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Young Innovators Foundation (YIF)

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Young Innovators Foundation (YIF)

Being young does not depend on the number of years one has lived, but on the capacity to grow and progress. Let's Explore, Create and Innovate!

Our aim is to create empowering spaces for the children of our world to be able to unlock their true potential and share their gifts with the world with utmost grace, ease and efficiency. To grow is to increase ones potentialities, ones capacities; to progress is to make constantly more perfect the capacities that one already possesses. We at Young Innovators Foundation (YIF) facilitate growth and progress. So come join us to look at things from a fresh perspective, to add a twist, to do something different every day, tread a unique path, a new way!

25/08/2026

About 18 years ago, some of us started to gather with children from the near by bustees and tribal hamlets inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) - from Laxmi Nagar, Bhim Nagar, Damu Nagar, Chuna Pada, Tumni pada, Male pada, Tala pada, Chinch pada, Nava pada.

What started as My India Empowered (MIE) with a few young souls, no curriculum, no lesson plans, and a love first approach to education, went on to later become Young Innovators Foundation (YIF).

This week, some of those children came back to celebrate the birthday of YIF with us. Some of them are mothers and fathers now. One brought her five-month-old. Another, her three-year-old. The same circle - but different. The same people - but different. New energy. Intergenerational.

One of the songs we sang was 'The Banana Song' gifted to us years ago by a dear friend Harish Bhuvan became their favourite. And now years later, it echoed back through the same voices, deeper.

And then, in the circle, something happened that no report card could ever capture. Young mothers spoke about breaking cycles of abuse. About being present for their children - and not calling it sacrifice. About making choices their parents couldn’t. Courage and vulnerability, in the same breath, in the same sentence.

How do you measure the impact of 18 years of work, connection, space-holding, love? Probably not in numbers. Probably not in specific outcomes.

It often takes patient, warm witnessing and the quiet passage of time to have the honour of seeing a child grow into their potential and power as an adult.

Not everyone in the circle was in the same place or joyful or certain. And that was the whole point. That is the strength of a community - a space that doesn’t ask you to perform, that invites you to be true. And somehow when that happens, the air can feel crisper and the breath deeper.

Perhaps that is the innovation this world most needs, more than new tech. Spaces where truth, beauty and love can flourish. Where people feel free enough to explore, to create, to become.

18 years. The work continues. The love radiates.

Thank you - to every child, every volunteer, every hand that held this space across the years.

20/04/2025

Master Chef Tumni Pada, Team Version :)

3 Teams, 3 food challenges, lots of fun and learning!

03/12/2024

NOVEMBER CELEBRATIONS

⭐️ New Cupboard: The schoolhouse got a new Cupboard! Yayy!! Thank you to two of YIF’s angel friends for making this happen for the Balwadi and the children. (You know who you are :)) Now their resources have a dedicated space and place to rest. They are also learning to take care of their resources anew. A big shout out to the volunteers who helped set up the new organisation system and also those who continue to receive donations and help sort them so children can have access to abundant resources.

⭐️Creative Flow: There was new creative flow that began to unlock within the space holders and children in November. They each opened themselves to new levels of challenge, collaboration and creativity. Volunteer teachers first - they collaborated with each other and a sister NGO to help maintain continuity for the children. This meant learning to improvise, trust themselves and each other so that the sessions being designed for the children could be meaningful and valuable. The children - especially the older ones participated in sessions and activities that helped them stretch out of their comfort zone. They are trying new things! And some might say the journey might just be as important as the destination itself. ;)

We are celebrating small wins that are always shaping big things to come. Wishing you all a great December and a blessed close to the year 2024!

13/10/2024

DOG AND THE BONE ~ and learning opportunities and some variations to try out with children. :)

🦴This game is traditional game also known as…

•Steal the Bacon
•Steal the Flingsock
•Rumaal Jhappatta
•Rumaal Chori
•Rumaal Daav
•Steal the Handkerchief
and other names…

🦴Learning opportunities for children..

•to play on a team/ on a side (while standing in a line parallel to the opposing team‘s line)
•to be alert, attentive and ready
•to listen and reach for a goal
•to be agile and grab the item without being tagged or tag the opponent if they grabbed the item
•to meet another player or to encounter another person in a game
•to leave a safe zone (usually a line behind which they are standing) and learn to go out, play and come right back

Most traditional games have the possibility for variations to step up the level of challenge or to step down the level of challenge. As a teacher you can think of a few variations beforehand.

🦴Some Variations:
•call out numbers using mathematical operations such as 5+3-2
•call out 2 (or more) numbers at the same time and let the members from the same team toss the item to each other after picking it up while they make their way back to the safety zone.
•full contact version for teenagers or adults could allow the opponent to prevent the person carrying the item to crouch back into the safety zone.

✨Games played in a CIRCLE have a different impact and teaching opportunities than games played in PARALLEL LINES. It’s best to doesn’t sometime as a teacher or an adult on what you would like to bring as learning opportunities for children and choose your games accordingly.

Save this post for later if you’d like to revisit the learning opportunities or try out the variations with your children or with anyone really. :) Have fun!

30/09/2024

CONDITIONS TO CREATE A SPACE FOR GROWTH & LEARNING

✅LOVE: Cultivate a loving space, within and without

✅SINCERITY: Sincerity in preparation and presence

✅ INTEREST: Interest in learning, in the subject and the student itself

When all of the above exist, children much like a seed can be supported to learn and grow, to blossom!

In some ways, children are like little saplings, not to be pressured but rather be supported with the conditions that can naturally assist them in being who they are. Like a seed, they have the divine intelligence within themselves, so how can we as teachers show up to maintain the health of the soil, water and other things around them so their divine intelligence may be expressed and realised?

————-

This week, the little ones were introduced to a true story- "A boy who grew a forest”. A story of a young boy called Jadav Payeng, who grew a mighty and bustling forest through his sheer love, will, effort, protection, and care.

After listening to the story of how he started with 20 bamboo saplings and went on to plant an entire forest, the children sat to draw. They drew the most beautiful forests with rainbows and peacocks, rivers and clouds. (Their imagination was exquisite, based on which they brought some of it down on paper)

By the end of the class when (their teacher) shared that they will each get to plant one plant next week…they replied, 'but didi he planted an entire forest…so why are we going to plant only one plant each? 😀'

If you’d like to check out the story to share with your children here’s the link- https://youtu.be/XoMXeo7E8xk?feature=shared

23/09/2024

THE SEEDS GREW

Last week, children were inspired by the main character from their nature story and dropped some seeds in the soil following in his footsteps. They also carefully planted a handful of seeds and were patiently waiting 7 days to share their observations. The children noticed that the seeds that were simply dropped onto the soil had some growth to them. But the seeds that had been diligently planted definitely grew taller.

Yet again, it was one of those days where the older children felt a gravitational pull to the younger children‘s class! Just like we say compliments to the chef when a meal is good, we want to say "complements to the class captains / teachers" and for holding space in a nourishing and loving way! The children definitely felt magnetised to the space like bees to a luscious flower.

17/09/2024

CONNECTING WITH NATURE

For the past several weeks the younger ones have been listening to nature stories, going on nature walks and exploring different elements of Mother Nature.

This Sunday, one of the students reported to (their teacher) about how his brother stamped a frog… and then certain other children observed certain other children in the village plucking some plant life…all that to say that they have started paying attention to what is going on within the plant and animal world around them and are now noting these things to share with their dear teacher.☺️

They are also patiently waiting this week to see what is going to happen to the two sets of seeds - one that they intentionally planted into a pot and the other that they simply dropped onto the soil like the main character in the recent nature story they heard. We are also not entirely sure what’s going to happen to the different set of seeds, but the children have marked all the spots they want to return to and look at after the 7 days have passed.

It’s a heart warming process and a gift to hold space for nature discovery with children who are literally seeing things unfold for the first time through the wonder and innocence in their eyes.

08/09/2024

MAY GOD WITHIN EACH ONE OF US BE VICTORIOUS

जय देव, जय देव जय मंगलमूर्ती|
दर्शनमात्रे मन कामना पुरती ॥धृ॥

This Ganesh Chathurthi, YIF wishes you…

✨Knowledge (Fuelled by inner knowing)
✨Wisdom (Earned from the knowledge applied)
✨Prosperity (Based on your heart’s truest wishes)

May this Ganesh Utsav help you unlock more of Gannu’s magic within you, ans help embody more of his reflection in your own life if that’s what you are choosing.🌺

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi!

26/08/2024

Clues and listening to the little things.

Children share clues all the time about their interests and the skills they are wanting to cultivate, the question is are we listening?

Every child is unique and is here to walk their own path. Very often, adults think they know the best path for a child without having truly engaged or listened to them.

Recently, our little ones started exploring nature stories and nature observation walks. The striking thing was that our older children studying the concept of "pressure" didn’t consciously know what was going to happen in the class lesson for the younger children, but somehow they magically sensed that it was going to be something interesting. So on the day of the first nature walk, the older lot ditched their own lesson to join the younger ones on their nature walk. 😌

Somethings to reflect on:

▫️Were the older children just trying to be difficult or naughty that day?
▫️Why were children senior in class experience wanting to attend a class for juniors?
▫️What about the class the older children chose to attend was drawing them in? Was it the outdoors? Was it the teacher? Was it nature?

When we pay attention, and ask the right questions, children can teach us what they want to learn and how. Honour the clues

…when do the children become restless?
…when do the children quiet down?
…when do the children forget about time?
…when do they remember something you shared when do they forget?
…when do they want to continue and learn more vs when do they want to stop or give up?

Pay attention to the little things, they go a long way in knowing how to play a meaningful part in the development of our children. 🤍

07/07/2024

🙏THANK YOU ✨ DHANYAWAAD 🙏

If you had anything to do with building of the recent Tumni Pada Balwadi, take a heartfelt moment to receive the love and gratitude the children are expressing through their artwork! This Sunday, they invested their creativity into saying thank you for all the kindness and generosity that was offered so they could have their lovey balwadi space..here’s a thank you to all the Didis, Bhaiyas, Kakas, Kakis, Aunties, Uncles, Sansthas (organizations), Friends, Family and Community.😀❤️

🗒️Quick Update: They have started learning at their new space and are enjoying it very much.😇

Address

Mumbai

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 7pm
Tuesday	10am - 7pm
Wednesday	10am - 7pm
Thursday	10am - 7pm
Friday	10am - 7pm
Saturday	10am - 7pm
Sunday	12pm - 7pm

Telephone

9930699586

Website

http://www.yif.co.in/

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