UDAAN 2 - Session 1

June 25, 2021

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Lokopakar is an organization dedicated to youth development. We currently have 4 programs: Strength TogetHER, UDAAN, Margadarshan and Mental Health Series. 

UDAAN is a virtual program created especially for youths of different mindsets and backgrounds. We aim to create a safe space for youths where they come together to share their emotions, feelings, experiences and stories. This space helps them to grow as individuals by creating a platform to be themselves, talk about their issues and find solution to their problems.

We had our first session of UDAAN chapter-2, the introductory session on 25, June Friday from 2pm to 4pm via Zoom meet. We were excited,curious and nervous exactly at the same time. We knew meeting a group of energetic and creative youths was very exciting but facing each other for the first tome would have been quite harder if we didn't had our sweet Aastha and Prastuti Didi from Team Lokopakar.

Miss. Prastuti, a core member of Lokopakar explained us about the main motive of creating Lokopakar and how it has been organizing different sessions to provide a platform for youths to speak up and learn with different talented moderators. She also explained that about UDAAN and its motive. Her beautiful smile and way of explaining things made us more curious and comfortable.

As we were all new to each other, we had self introducing round were everyone introduced themselves and stated their expected sessions. Some of them are:

1) Gender stereotype

2) LGBTQ

3) Domestic violence

Then we played a very entertaining game, the treasure hunt. 4 of our friends, We won the game collecting the allocated items and we were awarded by meaningful gift.

It was a very fun and interactive session with active and inclusive participants. What a amazing feeling it was seeing those many faces standing for themselves and everyone selflessly. I'd like to thank my dearest friend Soniya for helping me with our group members, Aastha for always being there and Prastuti didi for everything.

I'd say our introductory session was a huge success and looking forward for upcoming sessions.

Written by: Aashish Baraily (Chapter Coordinator)