When we first arrived in our office in Malviya Nagar (our local community for the next 11 weeks) we were given our counterpart pairings and told which projects we would be working on. I was paired up with a national volunteer called Eshaan. We were then informed that we would be managing a project by ourselves which was more than a little bit daunting, considering that we were only 18 and 19 and had no previous experience managing such a large project (or any project in my case). Even more daunting was the fact that of the 3 groups, we were the only group with just 2 members; there's a team called Pagdandi (meaning a small alternative pathway which is difficult to cross but you can still reach your goal), a children's team running sessions outside of school in subjects like English, maths, drama etc. The Pagdandi team consists of 10 volunteers, the other team, Influence, consists of 8 volunteers. The Influence team works on a campaign on responsible consumerism within the local area.
Our team, imaginatively named 'the school team', was to manage a project in a local MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) school to create a garden space and a library for the children of the school. MCD schools are extremely basic and have little, if any, resources to aid the children's learning. Many teachers choose to spend their days sitting in the sun drinking chai rather than teaching their classes (obviously there are always exceptions but I found this attitude pretty difficult to deal with at first). We were told that our job was to make the school a comfortable environment that would encourage the children to learn independently. In our school we were to work with 3 Teach For India fellows who have made it their mission to create this safe and enjoyable environment for the children.
On our first trip to the school I realised that the stories I had heard about MCD schools were not exaggerations as I had expected but in fact an unfortunate truth. Though I was shocked by the bare rooms and bleak building, I was informed that as far as MCD schools go, this was a nice exception due to the work put in by the Teach For India fellows and previous volunteers.
The previous cycle of ICS volunteers had started the project and had begun to create the creative environment that would grow to become our vision. Though this work had been started, the garden area was still very basic and within moments of seeing it we became excited by the potential we saw in the project and could already imagine the beautiful space for the children to enjoy. Seeing the school was a stark realisation of the mammoth task given to such young and inexperienced volunteers but we were so grateful to be trusted with such responsibility.
Our basic brief was to create a beautiful garden space with the children responsible for its upkeep, a waste management system including compost and recycling to be sustained by the children and also to create an open library for the children to use as they were not allowed to use the current 'limited access' library. We had a lot of work ahead of us!
Our team, imaginatively named 'the school team', was to manage a project in a local MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) school to create a garden space and a library for the children of the school. MCD schools are extremely basic and have little, if any, resources to aid the children's learning. Many teachers choose to spend their days sitting in the sun drinking chai rather than teaching their classes (obviously there are always exceptions but I found this attitude pretty difficult to deal with at first). We were told that our job was to make the school a comfortable environment that would encourage the children to learn independently. In our school we were to work with 3 Teach For India fellows who have made it their mission to create this safe and enjoyable environment for the children.On our first trip to the school I realised that the stories I had heard about MCD schools were not exaggerations as I had expected but in fact an unfortunate truth. Though I was shocked by the bare rooms and bleak building, I was informed that as far as MCD schools go, this was a nice exception due to the work put in by the Teach For India fellows and previous volunteers.
The previous cycle of ICS volunteers had started the project and had begun to create the creative environment that would grow to become our vision. Though this work had been started, the garden area was still very basic and within moments of seeing it we became excited by the potential we saw in the project and could already imagine the beautiful space for the children to enjoy. Seeing the school was a stark realisation of the mammoth task given to such young and inexperienced volunteers but we were so grateful to be trusted with such responsibility.
Our basic brief was to create a beautiful garden space with the children responsible for its upkeep, a waste management system including compost and recycling to be sustained by the children and also to create an open library for the children to use as they were not allowed to use the current 'limited access' library. We had a lot of work ahead of us!
Hi Jess, yes sounds like a big responsibility but I'm sure you and Ashcan will be up to the challenge! Sounds like an inspiring project and I imagine it will be motivating knowing that what you're doing can have such a big impact on the school children.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as it sounds like you have clear objectives, that should really help make it the results visible so you can see what you have both achieved, in conjunction with the local children.
Good luck!!
Dan