Eco-Wise Mulakaat With Sylvester Peter, Social Worker
Sylvester is indeed a unique person. Very few of us can imagine a class 4 school boy being so much affected by the plight of his fellow classmates and donating his own possessions! But that is what Sylvester has always been concerned about. Not surprisingly, he started an academy to help the needy at the age of thirteen and finally, after completing his schooling, he devoted his entire time and energies into giving shape to My Angels’ Academy. He set up this academy in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri area basically to transform the lives of street children, kids living in slums, drug addicts, vagabonds, rag pickers and generally the children of families in the lowest economic strata of the society. These are Sylvester’s ‘angels’, and whose lives he wants to transform and make them into responsible, respected and independent citizens of the society. This he does through motivational lectures, moral education and through soccer. Sylvester has focussed on non-formal education system for these slum children. He realised that the best learning method was through sports and that too football. So he took the slum children to practice football at a nearby public park.
But this transformation is not easy and Sylvester has had numerous challenges in his endeavour,
including the very first step of getting his children to play in public parks. As the residents were not willing to let a bunch of slum kids to play in the park, Sylvester had to take these kids to play at the odd time of 3 am so that they could practice without any hitch. Such a single minded dedication and commitment to his cause has today resulted in some of his angels bringing glory and fame to this academy through their achievements in the professional fields as well as in the sport of football. His teams and individual players have won laurels by getting selected, trained and at leading football clubs in Europe.
His work has attracted attention and commendations and Sylvester has earned laurels from a number of quarters. His work has received wide coverage and has been featured by the all print media and electronic media. He is also a recipient of the Bravery award given by FM 104. My Angels Academy grassroot level work was covered under Coffee table book which was launched by Rural Minister of Govt of India, Jairam Ramesh. Sylvester Peter was honoured by Indian Oil, Indian Coach factory, Faulty Of Management of Studies,Judge in IM and Confederation of India for constructive contribution at grassroot level. He was recently honored in Amity International Model United Nations forum organized by Amity University."Putting Humaity before Mankind". Sylvester balances his time between his full time occupation as a trainer, counsellor and a motivational speaker and his first love, his Academy. He believes in the age old but time tested adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Apart from academics and sports, they are familiarized with different aspects of life like personal hygiene, environmental protection, sex education, gender equality, education, life skills, dancing, painting, yoga and dance.
He finds satisfaction in the fact that his training and the morals and life skills that he inculcates in these children stays with them and stands them in good stead throughout their lives. Not surprisingly therefore, children who once a part of the academy and now successful bankers or at different senior positions have not forgotten their humble background and come back regularly to the Academy to devote time as well as help it financially so that more and more children, shunned by society and who otherwise would lead a worthless life could come up and become a part of the mainstream.
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Ms. Swati Khanwalkar,
Radio Dwarka,
India's First Online Community Radio,
Wednesday, September 21, 2016