Testimony by Kishore Daggupati
“Hello, Cultural Agents Community! I’m excited to share some recent session updates with you all. We’re Nandavanam, a Toronto-based community organization where we embrace asset-based community-led development (ABCD philosophy) to enrich our community “garden” (that’s what our name means in Tamil!). We hosted a unique wellness workshop for five families, focusing on the Pre-Texts protocol. Unlike typical sessions that separate age groups, we brought families together in one vibrant group, exploring the intergenerational dynamics of learning. This experiment unfolded in our garden of growth, leveraging collective wisdom to enhance mental health and well-being through practical tools and creative engagement. We focused on families of the Telugu diaspora but we look forward to expanding this programming to the larger South Asian and immigrant communities in Canada.
Our session centered on the beloved Telugu tale of “Tenali Rama,” which participants transformed into skits, illuminating the narrative’s richness and eliciting a joyful response from everyone involved. The shared experience not only dissolved stress—some attendees reported feeling rejuvenated and headache-free—but also cemented the belief in the power of community learning. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with parents eager to delve deeper into the Pre-Texts method in our upcoming sessions. To give you a glimpse of the types of feedback, we heard parents say: “I felt like a kid for the first in a very long time”, “we didn’t just spend time here, rather we invested it in to the community”, and my favourite, “even though we met everyone today, after this session, it feels like we’ve known each other for a decade.” This week, as we reconvene, we anticipate another round of insightful engagement and shared laughter, reinforcing our commitment to nurturing well-being through creativity and connectivity.
