On 22nd January, 2022, STRAW India conducted a humane education program, titled "Compassionate Neighborhood" at the Golden Palms Residential Complex, Noida. The idea of this program was to explore ways for children from Grades 1 to 5 to humanely treat the community dogs in their colony without harming themselves. The topic for this session was "Keeping Safe and Recognizing the Body Language of Dogs."
The main objective of this program was to develop a sense of empathy for the voiceless community animals in the neighborhood. It was done through a story about a little girl name Silo who had learnt the body language of dogs and could get along with any dog in a very friendly way.
This was then followed by an Art and Craft activity where the younger children (grades K to 2) colored worksheets provided by STRAW, to learn about community animals living in colonies along with humans. The older children (grades 3 to 5) learnt to make a bed by stuffing old clothes cut into bits and stuffing it into an old pillow case and stitching the ends so that strays animals could sleep on them and save themselves from the cold.
To conclude, the about 25-30 children who participated in the program, shared tales of how they could help the stray dogs in their gated community by creating shelters and practicing responsible feeding with the adults to guide them.
Again, after a fortnight, on the 5th of February, 2022, STRAW India once again conducted the second session of their popular Compassionate Neighborhood Program for the same group of children at the same Golden Palms. This was in continuation of their earlier program "Keeping Safe and Recognizing Body Language of Dogs." The objective of this program was to explore ways for children (Grades 1 to 5) to humanely treat the stray dogs in their colony without harming themselves.
Through a presentation, the children learn to understand and recognize the body language of the dogs, ways to avoid a dog bite and also about actions that they should take incase they get bitten by a dog.
In order to understand how much the children had learnt, the presentation was followed up by a Quiz which the children enjoyed thoroughly. Three children, Samar, Arnav and Ananya did really well. They were given small gifts and an e-certificate.
This program was conducted in association with the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the Golden Palms Apartments in Noida.