The Peer Support program is a support group consisting of student volunteers from the department of Psychology. The program is akin to the “buddy system” to provide psychological support to students of LSR. It was initiated in 2016 to assist students facing day to day adjustment problems, relationship difficulties, academic concerns and other issues relating to self-esteem/ body image. The student volunteers are selected through an application process followed by interviews, supervised by faculty coordinators, for conducting one-to-one sessions on the problems mentioned above. The peer supporters through their relatively greater experience in the college academic and non-academic system facilitate better functioning of the students facing difficulties. The peer supporters have in the past held workshops on time management, body image concerns, procrastination and stress management with the students. By having a program called “Spaces”, an informal setting is provided where participants share their experiences or difficulties with the group members. This creates a space for discussion and cooperative learning. If a student presents a clinical picture beyond the purview of the problems mentioned above, for instance high degree of distress or any indication of self harm, sexual & physical abuse and substance abuse, they are referred to trained and qualified mental health professionals (psychiatrists/clinical psychologists affiliated to a hospital setting). Sessions are conducted based on prior appointment and are held only during college working days and working hours (8:45 am to 5:30 pm).
NSS-LSR, through its community outreach programs addresses a number of urgent social issues. It has built fruitful collaborations with over 22 NGOs and has established five in-house projects and a volunteer base of over 700 students. The past year was extremely productive.
- NSS LSR continued its initiative to interact with children from the less privileged sections of society by organising Kala—an interactive, educational art competition and workshop for children frequenting NSS LSR’s NGO collaborations.
- NSS-LSR organised the annual NSS Diwali Mela- Noor in the month of November 2018. The event was a celebration of the innovative skills of students and NGOs, showcasing a wide range of student entrepreneurs and NGO-made products.
- The Tihar Programme began on the 1st of January with a four day long Clutch and Folder Making Module with the women inmates of Tihar Jail. An Expressive Arts Intervention Module was also conducted.
- Gender sensitisation workshops were held at NSS-LSR affiliated NGO’s including Kriti, Hope, Khusbhu, Shanti Sanyog, Vidya and Aarohan, in collaboration with the Women’s Development Cell, LSR on themes such as Gender Identities, Idea of Consent & Safe and Unsafe Touch and Menstrual Health.
- NSS-LSR also organised its annual youth convention, Nexus 2019. The theme for the convention was ‘Celebrating Women”
Waste to Worth is a student-run initiative of Lady Shri Ram College, under NSS-LSR, that revolves around the concept of sustainable equitable development and strengthening of women led economies through self-sustenance. Basta aims to impart entrepreneurial and stitching skills to under-served women, using which they refashion bags out of waste flex sheets and waste cloth. It strives to make rural women and the youth economically self-reliant and independent through productive, dignified employment and connectivity. Currently, Basta is working with a group of semi-skilled women residing in the urban slums of Khoregaon and Zamrudpur. In the academic session 2018-19, the number of women working with enactus increased from a small group of five to thirty. The venture revolves around the production of bags and pouches made out of used flex banners and cloth and the up-cycling of waste materials into marketable products, which will in turn help these women in generation of an additional income for their households.
World University Service (WUS) is an international Non-Governmental Organization with a network of national committees in more than 60 countries. It has aimed to spread awareness on a variety of issues, focusing largely on the Physical as well as Psychological health. It also focuses on development and defence of human rights in the education sector. In 2018-19 various efforts were made:
- A stress relief workshop was conducted. The objective of the event was to emphasize the fact that mental health is as important as physical health through this event.
- This International Women’s day, WUS initiated towards contributing to the cause of blood donation. It was organized in collaboration with Blood Connect .Doctors from Lady Hardinge Medical College who collaborated further disseminated knowledge about blood donation and its’ pros and cons.
- A panel discussion to talk about mental health issues and stigma was organized in collaboration with the Statistics Department of LSR. The panel included speakers from the field of Psychiatry, Psychology and Social Media.
Enactus is a society that aims to solve the problems in society with entrepreneurial action. Under Enactus LSR, there are currently 2 projects- Utthaan and Auric. Utthaan aims at promoting and providing vertical gardening installations as solution to the rising air; the beneficiaries of the project are a backward nursery based in Noida. Auric aims to improve the sanitation conditions by helping a community based in Mangar village near Gurugram manufacture dishwashing liquid; it also aims to make the women in the project financially independent. In an attempt to provide a solution to the ever increasing problem of air pollution, Enactus members reached out to architects and cafes and got vertical gardens installed at Organic Express café(Gurgaon) and a residence in New Friends Colony. All these installations were executed by the financially unstable nursery adopted by Enactus. Further, Enactus collaborated with East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and installed vertical gardens in a municipal court in Yamuna Vihar and a chest clinic in Patparganj. Enactus members further painted two walls in East Delhi, as instructed by the EDMC, to send across a social message to the public to adopt ways to reduce pollution. Enactus also reached out to the government and received an order to install vertical gardens on two metro pillars under DurgabaiDeshmukh Metro Station. These vertical gardens significantly reduce the toxicity of the air around. To send across this message within college. Enactus received mentions and appreciation from the Hindu, Navbharat times, DainikJagran, Top Story, Rashtriya Sahara, Punjab Kesari, Jansatta, Shah times, ViratVaibha and from online newsletters like Youth Ki Awaaz. Enactus also organized a health camp in Mangar village, where another one of its communities reside, in collaboration with Paras hospitals to provide free health check up and distribute free medicines.
This is a dynamic society of LSR, based on community which provides a space to harness youth power as a creative force for social change. It allows students to engage with socio-economic issues and trains them for community development. The society also provides enthusiastic students engaging opportunities to volunteer with NGOs working at the grassroot level. The horizon of VAPP keeps expanding not only to build up an awareness about the world among the students but also to help them discover the hidden world within themselves. This self-exploration helps bring about social change because any initiative to transform the world begins with the individual – with you, us and me. Keeping this thought in mind, VAPP organized a series of events throughout the academic year 2018- ’19. These included a workshop on the issue of ‘Digital Safe Space in India’ on 2nd August, 2018, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Youth Affairs.
A Clothes Collection Drive in collaboration with the NGO, We Clothe Them. It was a small concerted effort by the team of VAPP to reach out to lesser privileged members of society. The skill of incorporating individualism and humanity into one was taught to students, through an interactive session on August 30, 2018, with Mr. Karan Verma, the founder of Simply Blood, the world’s first virtual blood donation platform to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of blood. Ms. Juhi Sharma, the founder of Light Up Foundation, conducted a workshop on which emphasized how overthinking, toxic relationships, pain and abusive lifestyle can bring us down but the formula is to rise up.
