Introducing SYF’s flagship concept Palak Pratinidhi or Mentoring Volunteers. It is an original concept where in the volunteer goes through a mentoring program and eligible candidates are acknowledged as Mentors. Palak Pratinidhi are the pillars of the SYF as a whole.
Palak Pratinidhi as the word in Marathi suggests, “Parent Representative” is true to its word. The concept of Palak Pratinidhi is going a step beyond and indulging in a great amount of responsibility. It is a matter of great pride and satisfaction.
There are two ways of spreading light – to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
We believe in being the mirror and spreading the light in a focused direction or into infinite angles. A Palak Pratinidhi is such a mirror to his/her ward. The Palak Pratinidhi guides the ward like a mirror, letting them know their true potential and getting the best out of them.
Each Palak Pratinidhi is assigned a group of ward and entire responsibility of those wards lies on the respective Palak Pratinidhi. The responsibilities may range from personal / psychological / health related to educational / professional. There is a range of tasks that are involved in becoming a Palak Pratinidhi.
A multitude of tasks are involved in becoming a Palak Pratinidhi. A Palak Pratinidhi over the period may not be able to manage his duties and may feel stressed at times, this is when fellow Palak Pratinidhi mentoring program guides and distress the Palak Pratinidhi. We had wonderful feedbacks from Palak Pratinidhi, who keep telling us.
It is not the ward we mentor but ourselves. The ward teaches us far more things about life that we can possibly teach him. The agonies and betrayals of wards are deep sores which no one from us would even like to see, but these wards are facing or rather living with those. We may say that there are the two ways for transfer of knowledge from Palak Pratinidhi to ward and life’s lessons from ward to Palak Pratinidhi.
Being a Palak Pratinidhi is a great amount of responsibility and a matter of great pride. Here are some of the tasks Palak Pratinidhis are involved in…
- Understanding your ward and his family background, attitude towards education, home visit.
- Contacting your ward weekly or twice a month and making general conversations apart from studies.
- Career guidance, looking for various options for your ward.
- Checking possibilities of extra learning during vacation or part-time job.
- Encourage the ward to attend personality development programs organized by SYF or at personal level.
- Keep track of your ward’s progress – academic and extra-curricular – and appreciate him/her for the same.
- Imbibe financial discipline in your ward – give a clear idea of his/her budget, see if he/she can work part time and support his/her own education, manage expenditure, timely claim settlement, etc.
- Submit monthly report of your ward to Ahawal Committee