VHP Australia organised Children Fun Day Camp

On Saturday 09th January, 2010
At Crestwood Community Centre, Baulkham Hills, NSW

“The paintings created by the children made it look as though 100 rainbows had descended on the hall floor.”

More than 60 children from all over Sydney and surrounding areas attended the day camp to learn about their Hindu/Indian culture.    The camp was organized by the youth wing of VHP Australia.  The participants were given a traditional Hindu welcome with kumkum and a VHP scarf.  

Smt. Akila Ramarathinam welcomed everyone and introduced Smt. Gita Devi from VHP Melbourne branch who was in Sydney to observe the camp so that they can conduct a similar camp in Melbourne.  Clr Barbara Burton from the Baulkham Hills Shire Council was the chief guest at the camp.
 
The camp was aimed at promoting Hindu culture, traditions and their heritage to children, especially to those born in Australia.  The parents/grand parents of these children came from India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Indonesia.

The children were taught Sloka chanting, Yoga, painting of pictures of  Radha & Krishna,from Hindu Epic Mahabharatha,  Sanskrit speaking & Indian outdoor games.
These were used as mediums to educate the children about the importance of good human values in life and also to stress the need for a good diet and exercise mixed with lot of fun.
The sloka teachers were Smt. Jayanthi Narayanan & Smt. Usha Thirumeni who are very experienced teachers and the classical singers. Drawing and painting session was conducted by Shri Mahesh Narayanaswamy.  He was assisted by Sowmya, Janaki, Madhura and Anirudh (Hindu Youth Wing members).   The yoga & outdoor game sessions for the juniors were conducted by Vaishnavi assisted by Prashant and for the senior children by Shri Ramyavaran who was assisted by Kapilesh.  

Shri Narayanan and Shri Rahul Vedi were the Sanskrit teachers. All participants had a fantastic and enriching time. It was wonderful to see the youngsters’ creativity unfold and great to see the children learn the numerals 1 to 20 and days of the week in Sanskrit and Ganesha Pancharatnam in a single day. The indoor and outdoor games were loved as well. The paintings created by the children made it look as though 100 rainbows had descended on the hall floor.

All enjoyed the delicious vegetarian lunch and of course the delectable dessert catered by Maya Da Dabha, Surry Hills, Sydney. Clr Barbara Burton appreciated the camp and told the children that they were very lucky to be participating in activities like these and appreciated the work done by VHP Australia in promoting the Hindu culture to the Hindu Australian children..Clr. Burton mentioned that currently there are only 47000 people who speak Sanskrit in the whole world today and 60 more have now been added to that after this camp!

All the parents said that they were so pleased that their children had learnt to chant slokas, count in Sanskrit and do Indian Heritage art in one day. Several new friendships were formed amongst the parents and children.

Clr. Barbara Burton presented certificates to the children. While delivering Vote of Thanks speech, Smt Gita Devi, VHP Melbourne stated that the camp took her back to her childhood days of spending holidays in her grandparent’s house. She said that it was pleasing to see that VHP Australia is able to organize some thing comparable to that childhood experience in a community centre hall in Sydney. She announced that VHP Melbourne would be conducting a similar camp for the Melbourne children in the near future.  

The broad smile on the children’s and parents’ faces when they left the community centre was the happy climax of the camp.

VHP’s forthcoming events:-

Jan 21 to 24 Kids day/night camp at Heathcote
Feb 13 – 2010 – Shiva Rathri Festival – Crestwood High School, Baulkham hills
April 10 and 11 –First Hindu Youth conference at UWS, Parramatta
April 17 th –Vedapatasala  Anniversary – Crestwood Community Centre
May 210 – Hindu Scripture Teacher Training Programme
July 2010 – Kids Day camp / and Youth day and night camp and workshops
For more details pl contact Akila – Sydney  – (02) 8814 7016  Geetha Devi –Melbourne (03) – 9561 0913 Manonmani – Brisbane – (07) 3841 8646 –