8/17/08: Crunch Time

Our tentative plans for Sunday afternoon had originally involved visiting one of the “great wonders of the world,” the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, the travel time from Delhi would take over 9 hours round- trip and did not provide us with enough time to work on polishing the curriculum before the first day of classes. Although we were all a little bummed that we would be missing out on an amazing experience, we all agreed that our semester-long efforts on the curriculum was our primary focus for this trip. We knew that education for the children in Kathputli Colony was the only course for changing the status quo and eradicating the extreme poverty in that region.

Amongst the commotion of typical daytime traffic in India, a motorcyclist rear-ended our taxi car on our way to the marketplace. Luckily, the accident involved no injuries or damage to the vehicle. Torn between shock and humor, the three of us brushed off the minor incident and carried forth with the day. Thus, the rest of the afternoon was spent doing final research in an internet café, performing classroom trial runs and perfecting each of our lesson plans.

That evening, we enjoyed a tasty Indian dinner prepared for us by Dyhan Singh, our cheerful guesthouse cook, and discussed what each of us envisioned for the rest of the trip. With a few minor bumps encountered along the way, we were all pleased with the valuable research we had obtained thus far and shared our confidence in achieving our mission for this visit. We knew that the next few days spent teaching would not only be an unforgettable experience for each of us, but it would build a foundation for the children in Kathputli Colony that could truly transform their lives forever.

Till next time,
Melissa

8/18/08: First Day of Classes!

Curriculum handouts. Check. Pens. Check. Paper. Check. Maps, name tags, stickers, glue, magazines, camcorder. Check. As we headed out the door this morning, checklists sped through all of our heads as we dashed out the door to begin our first day of class! Upon arriving at the site, after taxi dilemmas and detours, we were enthusiastically greeted by the 90+ students at the facility with handshakes and “hello sirs”. Their energy and excitement was so contagious that it made our icebreaker, the 8 count shakedown, and our classes that much more exhilarating, even though we faced a small hurdle with their age groups being at least 5 years younger than we had anticipated. We adjusted our curriculum accordingly, teaching them as much as possible about savings, computers, and discovering their individual strengths, and ended the day with lots of hope and ideas on areas of improvement, which we shared extensively with Akhilesh, the site’s project manager.

Touring CHI/Prayas’ other projects at the site encompassed the remainder of our afternoon. We visited the crèche center, sat in on musical, Hindi, and English classes, and concluded the tour with a meeting with one of the self help groups; men and women with specific skills such as puppet making, wood carving, and dancing, who are grouped together to advise one another and work together to start small shops and businesses in the area.

We learned a great deal today and with three more days of teaching and meetings, we are excited for what is to come!

Signing off,
Bernard

8/19/08: Shared Company

Today marked yet another frenzied – though rewarding – day. Upon arriving at Kathputli Colony and Shadipur Depot’s education facility, we reconvened with the Jesus and Mary College SIFE team and CHI’s directors for our morning assembly. Though originally developed for English speaking Indian students of an older age, our lesson plans were restructured the previous night to work with an entirely new audience: children aged 4 to 11 with little to no English speaking ability. The revisions brought an entirely new element to our preparations; however, flexibility was vital. Bernard, Melissa, and myself all focused on various initiatives throughout the week. Today I laid the foundation designed to formulate their “principles for success.” All the children examined their special talents, recognized the importance of education, and discussed their future and more immediate objectives in an effort to achieve their goals. Melissa took all the children in her class on a “Treasure Hunt” of India where they utilized technology and word processors to expand their knowledge of the world outside of their own village. Bernard focused on a more holistic approach to the children’s education by working on their public speaking skills and encouraging one another to explore their personal strengths.

Immediately after our day of teaching, our team visited & Mary College for a presentation and tour. Bernard and I had served on University of Florida’s Student’s In Free Enterprise (SIFE) team so we were asked to give a small lecture on our experiences, projects, and the overall organizational structure. It’s a great association utilizing business principles to conduct micro-enterprise service projects, so working with another SIFE team across the world was a great opportunity to share best practices and what we had learned throughout our time at UF. After arriving at the college, we were introduced to five students from England traveling to India on a Prime Minister’s Fellowship program. It was great chatting with foreigners like ourselves and sharing our thoughts on the wide range of cultural differences between all of our countries. By afternoon’s end we were able to get them excited about initiating their own SIFE team in addition to discussing our mission with Children’s Hope India. With yet another day complete and only two more remaining, our time in India is approaching its conclusion.

- Brian

8/20/08: Some Personal Thoughts

Today I woke early with excitement for our third day of teaching at the Children’s Hope facility. With the extraordinary assistance from the Jesus & Mary college students interpreting for us, I truly felt that the students in the computer classes understood the overall objectives from the previous lessons. The classes were divided into two primary groups; one class consisted of students from the Children’s Hope vocational computer training classes and the other group was made up of older students from Kathputli Colony that also attended formal schooling. Not only were all the students very receptive to the curriculum, but they were eager to share their research with the rest of the class and elaborate on the topics with their personal knowledge and experiences.

Following our lessons, we hopped into the taxi and drove to the original Prayas boy shelter home in Jahangirpuri. We were scheduled to meet with Mrs. Arun Grover to learn about the Microfinance program she helped initiate 6 months prior. We were very excited to hear about the success of the program thus far and the opportunities for future expansion to other Prayas and Children’s Hope locations. After our meeting, we were given a tour to see some of the micro-enterprises taking place on the grounds of the facility. These included a print shop for making business cards, folders and certificates, a tailoring studio for sewing women’s clothing and creating student uniforms, a bakery that supplied food for the shelter home and community, a laundry room for cleaning the boys in the shelter’s clothing and a small branch of the local bank that provided older community members the ability to own savings accounts that were not accessible to them beforehand. While each of these micro-enterprises were self-sustaining, they regrettably lacked the ability to provide any substantial profits for the shelter or the students managing the operations.

That evening, the three of us discussed the implications of future Children’s Hope India projects for our local UF chapter. These ranged from helping to expand the Microfinance program to more individuals and locations, to finding a viable business model for all of the micro-enterprises taking place at the facilities we visited, to creating a technology program/software linking various NGO’s needs to donors, to developing a long term global education curriculum contingent to what we had already created. Only time would tell which of these projects would become our next top priority…

Thanks for listening,
Melissa