Aug 28, Thursday: After
landing on Wednesday, I dropped in on Thursday mainly to give the National
Geographic magazines. Interestingly Arup da (who comes there once in 6 months
usually) was
also present & greeted with a warm hug. Mamoni & Ashis da were also glad
to see me. After few "How-are-you"s & "How-long-are-you-here"s
we sat down for meditation led by Arup da. Then Ashis da & I sat down &
listed many agenda items between TF & me (including a belated treat from
Tanusree & him; they have married recently). I also got one hard copy of
their annual report. Ananda, Anjali (Asha Kolkata)
& Vallabh were supposed to meet me there. They arrived one hour later during
which I saw the daily functioning of TF once again. Then we went to TFCP to see
the different things they have started manufacturing. These included some very
good files & other desktop items & the cards of course. They have
started some printing activities there.
Aug 29, Friday:
This evening I went to see their circus project. A bunch of French youths came
in a cultural exchange program & taught the children various things
including some very good juggling. They put together a show called
"Circus" which was enjoyed very much by the local people. Some local
children stood atop an ambassador car & whistled loudly thru out the program.
The French people took over the show towards the end with some children
performing side by side. It was pretty impressive. I also got the chance
to ask Ashis da regarding the schooling of children placed in different homes.
He mentioned that most homes have a school also. The remaining have schools
within few minutes of walking distance.
A 3+ yr old I know was enrolled in TF program. He (the young one) has
joined the Pre-Primary (PP) class in the evenings only. That will extend to
morning classes also from the next academic year.
I spent hours with the
open school candidates (4 girls & later 2 boys joined in) telling them
different ways of studying, preparing for exams & how to write exams in more
efficiently. I also gave them some HW & few days later heard that they are
doing it. It was very encouraging to see how this proposal of working with
these children was welcomed by TF. They had sent me one set of their books
few days ago & I prepared Geography, Life & Physical sciences &
a little bit of Math over the weekend. I was very happy to see the way
course material was presented in the books. That really reduced my job a
lot. The presentation was very crisp. There were lots of charts &
tables. The presentation was best in Life science, then in Geography.
Physical science was not that great. I mainly concentrated on how to
represent the material better & more colorfully in different types of
charts. That way when will make the charts & see them around all the
time, the material will easily enter their minds thru various sources -
hands, eyes, interaction among them. I did 2 types of charts with their
help. TF provided us with chart-papers, sketch pens & pastels. I have
suggested that they collect old wall calendars & use the back side
(which is typically white) to make such charts. This way they get more
familiarized with the course material since they discuss & explore it
further. Then I gave them some HW, where they are supposed to make similar
charts for other things. I also looked at there tests & suggested how
they can write answers very clearly (in an examiner friendly way) & in a
short time. I also gave small examples as to why we need to learn these
things & how to connect things from different subjects: between Physical
science & Geography, Life science & Chemistry etc. We will have
another session to cover Geography & Math.
Ashis da & I visited the plot for Half Way Home (HWH). It took us 30
min to go by taxi & around the same time to come back by bus. There's a
plan of to build a bridge by the govt. Once that happens it'll take much
shorter time. The area is developing - many houses are on their way to
completion. There's a large pond nearby. There will be a road stretching
from near the HWH to the water body. That will ensure some clear passage for
air.
Sep 4, Thursday:
Riki, an Italian friend of TF, has made the plan of HWH. He presented
that today. I was unable to attend due to some health problems. In the evening I
went to the DTMS, where the evening classes are held.
They had a health
awareness camp with all the teachers, children & their parents from 3:00
- 4:00/4:30 pm. So the evening classes ended one hour earlier. When I entered it
was break & transition time from the camp to the regular evening classes.
Many of the children knows me now & greeted. Fortunately this time I also
remembered some of their names. 2 of them invited me to their Teachers' Day
program the next day. Then they went from class to class to invite all the
teachers. Some teachers jokingly complained about these late invitation! As usual this session started with the children (i)
forming lines in the open space, (ii) doing some free hand exercises, (iii)
singing one patriotic song followed by (iv) some quiet time with eyes closed
& finally (v) taking their tiffin on the way to their respective classes.
I had brought some teaching & learning (TL) material for the junior
classes. The jigsaw went to Olivia (teacher of class I) & the rest - (i)
action flash cards & (ii) addition jigsaws - I showed to Jaya (teacher of
PP). She (Jaya) was delighted with to see such things. So I'll make some samples
& give them to her.
Once Mamoni, Ashis da & Kasturi di came I showed them pictures of Asha 12
etc. They saw Venkata (Asha LA - project coord). I had some questions regarding
their budget & funding. In their annual report there was one item as
"donation" but it did not mention how much is from Asha, how much from
elsewhere etc. They told me the technical difficulty in publishing that. They
are going to give me a break up later. I also informed them (finally) that we
have been successful in raising the amount for HWH. Kasturi di (& another
boy) mentioned that the HW is getting done at the open school.
Then we waited for my cousins & sister-in-law (who
is good in computers). It was a pleasant surprise to see that Mamoni knew my
cousin since they live close by. TF was glad to get someone good with computers.
They are going to start computer literacy classes as soon as they get
permission from the govt. They have 20 computers ready. It'll be different
things for children of different ages starting with those in PP. The idea is to
get them familiarized with computers thru simple educational & fun games
& as they grow up teach them some basic things & later some packages.
Undoubtedly this will give these children extra edge in finding jobs later. I
also mentioned another friend of mine who creates soft wares suitable for these
children at a very low cost using material familiar to the target group. We all
agreed that's much better than buying soft wares which might cost more & are
culturally unfamiliar to these children.
My cousins & sister-in-law also
knew a family (single mother, father has expired, several siblings) who needed
some help. So there was some discussion on what to do & how to do about the
future of 2 children - (i) a 6 yr old boy & (ii) his youngest sister, around
11 yrs old. Ashis da is going to follow up on the later & everyone will be
in touch with each other.
Sep 5, Friday:
Today is Teacher's Day. But before attending the program at DTMS I went to TFCP
to place order for 300 cards & take a look at their complete product list.
I'm planning to take at least one sample of each product & take pictures of
all. That way we can include these in an online catalog with pictures &
dimensions & people/chapters can order from there. They make waste paper
basket & different types of diaries, photo frame, albums, phone/address
books, pen stand, lamp shade etc. Most of the item can be folded flat, hence
easy to pack. They also have some coasters & table mats.
After that I saw the hard copies of the HWH plan & gave some further
suggestion on how to furnish so that space is utilized better. It seems that TF
had not estimated certain costs related to govt permits etc. These have
increased the expense of building the home. I suggested that they prepare an
updated spreadsheets with these additional costs & sent it to us (Asha).
Mamoni (as usual) asked me to help draft that email.
After that it was time for the Teacher's Day program. This is year the
usual room (where these programs are held) is under repair. So the program had
to be staged in the open space inside the school premises. So to minimize the
cost of halogen light they had to cut it short to less than an hour. They
greeted all the teachers (& me) with a rose, a toffee & a pen. The
program started very much on time. They (older children) had every body seated
& ready. The program included 1 song, 2 rhymes, 4 dances followed by some
juggling (they recently learnt in 10 days from the French students in a cultural
exchange program). Some of the dances were very well choreographed & well-presented despite the small stage space. The juggling was also very good. It was
interesting to see few puppets nodding their heads over the backdrop! There was
a BIG request to all the "didi"s (female teachers) to sing & more
interestingly to the "dada"s (male teachers) to dance!! You can easily
guess which one (request) was fulfilled! After the program we were also given
some snacks.
Sep 18, Thursday:
The open school children had done their HW very sincerely. Kasturi di later told
me that they were told that this will carry some marks. They did some very good
charts. There were 2 girls from CINI-Asha (another NGO, once an Asha
project). They come here only for the education part. We discussed Geography. I
pointed out that certain things have not been updated in the book & they
should correct those. Then we briefly discussed some math. One of the girls was
very good. So I encouraged her to explain how she approaches a problem to
others. Later Kasturi di told me how this young lady is supporting her family by
tutoring few children.
After that they had a physical science exam. So I chatted with Kasturi di for a
while. She informed me about an on going exhibition on their products. I visited
that & it was interesting to find people telling me about TF!
Sep 19, Friday:
I dropped in on Mamoni's request. We prepared a spreadsheet mentioning the
increased cost of the HWH. I also reminded them of the diff things they are
supposed to give me in a floppy. This includes the diff forms & templates
they use to keep track of every child & a break up of how much donation they
get from where. I also showed them the pictures taken during the Circus
& Teachers' Day. According to some, I've become their official
photographer!!
Oct 1, Wednesday:
Day out with the children to see Kolkata'r Durga Pujo - we went out in a bus
with 46 children & few teachers/stuff. It brought back memories of my school
& college days. We sang (with music - the back of the seats) our way to
visit several pujo's. It was interesting to see how most of the management -
making sure everyone is in a line, nobody is missing, getting water from tube
wells at regular intervals - was handled by the older children. There was a
small incidence when some of them had thrown some trash in the bus. The teachers
made sure it was cleaned off before we started again. The weather was fine &
so was timing. By the time people were feeling tired the crowd on the roads had
increased also.
This year there were few changes in the TF team. Some people had left as stuff
but were still very much there as friends & there were few additions to the
team in terms of stuff & teachers.
TF has started morning PP classes in DMTS.
Post schooling - One of the girls who is graduating thru the open school is helping with PP.
Once she clears her exams completely they hope to train her as a teacher for PP.
Some other boys are also getting professional training elsewhere. It was
interesting to see if any of them "drops out" & get caught how
TF tries to pursue them to ensure these young adults don't waste their lives
loitering in the streets.
Their motto to guide them until they can remains as holistic as ever.
SAC - TF are not open to the child knowing that s/he is getting
sponsored by someone. I believe that the reasons include i. impact on the
children considering their background & the fact not all have sponsors,
ii. idea wise TF is not comfortable the children knowing this & also
handling the situation thereafter. I saw Ashis da avoid the issue when one
girl (returning home from hostel for the holidays) expressed interest in
meeting her sponsor.
A lot of TF initiatives including computer classes & HWH
get delayed thanks to the government red tape-ism.
Teaching/children - I deliberately did not go classroom to classroom. So no comments on the
teaching there. But the children in general are very lively, vocal &
articulate. They are very open to expressing what they want no matter whether
that's going to be granted or not. They are also very friendly with their
teachers. They do not fear them but do obey them when it comes to discipline.
Open School - I feel there is a lot of potential. TF team is
partnering with other orgs to put up exhibitions & sale their merchandise.
It would benefit them if we (Asha) can connect them with offices &
corporate houses who would by desk-top items from TF on a regular basis. They
have designed some more cards this year. Asha Seattle uses them as "Thank
you" to donors. May be other Asha chapters can do the same. Each card
costs Rs.9-14 depending on the type of paper they are printed on. Since I
visit them every year, I can volunteer to bring some with me if the order is
placed before I leave. Usually they take few weeks to supply 100 cards.
TF has a sister org in France who provide most of their funding
needs. So as for recurring expenses I think Asha should go for SAC as much as
possible. Other than that Asha should partner with TF more on networking &
other non-funding aspects on a regular basis. But funding much needed infrastructure
is a diff issue.
Most (rather all but one) TF stuff has no background in the NGO world &
that's a good thing. The people here work hard for the children. They don't
have the negative traits of the NGO world as seen very commonly elsewhere.
Other than that it still feels like a family & I won't mind being part of
that (or may I'm already)!