Caritas India believes that if children are fostered with responsibilities at a young age, they will contribute to the creation of a better world tomorrow. Keeping this idea, the Lavender Army initiative started under Ashakiranam Cancer Care Campaign wherein children were aided and supervised by specially assigned teachers to transform children into a great catalyst for society to bring greater changes.

Ashakiranam campaign has organized a training programme for the Lead Volunteers of the Lavender Army from different schools in Kerala with the support of Santhwanam the social apostolic wing of Thrissur Archdiocese, Kerala. The training mainly focused on the formation of a system of School Volunteer leads, so that they can develop younger Volunteer models as well as develop a new level of Lavender Army programmes in schools.

The training was conducted in three phases at different locations for 150 Lavender Army volunteer leads from 22 Schools. The training curriculum dealt with the topics relevant for nurturing the leads with leadership skills, child-led empowerment and impacts they can come up with.

The event was inaugurated by Fr. (Dr.) Jose Vattakuzy, the Assistant Director, Santhwanam at Infant Jesus Girls High School, Aranattukara and highlighted the success and the impacts of the Ashakiranam Cancer Care Campaign and its various programmes that have been conducted since 2017. He also emphasized the importance of “The 3 Ts’- Treasure, Time, Talent” and guided them to consider the 3 Ts’as their guiding principle to live a successful volunteer and bring forth changes.

“Lavender Army is a children-led initiative model in India,” said Ms. Divya, Caritas India Volunteer lead. She appreciated the Lavender Army volunteers for their cancer care and preventive interventions which can be replicated across the nation” said Ms. Divya, Caritas India Volunteer lead. The training started with sharing the importance of being a volunteer and why should one choose to be a volunteer. 

“Volunteerism is a choice and not something that has been forced over them,” shared one of the students attending the training. The training was initiated with some group activities led by Mr. Abeesh, Ashakiranam Lead. 

Mr.Krishnakumar I.P, Counsellor of the Outreach programme of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Ernakulam was the resource person for this awareness training. The session largely focused on his hands-on experiences and work situations. He actively interacted with the volunteer leads and challenged them to question and reflect to set in a clear understanding of Cancer, its preventive measures and care that must be given to the people needed and how as young Volunteer Leads, they can bring larger changes to society.

He continued with some group activities wherein the children were divided into several groups, and they were asked to prepare a small action plan for the coming year. Many students shared some interesting plans including street plays, and theatre to raise awareness of prevention measures for Cancer, visiting a few cancer care institutes and spending some quality time with them.

This gathering was also a platform to discuss the success of the program and to share the good learnings by the Volunteer leads from different schools at Santhwanam, Thrissur.

Raphel Rijo N. Lavender Army Lead Volunteer from St. Thomas HSS, Thope said, “Together, we will strive to take these new actions with greater enthusiasm and reduce the incidence of cancer.” 

The training programme concluded with a distribution of certificates to the volunteers. COVID hygiene kit was distributed to all the participants to ensure safety.

 “The training helped the Volunteer Leads to understand the Ashakiranam Lavender Army initiative and made them realize what role the young leads can play in bringing awareness and prevention of Cancer,” said Sr. Jincy, Principal of Infant Jesus school during the concluding ceremony.