EXPERIENCING JAAGRITI

This article has been written by Abhishek Kukreja (Jaagriti Volunteer).....

One morning when I was in college busy in my own world, I got a call from an unknown number. On answering the call I heard a young voice offering me a chance to join an initiative to teach poor & underprivileged kids on weekends; he asked me for my e-mail id so he could send me details of this project –JAAGRITI. While speaking to him, I first thought of refusing as my exams were around the corner but than I realized that it was now or ever. Life would always be busy. So by the end of the call I had made up my mind to go ahead and enlist.

Initially I was excited about the project because I always liked teaching and somehow I believed that I could be a better teacher than any of the people whom I had seen doing this job. So with all this excitement I reached for the first day of action and what I experienced next almost threw me off my feet. Over thirty five kids shouting & grabbing me from all sides and I realized this was not going to be easy & it certainly wasn’t.

In my next couple of meetings with Anchit & Kunal(founders of JAAGRITI) we discussed various plans about what & how to teach these kids. Our idea was simple - to provide them an atmosphere where they learn, create, think, stay healthy & evolve. We were quite cautious as one thing was sure these kids were highly motivated to learn and any mistake could lead to a drop in this motivation. In the midst of all this planning I had a spark of realization which compelled me to respect, rather praise, the education system in India, something that I have been criticizing all my life. I mean it was proving so difficult for us to structure a basic course for these young minds- A,B,C,D;1,2,3 , etc- and somebody has put together the whole education system in India which benefits millions of kids every year- the whole idea seemed mind boggling!!! Learning subjects from all disciplines of life ranging from science to arts, I wondered what could have motivated them to design an education system of this kind. And it was than that I comprehended that all the exams we gave were not important, I mean it was not about getting marks, what was important was what we learnt when we studied for those exams. We were given an opportunity, in our formative years to groom ourselves, so that we become fruitful for others, even as we progressed. Kids are POTENTIAL. They are the seeds we sow today the fruits of which will be reaped by society tomorrow. Human beings are such that if their thinking is nurtured then they can be very constructive, but if ignored, they could walk on the path leading to our destruction. Let us not allow these poor kids to bring such devastation. Let us give them an opportunity to showcase their ability too.

After just a few days since I have become a part of project JAAGRITI I see that it’s not only the kids who have learnt something but it’s also us who have learnt a lot- perhaps more than those kids. Someone has very aptly said “true learning comes only when you teach”. This project will result not only in our student’s awakening but our own JAAGRITI too.

UPDATES: WEEK 7

As you all know we have finally started with regular classes along with a teacher at Jaagriti.The teacher is currently focusing on writing skills of the children. And there has been a remarkable improvement in terms of the learning habits of the children. When I visited the location one evening, I was surprised to see many of the children sitting and studying together outside their homes. They used to earlier waste this time roaming here and there or watching movies.

Volunteers: Anchit and Abhishek

We also had a drawing competition to give the children a break from their regular teaching classes.
Activities for next week:

1. Regular Classes by the teacher.
2. Review of the progress of the children in the past 2 weeks.
3. 3 Prizes to be given for the best drawings.
4. Fruits to be given to the children.
5. Formulation of syllabus which is to be taught by the teacher to the children.

Thanks

FIRST REGULAR CLASS @ JAAGRITI

The pics say it all.....

attentive..........

excited..........

JAAGRITI CHILDREN

UPDATES: WEEK 6

Don't have much to tell about for this week as we are still in the process of trying to get things in order. Also Abhishek is busy with his final exams prep and I was busy with the AID Delhi ORM.

But there has been some progress on the FULL TIME SETUP side. We and the full-timer had an interaction with the children on Saturday. We introduced their new regular teacher to them and he will be starting with the classes from Monday.

We are yet to get a fixed location/room for the classes. But I don't want that to be a constraint in starting the classes for the children so currently we will be starting with open air classes and will be trying our best to move to a room asap.

We also met Pragati Public School teacher who is handling the classes for the poor children. She is interested in our initiative and wants to collaborate with us and is ready to take our 30 children in to their teaching program for poor children. Their program seems impressive as the children get lots of facilities in terms of school admission support, education, clothes, food, exhibitions, picnics etc. We are trying to work how we can take this forward and lets see how it goes about.

Before I end I would like to mention about the ORM. It was my first ORM with the AID Delhi team handling different projects all over NCR. It was a great platform for me to interact and network with so many fellow AIDers, share and learn from each others experiences and plan our strategies for the future actions at all the AID projects.

Kudos to the work all of us have been doing at AID Delhi and hope we keep on touching new heights in the coming future.

Thanks

Full Time Center @ JAAGRITI

As informed earlier we went today morning to meet the tuition teacher and work out the options for setting up a full-time center and also get some students admitted in the near by school. Following are the results:

1) Pragati Public School has 2 hours classes daily from 3-5 PM where students are taught non-formally and also meal is provided to them. All this at the cost of Re 1 per day per child. They have shown willingness to admit some kids and have asked us to come on Saturday with the children and get them registered. We plan to put around 8-10 kids there.

2) We also went to DPS, Dwarka where they have established a Shiksha Kendra for education of poor children. They are provided with regular formal school education and its runs parallel with the regular classes in the afternoon. Due to the ongoing board exams we could not meet any teacher but the guard told us that forms will be available for admission into Shiksha Kendra after 15th March 2009. If things go in place, 4-5 students at JAAGRITI can get admission into DPS. That will be really great. We did talk to some students of Shiksha Kendra who had come there to give exams and they are very satisfied with the classes.

3) Full-Timer: We have been successful in getting a full-timer for JAAGRITI. And he seems to be very qualified and the right person for this job. He works as a watchman at night but takes tuitions in morning and afternoon for poor children. He currently teaches 4-5 children of JAAGRIT 1 hour daily. He told us he is B.Com Economics (Hons.) graduate and has handled a number of children, classes and schools earlier in Jharkhand. But after moving to Delhi he could not find the right contact and so took up this Job. He told us he can handle upto 40-50 children in a go and knows what to teach and how to handle each kind of child. We will be introducing him to the children and their parents on Wednesday and hope to start with the Full-Time center of PROJECT JAAGRITI from this weekend.

4) We could not find a room where we can set-up a full time center but after discussion with some of the parents we have decided to use two of the empty huts near their homes to establish a full-time center for the children. They told us last week that they will make the rooms ready and we can start our classes today.

So finally the Full-Time center of PROJECT JAAGRITI is going to start by this weekend if things go as decided and no more hurdles turn up.

Thanks!!

PROJECT UPDATES: WEEK 5

It was a difficult week as we tried to do an analysis of whatever we had done till now and what we have achieved? But we actually ended up with a number of issues and challenges which we need to focus on immediately otherwise things would start getting out of order and it will get difficult to manage.

1. Since all of us are working or studying in college and are able to take classes only on weekends, the 5 days gaps which comes in between weekends makes all efforts go in vain and each week we are back to what we started last week. We realized that in order to achieve something and make our efforts worthwhile we need have a full-time setup and look for various options. We also need to have a full time teacher who is well versed with the children and can handle and teach them well on weekdays.

Abhishek and me decided to do something about it and we went 2 hours before the actual class timing and tried to find out the various options available. This is what we ended up with:

a) We had a talk with a nearby property dealer and asked him to let us know if there is any empty room available on the nearby plots which we can take up on rent and teach the children there. He sounded positive and has promised us that he will let us know in 2-3 days if there is any such room available.

b) While searching for a room nearby we came across a plot where there is a small one floor Day Care/Boarding center which is not running currently but has all the facilities available. We tried to find out the owner of the center and got to know that there is a person who takes care of this center and can help us get in touch with the owner and we can then discuss with the owner about the possibility of using that center for JAAGRITI children.

c) There is a private school nearby called Pragati Public School where poor children are taught after the regular schooling hours from 3-5 pm. There is lady who is incharge of all this and and we decided to meet the lady tomorrow morning to work out the possibility for admission of some of the children and how we can possibly associate with them for this.

d) A person takes tuition daily and teaches some of the children who are under PROJECT JAAGRITI. He charges Rs 100 per child for 1 month. He can be the right person who can take up the reponsibility of a full-timer at PROJECT JAAGRITI.

e) There is a nearby government school where we can admit some children who require continuous formal education. Some parents did try to approach them earlier but were unsuccessful in getting their kids admitted as they did have the birth certificates and other required documents.

I have decided to go late to office tomorrow morning and sort out all these issues first in order to ensure smooth running of the project. I hope to work out atleast 1-2 of the above options and get some of the children admitted to some school.

2) Another aspect which we are lacking on is the interaction with children parents. Somehow we are not able to take out enough time to meet them. But its very essential for the smooth running of the project. We interacted with some of them today and told them about our above plans and they expressed their willingness to help us out in whatever manner they can and are keen to send their children to school.

Other Updates: Apart from the above work we did take classes like always and continued with our teaching of alphabets and numbers.

>> Many new students have joined JAAGRITI and many fo them even know a lot of things. They need to be admitted to school asap.

>> Also we made an evaluation report where we noted down each child's current level of education and any specific skill which we has. This will be used to keep a track of the progress of each and every child and make an evaluation fo his learning's regularly.

>> We also interacted with the children asked them about their dreams and aspirations. Some wanted to be doctors, some engineers and a whole lot of them wants to be in the police. I could not figure out the reason behind this but i guess its the police of which they are most scared off and so want to be in their shoes and scare others. :)

Apples were given to the children and next week we plan to distribute bananas. (Sponsored by Munish).

Volunteers: Anchit and Abhishek

Its just the first month of PROJECT JAAGRITI and these challenges and hurdles were expected. I hope we are able to sort them out asap and put things in order.

Suggestions/Idea from other fellow AIDers and readers are most welcome :)

Thanks

Volunteer Opportunities @ JAAGRITI

Hi Guys

PROJECT JAAGRITI is about to move to another location in Dwarka Sector 10 where similar efforts and support is required to teach the children of construction workers.

We need Volunteers who can take up 2 hour classes on the weekend. All those interested please contact me asap at 9818115226 or mail me at anchitgoel@gmail.com

Thanks

" Be the change you want to see in this WORLD "

PROJECT UPDATES: WEEK 4

I am down with fever this weekend but it did not prevent me from taking up 2 hour classes on both saturday and sunday. I was surprised to see the excitement in children in order to study and learn things. Most of them came up to me and asked me to take up classes in morning as they are more fresh and ready to study at that time and in evening they are more excited to be with their parents but somehow I managed to convince them as the weather is hot in the morning and it gets difficult to teach them under the sun. Also, more children are expected to join the classes as more labourers are going to come come up for work on the site and will be living up in the same area.

New Admissions: Raj and Rani
--Raj belongs to level 3 as he has been to school earlier and knows numbers, english and Hindi alphabets and addition and subtraction sums.
--Rani belongs to level 1 as she does not know anything and has never been to school.

Volunteer for week 4: Anchit, Kishan and Neerav
This week chocolates were given to the 2 most neat girls and boys:
Girls: Aseyan and Rajrana
Boys: Hari and Laxmi Prasad
Children were also motivated to brush their teeth regularly and be clean.

--Chocolates were are given to Dhananjay and Raj for their attentive behavior and learning ability.

As told earlier this week 2 NSIT students joined us and they interacted with the kids on Wednesday and taught them music. One of the volunteers Neerav knows guitar and had sung some good numbers in front of them which excited all of them. I could notice this excitement on Saturday also when they all were asking me where is kishan bhaiya and they themselves started singing and dancing without even me saying anything.

Level 1:

Hari is able to write well now and has moved to level 2 now.
Level 1 now includes kavita, kavita-2 , Rani and Najrana.

>> They were taught how to write, hold and move pencils and make different lines, numbers and curves.

Level 2:

1. Writing of alphabets from A-Z was taught and most of them are able to write well with few mistakes.
2. Revision of numbers from 1-20 was done.

Level 3:

1. Practice and review of whatever previous knowledge Raj has was done for him.
2. Dhananjay was taught 1 digit and 2 digit addition and 1 digit subtraction sums without any borrow. He is able to do them well and the exercise on writing of small English alphabets was also completed.

One important thing which I observed in all the kids was that most of them know know how to speak counting from 1-20 and also speak few alphabets but they are not able to recognize these numbers and alphabets when given on paper. Same goes for English alphabets. We need to focus on this aspect more and devote more time to make them memorize and recognize numbers and alphabets.

Next week 2 more NSIT Volunteers will join us and all of them will be taking classes in groups of 2 on Wednesday and Friday. On Saturday me, Abhishek and kunal will be reviewing their work and will teach the children about health, cleanliness and hygiene.

One more thing, while I was teaching them A for Apple they all started to ask for apple and now all of them want to eat an apple and want me to bring it for them whenever I meet them next. I hope I will be able to make the arrangement soon. If any volunteer is interested in sponsoring the fruits please write back to me.

And before I finish, let me mention the most touching moment for me this week. It was when I finished the class and said bye to all of them they were very excited and keen to shake hands with me. They shook hands with me once, twice, thrice till I myself didn't take my hands away. Never have children been so excited to shake hands with me, they make me felt as if I am a very important person for them like a star :) ...shayad zyada ho gaya... Anyways a good weekend both for me and the children.

Thanks