Site visit Report : Vigyan Vijay Foundation
Place:Nasirpur Slums, Palam.Details: Available soon at http://www.ashanet.org/Delhi
Status: Being considered for possible funding from Asha Delhi.
Date of visit: August 30th 2003
Project : Shakshar
Time at project: 11.30-12.15pm
Area: Rented out a building(seem map for layout of the rooms--in next message) adjoining,Nasirpur Slums, near Mahavir Enclave, Palam, New Delhi 110045. A slum colony where construction workers and other people in the low income group reside.
Organisation: Lipika
Basic project: Run a Creche in the corridor for little kids, Prep class 4-6 year olds, NFE I - 6-8 years, NFE II 8-14 years. Timings: 10am -1pm (all days) 1-1:30pm lunch.
Summary:
Ravi and I got onto the bus 764 around 10am from IIT Delhi. As the bus rolled on through the potholes filled with road we read and discussed the proposal in detail. More on that later. We met Bhaggi as planned at the bus stand. Colonel Ravi was to meet us at 11.30 out side Sulabh institute. We had 15 minutes so we went inside to see the "worlds' only toilet musuem." Soon after Colonel Ravi met us and we walked towards the slum which is nearby. We reached the site with minimal difficulty. The school was running. There were about 450-50 kids in total. In four groups they were divided.The teachers were making the children shout "aa se.." in the NFE I section, while we were getting our footholds at the place. There were four teachers there. One handling the meals and Creche. One prep, One for NFE I and One for NFE II. We each picked a teacher. I talked with the Creche teacher, Ravi with Prep, Bhaggi with NFE I and Col Ravi talked with NFE II teacher. We briefly chatted with the neighbours next door and then we headed back home. Reasonably impressed by the proposal and the project. Lipika and family had gone to Lucknow due to personal reasons. Hence we could not visit the office to enquire about the organisation.
Discussions
Discussions With Teachers :Bhaggi The NFIE 1 consists of students of above 7 years. Met the teacher (forgot to ask her name) and found her very sincere in her job and is happy to get this opportunity to be close to the children to know them well. while most of the students come themselves but still some of them are to be fetched from their homes. I could see approx. 15-18 children out of 24. I asked some questions to some the children, which they answered correctly. Besides teaching she takes care of the cooking of lunch in absence of the cook lady.
Siva: I spoke with the Creche teacher. She told me all the activities she was incharge of. Her name was Pushpa and she also lives in the slum. The kids come around 10am. Some of them have to be fetched from the slum. On that day there were 13 kids out of the 21 usually enrolled. The children played for 1.5-two hours or so with some toys (which I saw--they were normal little kid toys). Then sleep (or lying down) for about 1/2 hour (which is what they were doing when we walked in). She also coaches them on bathroom ettiquette. She keeps track of children who come via an attendance register. This was clearly maintained when I took a look at it. She then prepares the lunch, which that day was chenna gram dal.
Col. Ravi: Ms Hema Joshi is teaching the NFIE 2 students. She has taken up the job recently and appeared to be enjoying the work. I saw the students writing complex sentences in Hindi and I made some kids read them out aloud. On the blackboard, I saw some maths problems involving 4-digit addition and subtraction. I asked one of the students to solve a problem and she did it correctly. There are 14 kids in the class and average attendance is 10. Functional literacy being their aim, I feel they are achieving the desired results.
Ravi:The Preparatory class was the biggest in strength: about 30 children on roll. I found about 20 of them in the classroom that day, two of them in deep sleep, three or four of them listening to the proceedings of the class and the rest in their own worlds: some kids tugging the other's sleeves, and some looking at nothing in particular. The teacher was trying to keep the class occupied continuously as she spoke to me. She (sorry, I did not ask her for the name) had begun teaching this group about a month ago, and was doing it just as a pastime, as she said she loves being with small children, and has nothing much to do at home in the day. She had made her own poems out of " A se Anar.." etc., and I found the composition impressive. when she was making the kids repeat it in chorus, they seemed to pay attention and enjoy the action too. All said and done, although she was not in complete control of the situation, she was energetic and keen, and that was what we needed.
