Janhavi , an enthusiastic lady started the Vimarsha Charitable Trust to provide education and livelihood skills to high functioning children with special needs. She looks forward to offering holistic learning experiences for the students at Vimarsha.
Aniek Duijsens, student at the Hotel Management School Maastricht was keen to work in India . She looked forward to experiencing the Indian way of live and hoped that she could, with her skills make a difference to the lives of people here.
It was One Good Step that brought these two together. With the help of a dedicated team, they launched the ‘Smart Cookie’ programme on 23 rd July 2016.
The students at Vimarsha had been introduced to baking by a volunteer home baker. With the Smart Cookie programme they took this forward and learnt every aspect of the process from procuring ingredients to selling the product.
The students were excited as they were involved at every level-right from buying ingredients, to mixing the dough, baking the cookies, managing its packaging, setting up the display stall, selling the cookies as well as managing the inventory and the money on the exhibition day.
The excited students, according to Janhavi did a wonderful job . She says that it was a wonderful learning experience for all of them.
It took about 6 weeks for the team to get the ‘smart cookie’ programme in place. Once Janhavi and Aniek decided that they would focus on baking cookies, the biggest challenge for Aniek was to come up with a flavour that was unique and likely to find buyers. As a professional in the food industry, she was keen to use locally available ingredients to create a product with a distinct local flavour.
They soon zeroed in on the ‘Orange Cinnamon flavour.’ With the help of 5 students aged 15 and above, Aniek got the cookies ready for the exhibition on 23 rd July 2016. 50 packets containing 6 cookies each were made ready during the final week.
The exhibition was held at the Vimarsha premises in Jaynagar. Another volunteer helped the team set up the stalls. Besides cookies, other handmade upcycled objects created by the students of Vimarsha were also displayed.
The exhibition was a grand success. Janhavi hopes to have similar exhibitions on a regular basis. She believes that engaging her students in a wide range of activities helps them pick up several new skills. Besides every success adds to their confidence and encourages them to become independent.
Aniek says that it was a wonderful learning experience working with a team of extremely dedicated people. She has enjoyed working with the students at Vimarsha and has even extended her stay in India.
One Good Step is thrilled to have been part of this journey. We look forward to working with Vimarsha Charitable trust and enthusiastic volunteers like Aniek and together make a real difference.
If you would like to place orders for ‘Orange Cinnamon Cookies’ made by the students of Vimarsha, please contact: ljanhavi@gmail.com
-Authored by Meenakshi Ravi
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