Compassionate and Nurturing Alphonsians

(1) Title: Compassionate and Nurturing Alphonsians (CNA)

Narration: 

CNA is a declared best practice of Alphonsa College Thiruvambady and it is an umbrella term comprising the activities of Palliative Care Forum, Pro-Differently Abled Forum (PDF), Compulsory Social Service (CSS), Alphonsians Rising to Impulse Social Empowerment (ARISE) and Blood Donor’s Forum (BDF). Alphonsa College Thiruvambady fulfils its social commitment through the activities of these five forums. 

(2) Objectives of the Practice:

  • To inculcate compassionate empathy in the pupils

  • To serve the people and communities nearby 

  • To bring the vulnerable people and communities to the forefront of the society

  • To make the youth aware of their responsibilities to social causes

  • To promote equitable treatment without taking into consideration the gender, race, caste and other discriminating factors.  

(3) The Context: 

Man is a social animal, let alone a Graduate has to contribute to the society through his contributions, expertise and time.  Every society comprises people who are denied opportunities regardless of their aspirations due to their physical disabilities, psychological problems, lack of familial support and lack of financial support. Education is completed only when it enables the educated to be empathetic. Every man in the country is educated with the tax amount paid also by the poor and illiterate and therefore every educated has to pay in return through this sparing of time and resources for the poor, vulnerable and illiterate.  Alphonsa College Thiruvambady is so adamant that its pupils participate in any of the CNA forums and fulfil their social mission.    

(4) The Practice:

The functioning of CNA is broadly divided into two: (1) Academic and (2) Extension Activities. 

Academic endeavours of CNA are the following:

  1. The courses which hail the equity of human beings are chosen as electives in Academic programmes.

  2. Students are encouraged to do their project works, seminars and assignments with special focus on humanitarian concerns, gender equity, marginalized population, vulnerable communities and differently abled people.

  3. CNA conducts programmes that hail the above mentioned areas in and outside the campus.

  4. CNA observes commemorative days which are of humanitarian significance     

Extension Activities of CNA are been carried out like the following:

  1. CNA conducts a bunch of out-reach programmes as extension activities with active involvement of the members of its forums.

  2. Awareness campaigns are conducted throughout the nearby locations in order to share the messages of equality and fraternity.

  3. College Campus is availed for the nearby people for their skill development, IT assistance, and counselling.

  4. Adivasi villages are adopted by the institution to facilitate their holistic development. 

  5. Collaborating activities with other sister institutions and local bodies of government to conduct humanitarian programmes

Uniqueness in the context of Indian Higher Education

All major Universities have made Social Service a mandatory component for the qualification of academic degrees and the reason is the fact that real education is completed only with its openness to the poor, disabled, marginalized and the needy.  Higher education is a luxury in the context of India having a great number of population under poverty line.  Therefore, the duty and responsibilities of the educated to the people who are in the frontiers of the society is unquestionable.

Constraints faced in the practice:

The participation in CSS or any other social enhancement schemes still remains a mandatory card and fulfiling such a mission for many of the pupils is just a qulifier and they do not pay their heart on it.  Moreover, the hectic academic schedules make it tiresome to conduct socially fruitful extension activities.

(5) Evidence of Success:

  • CNA helps generate annual action plans for all the five forums and ensure that those programmes are in line with the vision and mission of the institution and the objectives set for itself.

  • CNA airs timely reminders regarding the programmes set on Annual Action Plans by incorporating them in the Monthly Planners

  • CNA monitors the functioning of various activities of its clubs and forums in real time.

  • CNA helps the forums to conduct evaluation sessions and report the progress report to competent authorities.

  • Alphonsa College was awarded for their valuable social service at the time of Covid-19 pandemic as the best college in the district

(6) Problems Encountered and Resources Required:  

  1. Socitiel Enhancement Co-Curricular initiatives are to be awarded more with badges, accolades and grace marks.

  2. Time constraints are to be loosened.  These co-curricular activities are to be given sufficient time for its execution so that the participants may enjoy some self-fulfilment and the recipients make it fruitful in their way to normalcy.