Our first week..... - Faridabad, India
Faridabad, India
We've had a busy week this week. Met some other volunteers, before we left the first house, who were really nice from America, Italy, Australia, Canada and a girl from Ampthill...random! Quite pleased to be moving to our host family today as sharing a small room with 3 people and the room being used as a thoroughfare for all and sundry leads to no privacy at all! All part of the fun I guess and it's perfectly normal for Indian families to live like this it just takes a bit of getting used to.
We were dropped off by the charity at our new accommodation about 4km away. Shri and his wife Mamta and their two young girls Naima and Naysa are our new host family. They are really nice people and made us feel very welcome straight away. We have our own room which is unusual but it's probably because we are the only volunteers staying with her at the moment so we'll make the most of it! It means we both get the top bunk, so childish, plus they are right beneath the fans which makes sleeping slightly easier!
Started school last Tuesday, we are volunteering at two schools now. The slum school which has around 30 kids attending most days. They don't all turn up every day and as it's not compulsory they just cater for whoever appears each morning. There is always a good number to teach though. They range in ages from 2 to 10; most aren't entirely sure how old they are because they were born at home and most slum parents don't even register the births and they don't really have much of a concept of the day or the date. There are 2 young girls who also live in the slum running the classes so this helps as we're not exactly fluent in Hindi! It's based in the temple in the slum as there isn't a proper classroom so the kids all sit on a large blanket and are taught that way. It's quite difficult to achieve a good amount at the moment as the kids vary in age so much.
One of the previous volunteers has donated enough money to buy 4 tables and 30 chairs and the charity are looking to expand above the temple to make a proper classroom which would be beneficial, so we're waiting for them to arrive and then we can try and add a bit of structure to the teaching. It's quite a challenge trying to keep so many differently aged children entertained and I take my hat off to teachers as didn't realise quite how hard their job is. It's good seeing how excited they get and how enthusiastic they are about coming to school and learning. As they don't have any discipline at home some of them are quite a handful at times and are very easily distracted so Sarah and I end up as a bit of a tag team trying to control them all!
The school we go to is a normal primary school with one class dedicated to children that have excelled in the slum school these children are generally aged between 3 and 4 and a half although some of them look nearer 6 or 7. Together with the IVHQ and Squalor charity Mamta and Shri, who we're staying with, help to fund this class buy purchasing everything they need for school including uniform, books, bags, shoes even a pencil case and lunchbox so they have absolutely everything they need. That's on top of the school fees which aren't cheap so therefore only kids who's parents will support and encourage their children get to go. It's sad that some parents aren't in a financial or any other position to be able to support their children as they are too busy trying to survive and their children do help to earn an income rather than an education. So these children no matter how gifted unfortunately have to continue on with their life in the slum. Very sad.
But we get to spend a couple of hours every day with the kids who are lucky enough to attend this quite prestigious school and help them alongside their teacher Ms. Jacintha. She has been teaching them for only a few months but already they are able to read, write and converse mostly in English and she has managed to get them all sitting still for longer than 5 minutes so a massive achievement really!
You can read a bit more about it on the website of the charity we are helping at www.squalortoscholar.org and read a bit more about the amazing work that Shri and Mamta do under the team heading in about us.
Off to Jaipur at the weekend so will post again after that.
Meerkat xx