NAGAPATTINAM: Orphaned children of a 'home village' in Nagapattinam are using their seclusion and school break to work on their talents and skills in groups during the lockdown. Tamil Nadu schools were closed in early March to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While many children are now home-bound, it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for orphaned kids in children's homes in the State as they have found more time to take up extracurricular activities .SOS Children's Village Nagapattinam gives children the chance spend time to take advantage of the break usefully. "We find more time to learn more interesting things like arts and crafts. We share ideas with others and compete against each other in improving our skills which we learn through various activities," said Ahalya, a Class 7 student.
There are 97 children in the 12 buildings of SOS Children's Village Nagapattinam, which was set up after the tsunami in 2004. The children range in ages from six to 18 and study in 10 different schools across Nagapattinam town. The children have been home-bound since March 15. "We are encouraging the reading habit during this break. More of us are borrowing books from the library and we tell a story every evening from the books we read," said Vijayashree, a Class 8 student who manages the children's library.
The children also spend their time learning through online tutorials. "We are also learning to make more science project models during our break. We treat this break as a summer holiday in advance. We come up with new ideas to apply what we learnt in schools and do new experiments every day, “said Abinaya, a Class 9 student.
"We have stopped people, including non-resident teachers, from visiting the village and are managing to teach our children with resident teachers. We have taught them to maintain social distancing even while doing group activities. Our children only have each other, unlike others at home who have parents. We are glad they are making this time worthwhile," said S Baskaran, Director, SOS Children's Village Nagapattinam