CAG 2021-22
CHAPPA CHAPPA
Jaimala Iyer and Hitesh Rawat
Kukma village, Kutch (Gujarat)
This programme led by theatre artist and educator Jaya Iyer, worked with children in the block printing community in Kutch (Gujarat), to make their own block-print story books.
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Jaya worked initially with one Government school in the traditional block printers community of Ajrakhpur, leading theatre and storytelling exercises. They created over ten different short story books using original block prints.
Children at the Ajrakhpur Government School took part in theatre and storytelling workshops led by Jaya at their school.
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In the second phase of this programme, Jaya was able to print multiple copies of these books, and take them to three different education sites across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttarakhand, to work with children and teachers in using these, and having these children tell their own stories inspired from the books created at Ajrakhpur.
The block print books created by students travelled to organisations such as Nai Taleem (Gujarat) and OELP (Rajasthan) as part of teaching training workshops.
They were also able to organise one ‘Mela e Ajrakhpur’ which had over 50 community members and all the students of the primary section as the audience and 54 students from grade 5 onwards presenting their creative pieces - story books, local news paper, a play, quiz. The event was interactive and generated a lot of positive energy.
At the Mela-e-Ajrakhpur, the entire Government School came together to hear stories, read the block print books and be part of theatre productions.
About the grantees
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Jaimala Iyer has worked in leadership positions with non-profits Sankalp and Pravah and the government's Nehru Memorial Museum Library. She has created and led campaigns on nuclear disarmament, food and seed sovereignty, gender justice, child rights and civil liberties. As a theatre professional she developed and staged over 20 major productions and 1000 studio, street and community performances.
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Hitesh Rawat is a trained designer who has been involved with various crafts, communities in different regions and often teaches at design institutes. He has worked with weavers, printers, stone inlay artisans, miniature artists, painters. He sees these opportunities and interactions as a significant vital space to relearn and as a key to way forward.
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