Shanthi Ashram in association with Sarvam, Sri Aurobindo Society organized an awareness program for parents virtually on 30th November 2020 on “Healthy Parenting during COVID-19 and beyond.  This online training program aimed at creating awareness to the parents on bringing up their children successfully. Around 35 parents from SARVAM project villages participated in this online training and learned useful aspects related to successful parenting.

Initially, Dr. Arockia Mary Selvi, Associate Professor from Avinashilingam University conducted an interactive session with all the parents. She explained the various problems children are facing during the lockdown period, which included both the physical as well as psychological issues the children may encounter during lockdown was explained in detail.  She helped parents by suggesting solutions to overcome the problems. She explained how parents should behave when their children are with them.  She clearly said that the children have their parents as their role models and hence as parents, they have to behave properly in front of their children. The trainer also explained the role of a mother and father separately in a child’s life to attain success.  The trainer had a very interactive session with the parents.  She asked all the parents to engage in the discussion and encouraged them to ask questions and this helped all the participants to clear their doubts and also to share their ideas with others.

Secondly, a nutritional counsellor Ms. Anisha spoke on the significance of food that needs to be given to children to keep them healthy during the pandemic. A list comprising of energy food and food items that need to be eliminated was shared with the parents for quick reference.  She clearly instructed the parents not to give junk items to children as they would affect their immunity very badly.

Another trainer from Shanthi Ashram spoke on Child Rights.  The rights of the children were elucidated to the parents and were asked to pass on this information to the children so that they are also aware of their rights.

This program was conducted for 2.5 hours and this was much useful for all the parents. They learnt the effects of a pandemic on children and also they were taught how to overcome them. Being an interactive session was a great boon because it helped them to be active and also participatory.

After the program, the feedback was asked from all the parents who attended the training from SARVAM. They all said that this was an eye-opening program for them which helped them to learn lots of useful aspects of parenting, especially during this lockdown period.  They also requested to organize more such programs to help them.