags, cups and other forms of single-use plastic were prohibited. According to The Times of India, the country is responsible for 60 per cent of the plastic that is dumped in the world’s oceans every year. Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram (short: Trivandrum), has banned all types of plastic carry bags within it’s limits from March 1, 2017 onward. At the end of February there was a three weeks during ‘Ecology’ exhibition in Trivandrum, where several organisation who work with sustainable resources to compensate the plastic where showing their work. Examples of their products ar
Emma and Laura, two Belgian interns, have been with us from October – December 2016. They have been of great help for our teachers and SISP students by giving extra attention and explanation to the students in need, especially regarding different subjects as Mathematics and English. They joined for house visits as well; if a student doesn’t attend in the lessons for 3 days in a row, one of the class teachers will visit their family to find out why the student did not come to school. In this way we hope to reduce the chance to drop out again and to stimulate and motivate the students to come to school every day. In September one Belgian nurse, Stefanie, came to volunteer at SISP. She was of g
Last year two amazing volunteers, Praveena, a retired Indian American Teacher and her husband Bharat, came to work together with our teachers; they shared their knowledge and years of teaching experience. They gave awareness classes about drugs, alcohol, violence and child abuse. This year they came back and stayed four months with us! They continued the awareness classes and started workshops to train our teachers to help them recognise the needs of every individual student. They learned some simple steps to prepare a lesson, what to keep in mind before you start a lesson and during your lesson, what they should notice in the classroom, how to prepare a lesson plan, etc. In this way we will
“- Paving the path to change through understanding, education and respect- The ocean is our lifeblood. In the blink of an eye in earth terms we have almost destroyed it. Over fishing, pollution, anthropogenic warming, irresponsible industry and invasive species are all taking their toll, yet while there is ingenuity, there is hope and positivity has a remarkable knack for creating change... We pride ourselves on achieving marine conservation outcomes which benefit not only the ocean, but the communities who rely on it for survival. As a volunteer-run organisation we have limited overheads, so you can rest assured that all of our funding is being used where it will have the most impact.” In F
As SISP works with and for the poorest people from Vizhinjam, Kovalam, we are directly facing their problems, suffering and misery. Many families have a daily struggle with things that foreigners take for granted. Clean water floating in our kitchens and bathrooms; where ever we go, we don’t have to worry about clean drinking water for our children, for today, for tomorrow... In the coastal area of Trivandrum district still many families don’t have access to (drinking) water. As these people don’t have enough financial resources, they cannot afford to buy drinking water from the shops. Instead they drink the water that the government provides them, from a nearby well or public tab. Unfortuna
Last Christmas was a very special time; in December 2016 we have celebrated SISP’s 20 Years Anniversary! First we invited all the families and old aged that we are supporting, to join us for a special tea where they all got a packet with food and sanitary items. Their gratitude for SISP’s help in the past was touching and encouraging. Later all children got their Christmas packet with new dress and shoes (an annual sponsoring by SISP Belgium). Female staff got a new sari and gents a new shirt, all in the same design to wear at our celebration day. The celebration day itself started with a delicious breakfast for all, followed by a special sports day where SISP students, old-SISP students, Sk
With providing free skateboarding and peer tot peer lessons after school timings and in the weekends, with as coach our passionate skateboarder and old-student Vineeth, SISP motivates the school drop-outs to come to the centre and/or to continue their education. The principle here is: “No school, no skating!". The last school year, our Skate Club has been doing very well! As we have a ‘core’ group of students who are with us since the beginning, we have seen many new faces as well. It’s great to see their performances, how motivated they are to learn new skills and how they help each other to become better. Our slogan ‘Keep trying!’ says enough; this is a story of 9 times falling and 1 time
