For many children in shelter homes, life is confined to the size of a room. Some are there because they got lost, others because their families couldn’t or wouldn’t care for them. They live with uncertainty — waiting to see who will leave, who might find a home, or if they ever will.
Life here is a routine of sameness and restriction: identical uniforms, limited freedom, and days that blur together. For the children, these walls are both a refuge and a stark reminder of what they might not have. Most children here crave personalized attention, cling to people visiting and some of them hope every single day that they might find a family who will take them out of there.
When a new superintendent joined the shelter home for children under the age of 10, she invited us to work there. She was a superintendent at another shelter home for girls above the age of 10, where we had previously worked, and remained mighty impressed with the impact we had created.
Normally, we don’t work with children under 10, but we decided to make an exception and give it a try. We approached the first few sessions with no fixed agenda, taking the time to observe what the children gravitated toward.
Quickly, we realized that they loved colors, but some of them also wanted to talk to us, and a few others just wanted to run around, while some wanted to sulk and others wanted to sit quietly and be left alone.
From there, we started building sessions that balanced structure with freedom — just enough guidance to keep them engaged, but not so rigid that it felt like another rule they had to follow.
Our goal wasn’t to discipline them but to give them the chance to laugh, play, and feel free. We mixed bursts of energy like dancing and running with quieter moments of mindfulness. A quick reminder of the rules at the start would set the tone, followed by activities like storytelling or drawing. Even in the chaos of play, we’d catch those fleeting moments of stillness — a child completely absorbed in their art or lost in their imagination. For us, peace isn’t about perfect engagement but finding joy in small victories. It’s watching them color lying on the floor, sitting on stairs, or even chatting with a didi or bhaiya. It’s seeing them laugh and run freely one moment and quietly focus the next. These imperfect moments are where we’ve found our own sense of peace amidst the chaos.
Watch this video we recorded from a single session, to see how we’ve managed to find our peace in all the chaos.
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