Designing Kindness: When NIFT Delhi Sketched Smiles at Pehchaan The Street School

We live in a moving world. When we think of giving it’s like a deal. We click a button to donate put clothes in a box or send money to help someone. These things are good. Needed.. There’s something more valuable than money. The time we spend with people and the help we give them.

The Social Club of NIFT Delhi visited the Noida Centre of Pehchaan The Street School. They didn’t come empty-handed. They brought food and essential items.. More importantly they brought themselves.

The NIFT Delhi team showed us that designing clothes and accessories is great.. The best thing you can make is a moment when you’re kind to someone. They made this moment for the people at Pehchaan The Street School.

When the NIFT team arrived the atmosphere changed. Normally visitors come to our place formally.. The NIFT students broke down that wall quickly. They made everyone feel comfortable.

The NIFT team gave our students pencils, paper, fruits and cookies. The children loved these things. They made them really happy. The NIFT volunteers didn’t just give things; they sat down with the students. They asked about their dreams, favorite colors and cartoons.

At Pehchaan The Street School we think sitting down and listening to people is important. We want our students to feel important. So we sit down listen to them and look them in the eye.

NIFT is famous for teaching students how to make clothes.. They also learn about people and the world. The NIFT students learned about empathy. Empathy is when you feel what the other person is feeling. The NIFT team didn’t go there to feel sorry for our students; they went there to share moments with them.

There’s a difference between giving something and really connecting with people. When you give something it moves in one direction. When you connect with people it’s mutual. The children and NIFT volunteers learned from each other.

I have been working with Pehchaan The Street School for some time. I’ve seen drives and events. The events I remember most are the ones where people talk to each other and become friends.

Many children grow up feeling unseen or disconnected. The NIFT Delhi team helped to break that feeling. They made the children feel seen.

The idea of Pehchaan, which means ‘Identity’ is important. We figure out who we are by looking at how others see us. When people treat us with respect we start to believe it about ourselves.

We want to thank the Social Club at NIFT Delhi. Thank you for choosing Pehchaan The Street School. Thank you for the smoothies and stationery. Mostly thank you for the laughter.

Collaborations like this are important for our organization. We count on people being kind. Organizations like NIFT taking the lead makes a difference in the community.

The time you spent at the Noida Centre showed how schools can make a difference in students lives. The Noida Centre feels like family to the people who go there.

We Want You To Work With Us: Join Our Design Team

This visit by NIFT Delhi is a small part of what Pehchaan The Street School is doing. Pehchaan The Street School is a place where everyones welcome. We’re like a family. Pehchaan The Street School is about helping each other and being kind to people.

We want to work with people, on projects. Are you part of a College Society?

If you like dance, music, drama, fine arts or debate you should bring your talent to our centers. You can organize a workshop. Teach our students. You can teach them how to paint or how to act or how to debate at our centers. The experience you give to the students at our centers could make a difference in a child’s life and change what they want to do with their career path at our centers, with fine arts or debate or music or dance or drama.

Are you a Corporate Team?

Corporate Social Responsibility is often about writing a cheque. We want you to make Corporate Social Responsibility real. You can come with us for a distribution drive. You can also sponsor a meal for people who need it. Or you can do something better you can sponsor the education of a batch of students. When your team from the office comes back they will be more close to each other. Feel more connected to what is really important than they would after any corporate retreat.

Are you a Medical or Wellness Professional?

Our students often do not have access to healthcare. This is an area where support can make a real difference. We ask doctors and dentists and nutritionists to come and help our students. They do this by conducting camps. A simple check of the eyes can make a difference for a child. It can be the difference between a child having to leave school or doing well in their class. The eye check-up is very important for our students, like the doctors and dentists and nutritionists who come to our camps to help our students.

Are you an Artist or Creator?

Come paint a wall at our center. Come make a documentary. Use your art to tell the stories that often go unheard.

We are not just looking for people who will give us money. We are looking for partners who will work with us. We want to find people who really care about the children and want to help us make a life for them. We want people who will help us make decisions about the future of the children. We want the children to have a future and we need partners to help us make that happen.

The Call for Volunteers: Your Time is the Revolution

So I want to talk to the person who is reading this. The person who is reading this might not be a member of a group like NIFTs Social Club. The person who is reading this might not have a lot of money to spend like a company does. The person who is reading this might think what can NIFTs Social Club and a company with a budget possibly have to do with them and they might also think what can they possibly do.

The answer is: You can sit down and be comfortable. You can listen to what people have to say. You can belong to a group of people who value you for who you are.

Pehchaan The Street School is looking for volunteers. They want people who can give an hour of their time on a Saturday or Sunday. Pehchaan The Street School needs people to be teachers, mentors and friends to the children at Pehchaan The Street School.

National and International Volunteers

We welcome both national and international volunteers. Whether you live nearby or are joining us from afar, your perspective and support are invaluable. We have a lot of centers in Delhi NCR. You can find us in Indraprastha, GTB Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Noida and some other places too. Delhi NCR centers are pretty close to each other. So there is probably a Delhi NCR center near your home.

To teach here you do not have to be a professor. The important thing is that you are patient. You have to be the kind of person who is willing to sit down with a child on a mat. You have to be willing to help them when they are having trouble with a word that’s hard to say. You have to be willing to dust off your hesitation and just help them sound out the word. When a child gets a math problem right teaching here means you will be happy for them and you will give them a five. You will be happy for the children when they do a job with their math and you will high-five them like you are really excited that they got the math problem right.

Volunteering with us is really a two way thing. I promise you that the students will teach you a lot more than you can teach them. You will see how happy they are even when things are tough. You will see how they want to succeed even when it is hard. When you volunteer with us you will meet people who think like you and who believe that we can make the world a better place, one child at a time by volunteering with us and helping these students.

The visit by the NIFT Social Club was really short. It made a big difference. We drank the smoothies ate the oranges and we will use up the stationery soon. The feeling that we matter that will stay with us. The memory of a didi or bhaiya from a college taking the time to talk to us that is really inspiring. The NIFT Social Club visit was a thing but it made us feel special and that is what we will remember.

At Pehchaan The Street School we want to make a change. Education at Pehchaan The Street School is not about reading and writing. It is about making the students at Pehchaan The Street School feel safe and happy. We want Pehchaan The Street School to be a place where students can feel secure even when their lives are really tough.

We do this best when we do it together. We need the designers and the dreamers and the corporate leaders and the college students. Designers and dreamers and corporate leaders and college students are all important. We need designers and dreamers and corporate leaders and college students like you.

Spend a day with us. You can bring a kit you can bring a fruit. You can just bring yourself to our place. We want you to come and design a kindness with the people at our organization. Help us make sure that every child is able to find their Pehchaan.

Join us today.

• Website: pehchaanstreetschool.org

• Instagram: @pehchaanstreetschool

• Email: pehchaanschool@gmail.com

Let’s turn compassion into action. Let’s make time the most valuable donation of all.