Akshara Foundation of Arts and Learning

Posts

Breaking Barriers: Embracing Inclusion Through Autism Awareness!

On Monday, 12th June 2023, Akshara High School hosted a captivating session on Autism Awareness in collaboration with Ms. Suvi Pandey, a passionate advocate from Inclusive Duniya. The event aimed to foster understanding and inclusivity among our Grades 6 and 7 students, empowering them to become compassionate allies in the journey towards a more inclusive society. Building on the momentum of Autism Awareness & Acceptance Month in April, where we delved into books featuring autistic characters, this interactive session took the conversation further. Through engaging discussions and thought-provoking activities, our students explored the concept of inclusion and gained insights into supporting individuals with different abilities, including those on the autism spectrum. The highlight of the session was the use of simple comic strip-like illustrations, allowing children to express their perspectives on how they would navigate everyday situations involving individuals with disabili...

Embracing Solar Power: Illuminating a Sustainable Future!

At Akshara High School, we have always been committed to nurturing our students’ minds and the environment around us. Today, we are thrilled to share our exciting journey towards embracing solar power and taking a significant step towards sustainability. As a school that deeply cares about the environment, we have embarked on this path to harness clean, renewable energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Mridula Chakraborty, our esteemed founder, has always envisioned Akshara as a place where students learn from textbooks and the world around them. She believes that it is our responsibility to instil in our students a sense of environmental consciousness and empower them to be agents of change. On the day of the solar power inauguration, we had the privilege of hosting a workshop for our students on solar energy and climate change. Through engaging activities and discussions, we aimed to educate our young minds about the importance of renewable energy and its impact on the environme...

Havas Group India and Akshara Foundation of Arts and Learning (AFAL) partner up as happiness preachers!

One of the most meaningful partnerships for AFAL has been the one with HavasImpact+ (Havas Positive Impact), the global CSR unit of Havas Group India. In 2022, through this partnership, HavasImpact+ and AFAL have been conducting a series of activities that not only provide education, and encourage the creative steak in our children, but also impart vocational training. A series of workshops that constituted knowledge-sharing sessions were designed specifically for students aged 11-15 years. The next event was coming together to create a wall of graffiti at the project premises in Mumbai. For the workshop which had hour-long training sessions, volunteers from Havas Group India visited AFAL premises to interact with the students, imparting training on 3 topics: Design Thinking, Public Speaking, and Introduction to Art. The curated sessions were designed to provide the students with the necessary tools to create a foundation that they’d be able to build upon, there...

From advertising to adversities

Kunal Chakravarty Director - Communications & Fundraising AFAL I spent 20 years as an advertising and marketing professional before deciding to take on the responsibilities of running a not-for-profit school. When I told people what I was planning to do, they all either said I was mad or (which amounted to the same thing) brave. But jacking in a career like this to become run a school so late in life wasn’t brave – it was desperate. Though I didn’t admit it at the time, I was entirely burnt out – I had been in the same industry for 20-odd years – and was showing the classic symptoms. I was getting cynical about the value of what I did and of as a whole – what was all this crazy chasing of ephemera really for? It would have been much braver (and much madder) for me to quit at 27 when my financial liabilities were limited. Back then, I was still in thrall to the status of what I did (though at the time I would have denied that). The job in itself was part of my identity – it was...

Why art education?

Kunal Chakravarty Director - Communications & Fundraising AFAL At Akshara, we strongly believe that the Arts are an integral part of an individual’s well-being as they foster the young to become sensitive and compassionate adults . Artistic interventions and experiences help children engage more intimately with themselves, their surroundings and the world at large. The Arts create an environment of equality where children absorb knowledge, develop skills and express themselves freely without fear or prejudice, thus empowering them. Another driving force that makes us lean heavily on the Arts is the fact that a majority of our students are either first-generation school-goers or first-generation English learners. We are also an inclusive school, which means that every class has a mix of students with varied intellectual and physical abilities. Thus, text-based education and cookie-cutter lesson plans are not something we can rely on and we have to find artistic ways to ensure ...

Yes She Can!

Priya’s mother worked as a domestic help in the house of a family who had two children, both students of Akshara High School. As a little four-year-old, Priya often tagged along with her mother when she was at work and played with the younger of the two children who was as old as her. The parents of the two children approached us enquiring if we could perhaps admit Priya to our school as they were aware that we support the education of girl children, offer subsidies and also full scholarships. The thought that two children who played together would now come to school together as well, was absolutely joyous and we immediately took her under our wing. Both her parents had never been to school and for their child to jump straight into an English-medium ICSE school was going to be a challenge. However, Priya was not the first child at Akshara to come from a background like this. We had an existing system which ensured the child becomes an independent learner from a young age and...