Youreka! Discover excitement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper

Saturday, May 03, 2003

Young World
Youreka! Discover excitement
YUSUF AHMAD KHAN

Step out of your comfort zone this summer; be adventurous so that you have many "I did it" moments with the iDiscoveri people.

Rapture on rafts...

Summer vacations have this quality of quietly slipping by. There you were watching TV till 2 a.m. and waking up to a lazy breakfast at 11 a.m., and then suddenly there are less than 10 days for the schools to reopen. You are confronted with the familiar hollow feeling of not making the holidays count by doing something productive or of any worth.
The summer vacation is a good time to get away from the closed confines of urban life and experience the refreshing wilderness. Outdoor activities like rock climbing, trekking and river rafting present fulfilling challenges that are great confidence boosters.
To provide a learning experience set in the wilderness, iDiscoveri has organised a series of summer camps of eight days each called Youreka! 2003 which continue till June 30. The camps are located at Tirthan near Kulu-Manali, Sitlakhet near Nainital, Tons near Mori in Uttaranchal and Coorg in Karnataka.
The iDiscoveri philosophy is that for a powerful learning experience, one has to step out of one's comfort zone. A safe environment has been carefully designed for the participants to experiment and acquire new skills. These camps instil confidence through engaging activities, rich relationships and numerous "I did it" moments. Each day participants choose one major activity and two or three minor ones. Five hours each day are spent on the major activity, which could be rock climbing, trekking, white-water rafting, outdoor survival skills, photography, rifle shooting, theatre, aero modelling or mountain biking, while two hours are spent on the minor activities — such as astronomy, first aid, campus radio or newspaper, magic, painting, music or choreography.

Competent course leaders conduct the activities. The emphasis is on learning by doing instead of listening and watching. The activities are designed to be progressively challenging. Very memorable is the "Trust Fall", which requires participants to fall backwards from a raised platform into the arms of fellow participants. You might wonder what the fuss is about, until your turn comes to fall, and you find your body instinctively refusing to obey your mind and fall. Many enduring friendships are formed, and participants go back with the feeling that they were part of a unique experience.

It is significant that iDiscoveri has an impeccable safety record, with more than ,9000 participants having been through the camps without any untoward incident. Each camp has a doctor and adequate supply of medicines.
Downloadable registration forms for the Youreka! summer camps can be obtained from the website www.idiscoveri.com or from iDiscoveri offices in New Delhi (phone 26524331-32, 26517578-79, 26530701-05), Lucknow (phone: 2332397, 2331809) and Chandigarh (phone: 741046).

Trip to Sitlakhet

Here's a nice essay on Youreka, written by a student called Arnav, entitled "Trip to Sitlakhet":


Trip to Sitlakhet


I got to know about an outdoor camp (YOUREKA) managed by idiscoveri from my father. It was a nine day camp which was for my age group available at Sitlakhet. It had six camps with three major activities - Outdoor, Rock Climbing, Backpacking. I got interested in Outdoor activity for the 5th Batch. My father rung up the organisers and told them to book my trip. But they insisted that we come to their office or fillup the forms at one of their associates house. My father fixed up the timing for meeting the associate.

When we reached the associates house, I realised that we had forgotten the filled application at home. So, we took another application from them to fillup. I asked for Outdoor activity but was told that for the dates I had wanted the group was already filledup. So, I had 2 options, one to take backpacking or take the next batch. I decided to take backpacking on the dates I had wanted.

When I decided to go to the camp I felt disturbed as I was going out for 9 days. This was the first time, I was going to be away from my family for such a long duration. On the D-Day, I reached the station with my mother and father. We already had the seats allocated for us. The organisers were there to assist us and were very well managing the crowd. I felt uncomfortable initially and quietly sat on my seat. When the train started for Kathgodham, I went to sleep. When the train was about to reach Kathgodham station, we were all woken up.

When we got down from the train, it was raining outside. There were 9 jeeps waiting to take us to camp site. I jumped into one of them and when everyone had sat in the jeeps, the caravan started to move to sitlakhet. Enroute we stopped at one of the resorts to freshenup and for taking breakfast. After that we again boarded the jeeps and started moving again.

We finally reached the camp site at sitlakhet. In the morning the camp was also of fun I learnt many things, like pitching a tent living in a tent following mountain manners etc it was great fun. We made food ourselves, went for trekking in the forest and did mountain climbing. The food was scrumptious and at nights we boys used to talk and talk and tell jokes interact out happening in the day. Everyday we used to have a major and a minor activity, the instructors were very soft and polite but as in every organization there were some rude instructors also but the place would always take you far away from crying as it was so green and beautiful. There were very few brick houses. In the evenings there was a fun time to play, talk and interact. We did plays, made candles, made brace lets for my friends, did first aid and theatre.

In all it was a great fun and I enjoyed every moment during my stay in that camp. I look forward to going there again to learn about my true self.

Eureka! - Welcome to Youreka!!

Hi Everyone and welcome to the Youreka Blog - Youreka Express!

What is Youreka? Youreka is the outdoor education wing of idiscoveri, a private education company and a social enterprise - a learning teaching and research organisation seeking to bring good education and work to society. Youreka Summer Program is an 8 day outdoor program, specially designed for 9-16 year olds. Children acquire new skills, build on character traits and have fun. The program instills confidence through adventure activities, rich relationships and numerous 'I did it' moments. Youreka is a 12 year old organisation that has touched the lives of over 24,000 children around India.

This blog is yours and mine - and - meant for US to have fun!

We want Parents to know what their kids are upto. What they are learning and on what we are focussing on. It is about Youreka and what we are doing. But it is also about YOU - and you having fun! If your having fun, you're happy, energetic and therefore more productive.

This blog is meant for Everyone but particularly Students, Parents, Teachers and Youreka - to all get INVOLVED and get to know each other. It is meant, for you, to have fun and inform and involve each other through your suggestions, comments, feedbacks and experiences. Its focus is on the Outdoors and children, and is a forum through which all of us - kids and adults can iconnect. So please go ahead and do just that - idiscover and iconnect!!

Please start posting on it as fast as you can on any and everything related to Youreka and the outdoors!

Thanks!