'Is Your Connection Stronger than the Wi-Fi?' – Bhavans IES hosts a seminar for its parent community

Bhavans Indian Education School, Kuwait, never becomes enervated in any adverse situation, and always keeps its students physically strong and mentally and emotionally robust. As the pandemic COVID-19 drags on, the school understands the importance of parents’ involvement and guidance to cope with the uncertainty lies ahead. Intending to enhance the resilience of the students by bolstering the psychosocial support for their mental health and wellbeing and to rejuvenate the parents and educators, the school organized a session on November 06, 2020 on its virtual platform on the topic ‘Is your Connection Stronger than the Wi-Fi?

The programme commenced at 4 p.m. Ms. Preethi K. Nair, the counsellor of Indian Education School, Kuwait, welcomed the august gathering, which included Ms. Seema Girija Lal, resource person, Mr. Ramachandran Menon, Chairman, Bhavans Middle East, Ms. Divya Rajesh,Director, Bhavans Middle East, Principals, Vice Principals and the teachers from the Bhavans Schools in the Middle East, and the parents and the students of Indian Education School and Smart Indian School, Kuwait.

The productive seminar was conducted by Ms. Seema Girija Lal, a prominent mental health consultant, who has been ardently working in the field of education, mental health and disability over twenty-five years. She is also the Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of ‘Together We Can (TWC)’, a charitable trust that addresses the issues related to child education and disability.

The session imbued the parents with high values and different strategies to guide their children and safeguard their neurological and physiological progression. She emphasized that the virtual connection is only meaningful when we connect with each other. In the further discussion, she pointed out three key vital aspects – open conversation, owning up and opportunity to do things to boost the holistic development of the children. She underscored the significance of listening by even listening to the silence of the children. To remove the feeling of isolation of the children, she suggested a panacea i.e. listen, laugh, love and let go. She advised the parents not to be a bundle of instructions and information but be ludicrous and goofy at times. She familiarized the parents with the roles of Cortex, Limbic and Brainstem in perception, cognition, emotion and behaviour of a child. She highlighted the prominence of developing independent living skills and interpersonal skills. She also tutored the parents on Look, Listen and Link, the Psychological First Aid, which can be given to children in a wide range of different contexts. It is appropriate to use during an emergency situation or immediately after a critical event, such as in major emergencies like a tsunami or earthquake or in conflicts or war. It is also appropriate during or after a crisis affecting a small group of individuals. During the question-answer session, she reminded the parents of the impact of regular discussion, dignity, decision and disagreement and reiterated the point ‘disagree with the idea of the child, but not with the child’. At the end of the session, valuable and admirable comments poured in from the parent community for initiating such an informative and insightful session.

Mr. T. Premkumar, the Principal of IES, expressed his sincere gratitude to Ms. Seema Girija Lal on behalf of the entire Bhavans fraternity for accepting the school’s invitation despite her busy schedule to provide invaluable insights to the parent community to ponder over the wellbeing of their most prized possessions – their children. A virtual token of appreciation wrapped with profound gratefulness was presented to the keynote speaker by the principal on behalf of the Bhavans Community. The virtual curtains were drawn on one of the most informative sessions ever. “A holiday well spent” was the thought that most attendees shared with the writer of this report when asked about the webinar by Ms Seema Girija Lal. It indeed stands testimony to the unbounded thoughtfulness of the Bhavan management during these unprecedented times of pandemic.