Children, have been amongst those who have embraced the JGW, transforming it into a festival of change; one that is positive, deeply impacting and hopefully permanent. We have seen this in the increasing participation in the Design for Change contest that is into its third chapter this year. Participation in DFC has extended beyond the boundaries of our country and has stepped into practically every continent on the globe. The DFC encourages children to look at problems within the community and also find solutions to them. It envisages children as keepers of the world by making children responsible for identifying problems and solutions. Hopefully, the thousands of children who have participated and will participate in the DFC, will continue to remain sensitive to the needs of our world and will continue to question the inequalities and anomalies that exist in the world and find answers to the same.
This JGW update from Ondikuppam, Koppur and Arunvoyel, all villages in Tamil Nadu, bears testimony to the above. The children from Arunvoyel who had participated in JGW 2010, had also managed to raise Rs2000, which they are using to buy books for children in the village. This year, the children of all the 3 villages hope to participate through various initiatives ranging from setting up a garbage segregation unit to provide manure for the kitchen gardens in the village to raising funds to buy a goat for the poorest family in the village. What is also heartening is the vision of these children to make the positive changes in the village more permanent by discussing 'issues of social concern affecting the village', with the adults.
From such small seeds do mighty trees grow and the JGW that began as an abstract idea is growing, spreading its branches across the world, permeating the air with joy. The Joy of Giving
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