When my younger brother was in the eighth standard, he asked me what UNESCO was. Is it a country, a place or an organisation of some sort? I told him that UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organization. When he heard the word ‘organization” he came to know that it was a kind of club. What is its function?” he asked me. I explained to him the little I knew about the UNESCO club which was enough for him to join the UNESCO club in the school.
The UNESCO club was started in our school in the year 1971. Today our club is five years old. Throughout this period the noticeboard of our UNESCO club has been full of things related to our studies and other important events- a clear sign that the club has been very active.
The club organises various kinds of activities. It has adopted a village at Ranipur. It gives a lot of help to the children studying in the Ranipur school. It supplies stationery to the children and teaching aids to the staff. It organises sports and general knowledge tests every year.
In our school itself our club holds general knowledge tests, quiz competitions and various other activities. The club members regularly visit various factories to acquire first-hand knowledge about the manufacturing of the products.
This year I have been elected as the President of the club. I never expected to be the President. To celebrate the fifth birthday of our school club we held an inter-school general knowledge test for all the schools of Mangalore. More than forty-four schools participated. Then we had the Independence Day quiz competition. On November 4th, the 30th anniversary of UNESCO, we had an exhibition highlighting the various activities of UNESCO! A symposium on the origin and growth of UNESCO was also held. On November 14th we had the sports day at Ranipur. These are but a few of the activities of our club besides the ordinary day-to-day activities.
The club is a brainchild of Fr. Lawrence D’Souza, S.J., who still continues to inspire its members, the club is ever grateful to him for his guidance and encouragement as its Moderator. Under his leadership the club is safely moving forward on the path of progress.