PANAJI: A unique play-cum-learning space is taking shape at Corgao-Pernem. A children’s park at Maina is being developed as a community project almost entirely out of waste material.
Waste tyres, scrap metal, rope, an old bullock cart, a broken canoe, even a bathtub — all these items were donated or sold for a nominal price by local villagers for the setup, which is within the premises of St Xavier Vidyalaya, Maina-Corgao.
A geodesic dome has been built using GI pipes, to give pre-primary kids an opportunity to study outdoors.
“The geodesic dome is a combination of triangles which further form hexagons and pentagons. It has been designed for children to get underneath and use it as an outdoor classroom space with no walls,” said architect Talullah D’Silva, who took it up as a part of ‘social architecture’.
Parish priest and president of the Fabrica da Igreja de Maina-Corgao, Fr Clifford Castelino, said that the space will help pre-primary children acquaint themselves with geometrical figures and allow them to have their classes outside.
“Little children shouldn’t be confined to the classroom. We believe in having school out in the open, where there’s so much to learn by touching and experiencing,” Castelino said.
Other learning tools have been introduced in the park to help children develop muscle motor coordination and hand-eye coordination.
The bathtub, sunk into the ground with a pulley attached, will have children pulling up water, sand and other materials to understand different weights.
The entire play-cum-learning area will be fenced, with educational panels on Goa’s biodiversity, culture, inter-religious thought patterns, local fruits and vegetables, and other academic material for primary students.
“The entire property, survey no 47, where the church, school and playground stand, was donated by a Hindu family of Ratnaji Visaji Desai in 1937,” he said, adding that one of the panels has been dedicated to inter-religious harmony.
These panels are being designed by volunteers. “We wanted it to be a community project, so we sent out an appeal to those who like art to leave their impression on the panels of the children’s park. More than 30 volunteers, both professional and non-professional artists, right from the age of four, have sent in their work,” he said.
Right from clearing the space to building up the park, volunteers have helped every step of the way. They include children too, who rendered their services in transforming the old canoe into a seesaw-cum-sitting area and painting it with marine species to familiarise themselves with Goa’s marine biodiversity.
“The idea was to get the local community, students, parents and children themselves involved, and contribute to the project. We were very keen to have it built with waste material,” Castelino said.
The initiative has helped the community build the park while maximising resources in the rural area.
