heART of HOPE

On a beautiful summer morning, as 150+ bright eyed 10th and 12th standard girls formed a semi circle and waited for @sharanya and her team , little would they have imagined that this ia going to be one hell of a joyful morning.

The talented team of artists took center stage and through their beautifully crafted storylines and the endearing performances, communicated life affirming messages to the young girls.

The theme being " Hope is the constant, exams and results are just milestones" was conveyed to the students feeling burderned by the very idea of exams and the results.Their dreams take a back seat and their fears the front seat.Their energies sapped by the expectations and system that unfailing makes you feel like a failure.

I remember meeting sheela a young girl, in Rajendranagar slum on the dawn of the new year in 2019. as i spoke to her and her three sisters, she seemed to hesitate and then told me with "absolute conviction" that she has no life to look forward to and that she had no future" because she had failed in one subject in the previous year. Her confidence dented , she saw a bleak future for herself.

This seeded our quest to train girls to believe that there is life beyond exams and a future beyond exam results. We wanted to do this like a street play and Gayi a friend and a generous soul, immediately connected us to sharanya. I hoped that sharanya and team would understand the spirit of the message that we wanted conveyed.And did they do an absolutely awesome job of it.

The girls were star struck by the performance and quickly got the message, exams are important but achieving our dreams is above and beyond all of this.They cheered wildly when they saw that every character in the playbhas found a niche, and defined their own success parameters and above all knew that happiness and fulfilment is the destination, and each can take a path that is all their own and a route that is as unique as their dreams.

Wonderful cast, such spontaneous and uplifting performances and ofcourse such a down to earth way and genuine effort to engage with the school girls.

Our motto at HopeWorks Foundation is "Every child a winner" and today through this intervention Sharanya and her talented team or actors , made every girl in the audience believe that " she is a winner". If that is not Hope, what is?

Take a bow sharanya and team and huge gratitude to Gayi for enabling a star dust filled morning for our girls . For art reaches spaces in our heart like little else can and transport us into the mystical and magical world of hope , like exams and results can never can.

I believe every child in every school should get to experience this magic.