Katy Fitzgerald

 

We want to add on to our previous art project - Tender HeART - and bring the children from Tender Heart the opportunities to discover, explore and enjoy writing - A Heart for Writing.


                                                       
                       
     

                                                       



By developing a series of writing exercises that are

creative
fun
enjoyable
engaging
inspirational
encouraging
educational
and much more.

These exercises will accommodate the diversity of children at Tender Heart, including

rural children
children from local slum areas
children with disabilities

         


The writing exercises will encourage writing from various perspectives, including


write your own story -

write about your own family and friends
write about where you live
write about what you like about coming to Tender Heart
write about what you want to do when you leave school
write about what you like to do in your spare time
write about your dreams and wishes for your future



encouraging imagination in writing -

write a fairy tale 
write a story that starts with.....'She heard footsteps behind her
write about being  a super hero
exaggerate something that has happened to you 
show a painting and make up a story about what is going on in the picture


we will take the children on outings including -

galleries
museums
parks
markets
shopping centres

and have them write about their experience of being there




Write for awareness and change -

write to bring about awareness of relevant issues 
write to politicians / media to bring about positive change


Write for connection -

write letters to friends and family
write to develop pen-pal relationships with children from other schools and other countries 





Learning about collaboration in writing -

form a small group and write  a play
each child writes a section of a story then passes on to the next child






Other aspects of the project include - 


Inviting local authors to come and speak to the children about what encourages, inspires them to write - encourage them to see the different areas where writing can be used - to see writing as a profession


Holding an event and inviting family and friends to come and hear the children read their story


Providing each child with a beautiful journal (made by the Tender Heart Women's empowerment program) to further inspire them to write



Throughout A Heart for Writing, we will keep you up to date with progress via email, facebook and my blog https://redsaree.wordpress.com/

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The funds will be used to -

To purchase a 'beautiful' journal for each child to write in - 200 journals in total (these journals will be made by the Tender Heart Women's Empowerment program)

Cover costs involved in taking children on outings as a source of inspiration for their writing, eg., write about their experience of being in this place

Cover costs involved in hosting local authors to come to Tender Heart to speak about writing

Cover costs involved in holding an event at Tender Heart and inviting family and friends to come and hear the children's stories



Any remaining money will be donated to Tender Heart for a wide range of uses.

In the event of us reaching or exceeding our target, please don't be put off making your donation.
There is no limit.
Some of the other areas that any additional funds will be directed to will include -

ensuring every child gets to go on an outing, (there are over 200 children) 
hosting more guest speakers
purchase of writing materials
purchase of books for the Tender Heart library
ensuring new children to join Tender Heart will also have their own writing journal

Additionally and crucially, the ability to pay the Tender Heart teachers and staff a competitive salary. To date this has not been a possibility and sadly but understandably sometimes results in valued teachers leaving to find higher paying positions.



(P.S. our target for this campaign is $2000 - for our lovely international supporters, that's about £1000 or around $1500 US.    We will happily accept donations from anywhere




Getting this done in time before we get on our planes to India





In 2014, I ran a crowd-funding campaign - Tender HeART (thanks to everyone who supported this) to raise funds to provide Tender Heart children with art materials, access to leading art teachers from Delhi, to explore and create a wide range of art styles including photography, oil painting, sculpture. This was an enormous success culminating in an exhibition for family, friends and the wider community. Julie and Bonita were very involved in this project and in 2015 Julie is returning to Tender Heart with me for A Heart for Writing.














In 2013, I held my own photographing exhibition in Sydney, featuring photographs of my time in India. This exhibition helped raise funds for 8 children from Tender Heart to visit Newcastle, Australia to participate in the Special Olympic games. The children received 13 medals. This was the first time any of these children had been on a plane, been out of India and for most, been out of Delhi. It was a life changing experience

http://www.specialolympics.org/Games/2013_Asia_Pac...
Here's a copy to a few articles the Indian and local press published.

http://www.indianlink.com.au/faces-of-india/
http://indianherald.com.au/events/a-tender-heart-p...


I also did a blog during my time in India. It shows many images from Tender Heart as well as Dharamsala, Mumbai, and Rajasthan
http://redsaree.wordpress.com/.

I will continue this blog when I return to India later this year.







Tender Heart is a small school outside of Delhi, in the village of Bhatola.

It was started by Renu Bali, a local woman with a great passion to bring education to those less fortunate than herself. Renu overcame many challenges to establish the school and have it accepted as part of the community. Tender Heart receives no government funding and relies on volunteers, donations and the dedication of its teachers.


Tender Heart consists of a unit for children from kindergarten to year 10; a unit for children with intellectual and physical disabilities, afternoon school for the local 'slum' children, and a women's empowerment program.



     



    






There is more we could say about Tender Heart and this project.

if you would like additional information, please go to the Tender Heart website http://www.tenderheartngo.org/

or watch this video clip. It goes for around 14 minutes and gives some background on Tender Heart, Bhatola village and Renu.


We hope we have inspired you to support our project and Tender Heart.

If you would like other information, or to ask any questions, you are also welcome to contact me
on facebook or at [email protected]

or

contact Julie on facebook or  [email protected]