The students at Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar English Medium Primary School realized they needed to change themselves before trying to change others. They created a "Lost and Found" program where students who found lost items would turn them in, rather than keep them. This led to positive changes in the students and school culture. The students spread the Lost and Found message through performances, posters, and sharing their stories with others in the school. As a result, all classrooms now have Lost and Found corners, and students are less likely to complain about lost items or accuse others of taking them.

1. ‘Lost & Found’
Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar English Medium Primary School, Standard 3 students with Sana-teacher
We thought of changing others.
How could we change in others what we hadn’t changed in ourselves?
So instead, we thought of ourselves.
And what had changed in each one of us, in our class as a whole, and the culture that we had built in
the three short months that we had been together.
And from our walls one fluorescent green chart-paper called to us. ‘Lost and Found’ it called.
We remembered how we were different before. When we took what wasn’t ours. And never once
thought of giving back.
And how we are different today. And how we help each other find things that we have lost. And how
much better that makes us feel.
How wonderful it would be to share this feeling with others?
So we got to work – we made charts, and posters, we made a catchy song, we got together our
stories of finding things makes us feel.
And then we began to share. At the school assembly, we performed a short skit to spread the
message. We handed out posters for every class to set up a lost and found in their classrooms. We
sang our catchy ‘Lost and Found’ song and everyone slowly caught on.
In the hallways, during lunch and recess, we told our stories. We started with our friends in other
classes. We also talked to teachers. The message spread wide and far.
All 14 classrooms of our school, both morning and afternoon shifts, have a Lost & Found Corner now.
No longer do kids complain of losing things. No longer is someone’s pencil found in someone else’s
bag. No longer are there fingers pointed at people when something is lost – only pointed at the ‘Lost
and Found’ corners, where things are more often than not found.
We feel good today, but this is only the beginning, our message will be spread far and for long.

2. Our Lost & Found Song (sung to the tune of ‘My God’ by Whoopie Goldberg)
Anything we find
That’s not yours or mine,
Lost & Found
Anything we lose
That we just cannot find
Lost & Found
Erasers, pencils, notebooks, bottles,
Raincoats, hair clips, tiffin-boxes.
You look for yours,
And I’ll find mine,
At Lost & Found