Understanding Media, Photography & Drama

Nilima Abrams, MFA - USA
Recent Film School Graduate, Stanford University
In 2005 I was in India filming an undergraduate documentary about a program in Bangalore that helps combat child labor using education. After filming, I went to Andhra Pradesh and happened to meet a 12-year-old orphan who slept at a bus station. I tried to find a residential school that would take him, with no success. After many frustrating attempts, someone gave me Michael's number. Although he and Aleli did not take boys his age, they provided much guidance and help. This led me to visit many schools but none impressed me like The Children's Project. The other programs focused more on material resources or rote academics and seemed to lack family atmosphere and love.

I came to CPT in August 2009 for an indefinite period of time. I'm a documentary filmmaker with an MFA from Stanford University, as well as training in "Education In Human Values". It is my passion to focus my work, school and volunteer endeavors towards helping children.

I planned to film for a documentary and maybe teach one class. Currently I am teaching three. Standards 5-11 are working with me on a video production class. They are developing topics for short documentaries, which they will film. We discuss media's potential for good or evil, how to generate ideas, story telling techniques and hands-on camera practice. Standards 2-4 are working with me on drama. The older children are writing stories that we will turn into small plays to be performed by the younger ones. Finally, with 0-1 standards I am working on art and basic values. We build with clay, make animals out of folded paper, play charades, or build imaginary houses.

I start each class with three Aums, three repetitions of a mantra [chant], or a short meditation. This helps the kids settle and focus. Then we all shake out our bodies and stretch to feel fresh for the new class. With the youngest kids I integrate simple lessons into hands-on activities. For example, we practice asking and listening when sharing colored clay. When making up skits with toy animals, I teach something new about the animals. For the middle-age group I use a combination of 'drawing out' knowledge and 'putting in.' With their writing, I first let them write freely, but then correct errors and guide the stories, both for content and grammar. We had a mock debate about the merits of owning dogs versus cows. I let the children create their own arguments and present them; then I augmented these by explaining more about different breeds, the history of animal-human relationships, etc. To the oldest group I show examples of various documentaries, give lectures on media use - particularly in India- and guide them in brainstorming activities for the skits.

The kids at CPT are different from most of the kids I've worked with. Here they are creative, responsible, and spiritual - three traits which are sorely lacking in much of the world. Unlike children who are raised by TVs and video games, the youth at CPT have active imaginations and can play harmoniously amongst themselves. They build miniature houses out of sticks, decorate them with flowers and place coffee-leaves for roofs. During their lunch period groups of students huddle around as older ones tell intricate stories, which they illustrate with toy animals. Though this is the natural state of childhood, it has been dulled in many other children.

The children also shoulder more responsibilities. They wash their own clothes, serve each other during meal times, take care of animals, including cows, and teach younger students. The chores are not done begrudgingly - I often hear them laughing and singing while they work. Very small children have not been taught to dislike scrubbing or washing clothes, so why not sing and laugh?


Their sense of spirituality is the most striking aspect of the children of CPT. When one of the cows was sick, a special prayer session was held in her behalf. The love and sincerity with which the children prayed and their concern for the animal demonstrated their deeper understanding of the value of life. One child spoke to me about how God is in everything, even a tiny speck on the desk. She described that before coming to CPT she used to think of God as a distant being high in the sky, but now she knows that God is everywhere and that all names of God are equal.

The most positive experiences I've had with the kids are the genuine, spontaneous one-on-one interactions. Since the kids are curious, bright and real, I feel very comfortable being myself around them. I feel like I am their big sister and thus laughter, hugs and games feel perfectly natural. CPT is unique and special because it began as a family and retains that personal touch. The kids know they are truly loved and cared for as individuals and that makes all the difference.

Belief in the Self within is very important. If we have confidence in ourselves and in everyone here, and we collectively hold onto our vision, it will become a reality and other children who come in the future will learn from what you have done. This is a time when your strengths can start affecting the world. Our business will lift people's spirits and they will go back into their daily lives feeling a little bit happier. Who knows what changes will occur in the community - or in the world - as a result?

Dharmic Business

Jeanne M. Lilly, PhD - USA
College Counselor and Educator
Dharmic Business 101 was a 33-session class for 13 students, ages 12-16 from standards 5 to 11. The overall focus was on business, personality and spiritual development. The class emphasized practical application of the learning, which will culminate in the creation of a specialty coffee shop or café in the local town of Madikeri. However, as Michael Galligan, founder, told us all in his introduction to the course, it's about much more:

How did the rishis of old influence change in the world? They dreamed it in the highest, most divine and loving way, with such divine faith and power, that it became a reality. We are all living at the beginning of a dream. We are the dreamers this time. When many people share a vision, the power of the vision becomes much stronger. This class will help you learn that you have the power to create that which you want to create. What you learn about starting a business, whether it's a coffee café and ice cream store or a restaurant, you can apply to your life. You will learn practical things you can use in your life in general. Know that there will be moments of dullness, tiredness, wanting to give up, and not knowing what's next . but the effort that is made is what makes the success so sweet.

As teachers, our main goals were for the students to develop personal and business-related skills that would help them both with future work at the café, and in other life arenas as well. Topics included marketing research, where students developed a marketing survey and analyzed results from 30 respondents. They also analyzed industry data relevant to the future café, which culminated in the development of a business plan (including a mission statement, goals and objectives of the business, and menu plans for the future café).

Personal development topics such as assessment of personal strengths and career interests, and note taking, interviewing, and public speaking skills, were also included. Finally, drawing from Dr. Art-Ong Jumsai's Human Values Integrated Instructional Model, adherence to universal values in the running of the business, and the accessing of superconscious information through silent sitting and meditation as a means of gathering relevant information, were emphasized.

We found the students excited about this future venture, and very interested in conducting the business in an ethical way. As a group, they were unified and both peaceful and playful. We see them working well together in the café, while serving in different roles, given their varying interests and skills. They were generally quite shy at the beginning of the course, and we saw them blossom as the course proceeded.

Jeannie Cranfield, Events Producer - Scotland
The theme of 'Peace' was explored with the intention of increasing knowledge and awareness about the components needed to create a peaceful world. Students communicated their ideas of a peaceful world through words, plays, drawings, visualization and song.

They have explored the differences between a world of conflict versus a world of peace and questioned whether peace is more than just the absence of war. Thought has been given as to what peace actually is, where it can be found and if we need to find peace within ourselves first before we can find peace in the world.

Students were asked to consider what human qualities they think are most important for creating a peaceful life. These qualities became the ingredients for an imaginary "WORLD PEACE CAKE OF HUMAN QUALITIES".

The many positive uses for arms were also explored (serving others, hugging, touching, writing, painting, etc.) and, of course, the negatives ways we can use our arms (hitting, beating, slapping, killing, etc.). We discussed how the word 'arms' is also used for weapons of war. The children were asked to create posters with slogans for the school, reflecting how they would like to see the other children use their arms, for example:

Arms are for serving, not for beating
Arms are for praying, not for hitting
Arms are for hugging not for shoving
Arms are for giving, not for grabbing

Using a short story, the children enjoyed enacting the role of 'Peace Stars' who come from the heavens to help the children of earth live more peacefully. Many have written their own thoughts about when they feel most peaceful.

Javier Perez de Cuellar, Former Secretary General of the United Nations, has said:

Peace must begin with each one of us. Through quiet and serious reflection on its meaning, new and creative ways can be found to foster understanding, friendship and cooperation among all peoples.

With the register of guests at the school reading like a mini United Nations, it's no doubt the children have already begun to act as 'Stars of Peace', their bright lights fostering friendships that span the globe.

Shanti Shanti Shanti!