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Published: October 10th 2010
CORRECTED December 13, 2010
Faridabad
I spent the week teaching children at a local school for children who can't otherwise afford to go to the government schools. It is called Prakash Deep, meaning a drop of light (or ray of light), but it is informally called the Street Children's School, though not all children are "street children" but presumably so named because that is likely what they would become without a proper education. I had originally intended to work with the Women's Empowerment Program, but there the focus was simply working alongside women to make bags and baskets. I started to feel less enthusiastic about the objective of the program. Once I saw this children’s school and met the Founder, Savita Datt, I knew this was the program I wanted to be involved with.
Savita has a doctorate and formerly worked for the Institute for Defense Studies & Analyses writing articles related to arms control, nuclear disarmant and nuclear proliferation issues. She had been looking for something more meaningful in her work, work where she could actually make a difference. She saw a need for a school to educate the children of the poorer families, families who lived
in the neighborhood, often migrating to the area in search of work, but whose family income could not afford the time or expense of even a basic education. So Savita founded this school and has been championing the cause of these children for 8 years. She is committed to giving the children, ages ranging from 5 to 18, a proper education competitive with the local private schools where the wealthier children attend. They have very little in the way of materials, but they have a park located in the wealthiest neighborhood in Faridabad where the school can be conducted outside, making for an interesting and very engaging learning experience. What’s more, her long term objective is to educate them in a green environment, continuing with outdoor classes but having indoor facilities that are environmentally responsible and green and provide shelter during inclement weather. Longer term, she hopes to see this as a model for other schools in other communities with similar needs.
But funds are difficult to obtain and the school relies almost entirely on donations and volunteers. The children’s uniforms were donated by a local businessman who lives in the neighborhood. Teachers are paid as funds permit, but
currently the funds have dried up and many of the teachers are strictly volunteers, often without any formal teaching skills except a desire to help their community. The children need new uniforms to replace the tattered ones they have, shoes, bookbags, papers, exercise booklets, black boards, chalk, drawing materials. The essentials to a school are all provided to the children from donations, but there are not enough and some children have to go without. But what they get at the school is 4 hours of learning, play and a meal (also as funds permit) where they might otherwise be at home or on the street in meager conditions, forced to work to help the family and sometimes subject to physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. So this school not only provides an education but also provides a respite from some pretty horrible conditions and allows them to be children for at least part of the day.
So I was particularly disappointed when she told me they were closing the school for 2 weeks, which would cut short my volunteer effort with them. The country was just beginning the ten day Navratri and Dusshera holiday and many of the children
would be going away to their villages. Also, taking time off during this major Hindu religious festival would provide the teachers and volunteers with a much needed break to recharge a bit. In addition, closing the school would save them some funds, funds that were needed to pay for the large medical expenses that they had incurred on behalf of several children who had come down with Dengue fever. The children’s families cannot afford the hospital costs so the school has taken on their medical expenses and have worked out an arrangement with the hospital that all care will be free except for the cost of medicines and materials. Savita has spent a large amount of time with the doctors checking on the children’s health and working out a suitable arrangement for their care. The funds saved during the school closing would help defray some of the medical expenses they had incurred. So, with all these factors, it made the most sense to close the school for a few days during the Festival.
Even being there for just one week, I felt I had gotten to know many of the children who always eagerly ran up to us each
morning to say “Good Morning, Ma’am” or “Hello Didi.” And while it was a challenge to teach the youngest children and maintain their attention, it was also so enjoyable to interact with them while teaching them English, whether we simply went through the body parts, numbers, colors, or sang songs like the hokey pokey, or played games like Simon Says (that one didn’t actually get much traction), they were so enthusiastic for the most part, yelling out “H-E-A-D…head. H-A-N-D…hand. N-O-S-E…nose”. And when we lost their attention and they started to run around the playground (usually a few hours into the lessons, so can anyone blame them?), it was with mixed frustration and delight as we tried to wrangle them back to the class. They were so cheeky, you couldn’t help but love them!
I have to say the traveling in India can be very exhausting and trying. You constantly feel on guard to protect yourself from getting cheated, overcharged or scammed. So I had started looking forward to going to Nepal for a little change. But when Savita asked if I would be back after the break, I felt quite sad to say I would be in Nepal when
they resumed classes. I think she was pretty disappointed as well since it is difficult to get volunteers to teach English. Some volunteers I’ve met don’t seem to actually do much volunteer work, which is so disappointing. It seems to be mostly college kids looking to go travelling on the cheap. The accommodations aren’t 4 star hotel quality, but they are better than hostels, and they often are a good home-base for those who want to travel around India. So they fit in a day here and there of volunteering. This is not a criticism so much as a simple observation. Volunteers come to mix volunteering and touring and that is how the volunteer programs are marketed, but for stays of less than one or two months, it doesn’t provide the schools with consistent, continuous English lessons. The Indian volunteer teachers try, but their English is often poor as well.
Savita and I spoke for quite awhile about other ways I might be able to help the school, including coordinating volunteers to travel to India and live near the school for blocks of time, outreach efforts, fundraising efforts among other things. When we left the school, the children gave
us gifts and cards as tokens of appreciation. It was especially poignant as she told us how much they appreciated that we volunteers came to India enduring some uncomfortable weather and living conditions and donating our time to their cause. I am not an overly emotional person but I couldn’t help but well up as she handed us gifts when they had so little to spare. We opened them when we got back to the house and found cards made from the pictures that had been drawn by several of the gifted artists in the school, along with a copy of Ghandi’s autobiography which I am looking forward to reading. I especially feel ill-prepared to receive these things when I think I gained far more from working with them than I gave. I feel rather ashamed that I complained about living conditions and was starting to feel a bit jaded by India. These are the real people of India, the ones far from the bazaars and tourist traps who are working so hard to do something extraordinary with so little.
I love Savita, and this school and the children who are so bright and show so much potential to
be artists and mathematicians and anything else they could want to be. No one meeting them could deny them what little they need to give them the opportunity to succeed and overcome the meager conditions from which they all come. I will have to think hard about the best way to use my time and skills and resources to help them because I hate to think about Monica, Roshni, Akash, Abjul, Vishnu, Rajis, and Divender losing the school and the education it provides.
For anyone interested in learning more about the school, they have a pretty good website you can see at: http://www.prakashdeep.com. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on how to assist Prakash Deep, I’d love to talk with you.
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kristen
non-member comment
love to help
Michele, I'm always looking for ways to get Ben involved in charitable work. I'd love for you to share with him your experience with this school and maybe we can figure out a way to raise some money. We've done it before, usually for Save the Children, and while it's never very much, every penny (or rupee) counts! What an experience you are having! Thanks for the blogs and for opening our eyes to the blessings we have and the struggles so many children are facing.