Communication for Peace and Unity: Indian Traditional Games Celebration

neelam

26th January 2017, NCCI Campus, Nagpur

 NCCI Commission on Communications in partnership with India Peace Centre (IPC) and Christian Service Agency (CSA) organized an event on ‘Indian non-formal Games ’ at NCCI Campus Nagpur on 26th January 2017. The theme of this unique event was ‘Communication for Peace and Unity’. The main focus of this event was to promote peace, friendship and unity through games and help break barriers of communication, encourage low cost gaming and socializing. There were participants from various churches along with some children who participated in the event.

IMG_7259This event started with registration. After registration, I was privileged to welcome  all the church leaders and participants. Rt. Rev. Paul Dupare (Bishop, Nagpur Diocese, CNI) inaugurated the event with a  word of prayer. Miss Simran, intern from IPC gave instructions to all participants regarding  rules of the games. There were so many traditional games like Gilli Danda, Lagori, spinning tops, playing with marbles, tyre race, skipping etc. All the persons present participated enthusiastically in the games .

The first round was ‘free practice and get together’ round. The participants from different churches and organizations had a time to interact with each other and practiced together. I noticed that even senior participants were fully involved in the games and enjoyed them thoroughly.

IMG_7290Rev. Caesar David conducted the challenge round. In this round, all participants played Gilli-danda, Lagori, Spinning the top, Marbles and skipping. There were 5 prizes for every sport: first, second, third and 2 consolation prizes.  (As one of our aims was to promote good health, health products like Corn flakes, Oats, Honey and Dates were given as  prizes.)

Mr. Kasta Dip led the evaluation session. All participants shared their thoughts and what they learnt from this event.  Rev. Arif Umer Saheb said the closing prayer after that all participated in a fellowship lunch.

The Indian traditional games event was successfully organized and participants from different churches and organizations appIMG_7439 - Copyreciated the concept of playing together for communication and peace-building processes. Playing games of yester years was a very emotional experience for many participants who played the games as kids. Reconnecting with their childhood evoked not only child-like happiness and appreciation of simple joys but also inspired child-like mutual trust and loving harmony.

This event helped us to understand the importance of sports in peace building in our society. Sports can bring people together towards a common goal, while promoting respect and community with others. By building relationships between different groups, conflict can be transformed. In addition, sports can be used to impart values of good sportsmanship, teamwork, respect and communication skills needed to reduce tensions and prevent conflict.

Neelam Gaikwad

Programme Assistant – NCCI Commission on Communications.

 

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