Why do rich kids get all the breaks,
While the poor slum kids have to work, sweat, struggle and slave?
Why, lord, theres so much injustice in this world?
Slum kids never stand a chance.
Want so much to write about but don't know from where to start.Well i came to Bangalore on July 7 2008 looking for a better job and while searching for a job advertisement happen to see an advertisement put forward by Aashayein foundation which was involved in teaching slum kids.i always wanted to do something of this sort but during college time language was "The" constraint. Here as soon as i joined my company on 1st August 2008 i joined this NGO where
we go on Saturday and teach slum area /government school kids.i also went to rural part of Bangalore with shashi and megha (they are aashayein member just like me ) to understand the root cause of the problem and also tried to persuade the parents to send their kids to school. the day we went we were so tired roaming from one house to another but we were able to get 23 kids registered again(most of them were school drop outs ) with school:) such a satisfaction it was.
But hang on if language was "the constraint" in college how come i was able to do it here,in karnataka ? well 4 years in college i tried to learn Tamil as much as it was possible for me to learn and then, after coming here understanding Kannada wasn't that tough. any way this blog is to tell you how we are trying to help The kids who come to school without eating anything not because they don't like the particular flavor of chocos but because they don't have food at home.without uniform and shoes not to look like some bollywood hero but because their parent just cant afford to buy one.it feels different, very very different to stand among them . its like you want to do so much for them and then you suddenly realize you cant do much except to facilitate a good future.
so i started going to school on weekends and tried to facilitate them the communication skill.now question is why communication skill only ? because we believe that the difference between any public school and a government school is the level of confidence and standard of teacher kids have. of course we cant go ahead and start hiring good teachers. That is not an option so what we can do is to improve the confidence level of kids. and we believe that making kids aware of how to improve their communication skill is a nice way to do that.
the school i joined first, i taught there for almost a year and then decided to adopt a school next to my place itself with help of two of my friends.i must also share the methodology we follow for teaching.We don't have a class wise syllabus where as what we have is syllabus based on understanding. So we have levels and not class and even if the class 7 kids are on level 1 we start from there. Me and two my friends ankit and aprajitha manage a school where we have close to 23 enthusiastic volunteers who help us in this . we go on Saturdays to school and divide ourselves it to group of two or three for every class where every class will have one co-coordinator who will make sure that volunteers are prepared before they get in class. In general what and how to teach, volunteers discuss it with their class co coordinator over the week and then on weekends it gets delivered. What we are trying to achieve is 100 % literacy and you know what am not being over optimistic, its possible.
most of the time we avoid the textual methodology of teaching where as what we try to follow is pictorial representation, enacting, stage drama etc . we never try to educate them because it will be totally unfair to say that by just givin two hour a week we can educate them but what we can do in those two hours is try to make them aware of whats the benefit of being educated, make them to ask "why" and "How" for the basic scientific facts so they get the actual concept of questioning rather than just accepting things the way they are. its a very very effective method as far my opinion goes. so far it has been really nice experience to be a part of it. let me ask you a question. Whether any of your decision have ever affected anybody's life ? if yes you know what i am talking about and if no then try to touch one life and you will understand what kind of feeling it is , very very unique ..
If u reading this and planning to join us, there are many areas in Bangalore where we do the same so you can find a place close to yours and start contributing or if u have plans to start something of this sort in your area itself, in both the cases i can help you out and i also have some good material to share. contact me on my mail id. i shall send you the same.One more thing if at all u happen to read this fully and have few doubts ,concerns, suggestions please please comment it or mail me . i will be really happy to have a healthy discussion on any such topic.Help us in improving ourselves , your any suggestion can affect few lives and may be we can do better with your suggestion.
we go on Saturday and teach slum area /government school kids.i also went to rural part of Bangalore with shashi and megha (they are aashayein member just like me ) to understand the root cause of the problem and also tried to persuade the parents to send their kids to school. the day we went we were so tired roaming from one house to another but we were able to get 23 kids registered again(most of them were school drop outs ) with school:) such a satisfaction it was.
But hang on if language was "the constraint" in college how come i was able to do it here,in karnataka ? well 4 years in college i tried to learn Tamil as much as it was possible for me to learn and then, after coming here understanding Kannada wasn't that tough. any way this blog is to tell you how we are trying to help The kids who come to school without eating anything not because they don't like the particular flavor of chocos but because they don't have food at home.without uniform and shoes not to look like some bollywood hero but because their parent just cant afford to buy one.it feels different, very very different to stand among them . its like you want to do so much for them and then you suddenly realize you cant do much except to facilitate a good future.
so i started going to school on weekends and tried to facilitate them the communication skill.now question is why communication skill only ? because we believe that the difference between any public school and a government school is the level of confidence and standard of teacher kids have. of course we cant go ahead and start hiring good teachers. That is not an option so what we can do is to improve the confidence level of kids. and we believe that making kids aware of how to improve their communication skill is a nice way to do that.
the school i joined first, i taught there for almost a year and then decided to adopt a school next to my place itself with help of two of my friends.i must also share the methodology we follow for teaching.We don't have a class wise syllabus where as what we have is syllabus based on understanding. So we have levels and not class and even if the class 7 kids are on level 1 we start from there. Me and two my friends ankit and aprajitha manage a school where we have close to 23 enthusiastic volunteers who help us in this . we go on Saturdays to school and divide ourselves it to group of two or three for every class where every class will have one co-coordinator who will make sure that volunteers are prepared before they get in class. In general what and how to teach, volunteers discuss it with their class co coordinator over the week and then on weekends it gets delivered. What we are trying to achieve is 100 % literacy and you know what am not being over optimistic, its possible.
most of the time we avoid the textual methodology of teaching where as what we try to follow is pictorial representation, enacting, stage drama etc . we never try to educate them because it will be totally unfair to say that by just givin two hour a week we can educate them but what we can do in those two hours is try to make them aware of whats the benefit of being educated, make them to ask "why" and "How" for the basic scientific facts so they get the actual concept of questioning rather than just accepting things the way they are. its a very very effective method as far my opinion goes. so far it has been really nice experience to be a part of it. let me ask you a question. Whether any of your decision have ever affected anybody's life ? if yes you know what i am talking about and if no then try to touch one life and you will understand what kind of feeling it is , very very unique ..
If u reading this and planning to join us, there are many areas in Bangalore where we do the same so you can find a place close to yours and start contributing or if u have plans to start something of this sort in your area itself, in both the cases i can help you out and i also have some good material to share. contact me on my mail id. i shall send you the same.One more thing if at all u happen to read this fully and have few doubts ,concerns, suggestions please please comment it or mail me . i will be really happy to have a healthy discussion on any such topic.Help us in improving ourselves , your any suggestion can affect few lives and may be we can do better with your suggestion.
OMG.this side of urs was nt at al visible to me.great work man.really awesome. i always wanted to do something of this sort but u know "THE CONSTRAINT". i ll really like to take this initiative but dono when ll be able to do the same, overcuming the CONSTRAINT. awesome job n awesome blog....
ReplyDeleteProud of you Manish ..
ReplyDeleteWhile so many of us, including me are trying to control "the constrain" you went ahead and proved that where there is a will there is a way..
and most importantly there is no excuse absolutely no excuse for being lazy !
Very proud of you... I knew this side of yours but not to this extent. You are doing a good job. Its just Awesome.
ReplyDelete