Earned one more smile... Isn’t it beautiful one... (Volunteer Experience)

It all started when I was coming from office. Cab drop point is around one km away. As usual I was walking towards home with earphones plugged in… suddenly realized someone behind me.. was calling me… I turned off music… one skinny lady, with sac of recyclable material picked up from garbage on road, was following me. She came to me.

“Maaay moh kaee kaam milate kate pahave maaay.. durun aalo amhi.. parabhani warun.. tya neo city chya labour camp madhye rahato.. tithach kaambi karite.. lek balantin zaliye.. pagar naeee dila malakane… chul petawayala roj hyo kachara gola karite.. 5-10 rupye milatat kacharyache.. moh kaee kaam milate ka bagha. (Please see if some work I can get. We came from parabhani. Living in neo city labor camp. Work there itself.. daughter came for delivery. Haven’t got salary yet. Need some money to make every day’s bread and butter, that’s y picking up this recyclable material from garbage. I get few rupees out of it. Please see if I can get some work.)”

She sounded very much honest. But she is just passed 8th standard. She felt reluctant to work in office. So I asked her to come home for house work.

Second day she came with her son, around 12 yrs old son. While she was finishing work , I started talking with her son. I asked him in which school he is studying and all. I got to know he doesn’t go to school. His mother told me they are finding it difficult to get admission here as they don’t have school transfer certificate. So her two sons are not being able to get admission here and indeed their schooling is abandoned.

I called Rajani madam from Door Step school. Told her all the situation. She told me , she will inform her DSS representatives here and they will help me.

On Saturday I got call from DSS representative, they told they will meet me on Sunday.

I went to Neo City (construction site) labor camp on Sunday by 11 am to meet DSS representative. We found that there are few more students who are out of school. We talked with their parents, identified problems they are facing. DSS representative told me that they will help all parents to get admission in school. Kid’s parents looked so much grateful as they were doing Namaskar to all of us. We returned with promise from parents that they will send their kids to school.

The boy in photo is younger son of the lady who has started working at my house. Another kid in photo is her granddaughter (in other word cute photo of mama-bhachi).

I asked this boy to read book, he read few pages fluently. I asked him to tell tables. He spoke 1-30 tables. He told full ABCD. Sang few poems.

While listening to him few thoughts were running through my mind which resulted in tears in my eyes- "Look at this boy.. he is so much talented.. he was about to miss his schooling.. could have just abandoned somewhere because of many more factors not just poor family…"

Feeling amazed… few incidences which happened randomly in last few days are going to result in something valueable.. This talented boy is indeed will continue with his schooling.. just look at his smile in photo.. His smile has reflected on my face with tons of amazed happy expressions…

Thanks to Door Step School representatives. Without their help this was impossible…

School chale hum… ohoho…

- Hemshri Lakhapati, Volunteer

(This is a nice example of how every citizen, without disturbing their own schedule, can contribute towards education of out-of-school children. Thank you Ms. Hemshri, for sharing this wonderful experience! - Door Step School, Pune)

SSRBM Kids Meet New Friends at DSS Bavdhan center

Door Step School caters to the education of underprivileged children across Pune and PCMC with the focus being migrant labour typically at construction sites. We have one of our centers in Bavdhan where children between 3 to 14 years of age come every day. Door Step School teachers teach them Marathi alphabet, numbers, reading, writing, various games as well as undertake other activities and projects. Bavdhan also houses a school for small children – ‘Sri Sri Ravishankar Bal Mandir’. The teachers and children from this school, recently visited Door Step School’s class at the construction site. The children from Bal mandir presented a story with help of puppets.  Jyotsna Tai, the teacher from Bal Mandir, conducted games involving children from both the groups. Children sang and danced together and all were visibly delighted to have made new friends. 

Sayali Kulkarni, Director, Sri Sri Ravishankar Bal Mandir, penned down the experience of this visit wonderfully and shared the same with us.

“We got this opportunity to visit the Bavdhan center of Door Step School. And we got to meet and know a young little friend, Hari. Harihar Yadav, son of a construction worker is around 10-12 years old. ‘Hari’ – a smart and charming personality.  Many of the children of this age are such. But, Hari grabbed our attention due to some other reason. And that was his involvement in all the activities. He did not lose his concentration even though there were loud noises around, other children’s restlessness, the photos being clicked, etc. He was 100% engrossed in singing, dancing, etc. Hari also means God. I felt as if I am seeing a Yogi, with no considerations of past and future, immersed in spirituality and then the whole day, I could feel the spirituality in my mind. Do we really get so engrossed in whatever we do? Do we really give our 100%? We forget to live in the present, get bothered with unwanted burdens from past and unnecessary worries of future…

We restrict our natural movements, thinking about thoughts and reactions of others. We pick up little problems around us, and on our own, create mountains of hurdles before us. Looking at Hari, I got opportunity to know myself, to be close to myself. I planned this visit to give something to the children, but, it so happened, that I got a lot and that too very special, from the children. Today, Hari helped me meet the God within me."

-Sayali Kulkarni.  

(Translated by Volunteer - Gauri Joglekar)

SSRBM Kids Meet New Friends at DSS Bavdhan Center

पुण्यातल्या बावधन भागामधे बांधकाम मजुरांच्या मुलांसाठी ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’तर्फे वर्ग चालवला जातो. साधारण तीन वर्षांपासून ते चौदा वर्षांपर्यंतची मुले दररोज या वर्गाला येतात. ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’च्या शिक्षिका या मुलांना मराठी अक्षर ओळख, अंक ओळख, वाचन, लेखन, तसेच विविध खेळ व प्रकल्प शिकवतात. बावधन भागातच ‘श्री श्री रविशंकर बालमंदीर’ ही लहान मुलांची शाळा आहे. या शाळेतील मुलांनी व शिक्षिकांनी नुकतीच ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’च्या बांधकाम साईटवरील वर्गाला भेट दिली. बालमंदीराच्या मुलांनी पपेटच्या माध्यमातून एक गोष्ट सादर केली. त्यांच्यासोबत आलेल्या शिक्षिका ज्योत्स्नाताई यांनी दोन्ही गटातल्या मुलांचे एकत्रित खेळ घेतले. मुलांनी एकत्र गाणी म्हटली आणि डान्सही केला. दोन्हीकडील मुलांच्या चेहर्‍यांवर नवीन मित्र मिळाल्याचा आनंद स्पष्ट दिसत होता.

श्री श्री रविशंकर बालमंदीरच्या संचालिका सायली कुलकर्णी यांनी या भेटीबाबतचा अनुभव छान शब्दांत लिहून पाठवला आहे.

“आज ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’च्या बावधन प्रकल्पाला भेट देण्याचा योग आला. आणि त्या योगाने एका मस्त अश्या छोट्या दोस्ताची ओळख झाली. 'हरी' - हरिहर यादव, वय वर्ष अवघे १० ते १२ असावे. बांधकाम करणाऱ्या कामगारांचा मुलगा. 'हरी' - पहात क्षणी नजर खिळवून ठेवणारे चुणचुणीत व्यक्तिमत्त्व. खरेतर या वयाची बरीचशी मुले अशीच असतात. पण हा हरी मनाच्या कोपऱ्यात घर करून गेला ते वेगळ्याच कारणाने. ते म्हणजे - हरीची सगळ्या ऍक्टिव्हिटीज मध्ये असणारी इनव्हॉलमेंट. आसपासच्या मुलांची चुळबुळ, आजूबाजूने येणारे मोठे आवाज, काढले जात असणारे फोटोज, या आणि यांसारख्या कोणत्याही व्यत्ययांचा त्याच्या एकाग्रतेवर काडीचाही फरक पडत नव्हता. गाणे म्हणणे, नाच करणे यांसारख्या कृती तो अगदी १००% करत होता. भूत-भविष्याचा कसलाही परिणाम न जुमानणारा, साधनामग्न योगीच जणू हरीच्या रूपात माझ्यासमोर होता. मनात विचार आला की, परमेश्वराचे कार्यमग्न हरिरूप असेच असेल का? आणि मग दिवसभर मनात या हरी नामाचा गजर रंगला. आपण स्वतः खरंच प्रत्येक गोष्ट एवढी मनापासून, १००% करतो का? भूतकाळातील अनावश्यक ओझी नि भविष्याची अकारण चिंता यामध्ये वर्तमानात जगणे विसरूनच जातो. कोण आपल्याबद्दल काय विचार करेल नि काय म्हणेल, यात नैसर्गिक हालचालींवर बंधने आणतो. आजूबाजूच्या छोट्या छोट्या अडचणी घेऊन स्वतःच स्वतःपुढे व्यत्ययांचे मोठे डोंगर उभे करतो. आज या हरीच्या रूपाने पुन्हा एकवार स्वतःला ओळखण्याची, स्वतःच्या जवळ जाण्याची संधी मिळाली. आणि या मुलांना काहीतरी द्यायला गेलेल्या मलाच खूप काही असे मिळून गेले. आज मला या 'हरी'च्या रूपाने जणू माझ्यातील 'हरी' भेटला.”

- सायली कुलकर्णी

Inspiring Story of Volunteers from Hyderabad

Bhanu Chander works as a STEM trainer for a Robotics company in Hyderabad. He and few of his friends wanted to help children in nearby slums get education. They visited the slums and interacted with parents and kids to understand reasons for children not attending schools. Apart from financial constraints, it was also observed that many parents did not know about local schools and their admission procedures. The volunteers approached a residential school and helped five children get admission. However, the children did not continue due to various reasons, fear and insecurity of the parents being major reasons. Accepting the failure of their first attempt, the volunteers then tried to get these children enrolled in nearby government schools. Most of the children belong to labourer families who have migrated from other states and cities to Hyderabad. Obviously, the children do not understand the local language - Telugu. The government school teachers informed volunteers that the children need to know at least basics of the Telugu language, if they want to attend the school.

Stuck in this situation, Bhanu started looking for help and came across Door Step School's programmes for migrant workers' children. In the month of October 2016, Bhanu wrote to us about his experience and plans about the children. His friends had already decided to start teaching the children on weekends, but they were clueless about how and where to start. During next one month, we had numerous interactions through e-mail, phone calls, and WhatsApp. We discussed various options like involving a local NGO from Hyderabad, conducting the study class in nearby school, building rapport with the parents, etc.

The volunteers have now started their weekend classes in the slum. They are introducing Telugu, English, and basics of Mathematics to the children between 5 and 14 years age group. Around 20-25 children attend these classes conducted by volunteers on Sarurdays and Sundays. They keep a track of what is being taught in each session, so that they can plan further sessions with same or different volunteers as per their availability. Door Step School has a reading skill development kit already prepared and being used for Marathi language. We are trying to replicate a similar teaching module for Telugu. We are also working out how English and numeracy skills can be taught to these children with help of simple teaching tools and workbooks.

The volunteers recently celebrated Children's Day in the slum. Parents have started responding positively and are happy to see their children learning something new every week. The volunteers are very much determined to bring these children into mainstream of education by start of next academic year. The Every Child Counts campaign was launched by Door Step School in 2011, with a vision of involving concerned citizens in education of out-of-school children, making it an organic and sustainable model of community development. Bhanu and his friends from Hyderabad are setting a wonderful example of how citizens can contribute towards the larger goal of 'Education For All'.

Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot

Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot

Bengaluru continues to see significant construction activity. A vast majority of these construction workers are migrant labourers.  Education of their children poses a challenge. Only a small percentage of the children of migrant labourers attend school, the rest remains out of school because of various reasons, they need to stay at home to take care of the younger siblings, or schools are inaccessible or simply they can’t cope up with schools having stayed out of school for prolonged time.

Though various NGO’s and government have been working to address this problem, it is a work in progress, any help is usually welcome.
 It is with that premise, this initiative originated, asking the question:

“How can an ordinary citizen in Bengaluru contribute to the cause of the education of the migrant labourer?”

 That question brought together a team of a set of likeminded people, with a desire to contribute something to cause of the education of the children of migrant labourers. The first lead to finding the answer was the “Every Child Counts Citizen Campaign” or ECC.  Inspired by the successful journey of ECC Pune, which has been working for the last five years with a similar objective, the team aligned to the goals and methodology set down by that campaign.

The goals and the plan to achieve the goals began to take shape. The short term goal was to pilot an ECC Clone in one location of Bengaluru. Haralur road, which borders the HSR layout, Hosur Road and Sarjapur Road, which has been witnessing a boom in construction activities was selected as the pilot location. Enrolling the out of school around two government schools of Haralur road thus became the primary objective of the campaign.
The campaign adopted the same structure ECC Pune had laid out.

• Citizen would survey the locality, identify out of school children between the age of 6 and 10, and collect the details.
• Citizen would engage an NGO and with their help, use the data collected to chalk out a practical plan to enrol the children identified to the government schools. The best case would be NGO selected would have funding to set up bridge schools in that locality.
• NGO with the citizen execute that plan – enrol children directly to schools, set up bridging facility for the ones who cannot be enrolled.

As the citizen volunteers were not part of any NGO, the team choose to stick to the name of original – Every Child Counts – Bengaluru Pilot.

Given that the citizen volunteers had minimal experience in such surveys, the team approached for help, ECC Pune, Azim Premji Foundation and Gubbachi, all experts in this area.

Experts from ECC Pune were more than willing to share not just their experience, but also the toolkit required for the campaign. Gubbachi assured that if in case it emerged that there is a significant number of out of school children in Haralur road, they could potentially be the partnering NGO in the campaign.

Thus after an orientation session held attended by 11 citizen volunteers, the campaign kick started.  The citizen volunteers surveyed the Haralur area for 4 consecutive Sundays. Open source Android apps for surveying were also made available. The volunteers met with parents or relatives of children of the labourers.

The volunteers were received mostly warmly by the people. Their apprehensions would often ease out after a few minutes of conversation. Knowledge of local language became crucial to the success as majority of the people surveyed were from North Karnataka. Knowledge of Hindi, Telegu became useful too. The clusters surveyed ranged from decently organised labour camps by the big builders, to unhygienic chaotic shanties. Sunday 12.00 became the standard time for surveying the locations, as the team found the parents of the children being available on site for conversation.

Most of the parents were willing to send their children to school, provided some of the concerns were met. This included -

• a safe transport to the school,
• a day care for their younger sibling,
• mitigating unsafe conditions in the schools.

The initial survey was led by volunteers with prior experience.  The apprehension that whether novice citizen volunteers would scale to their level dissolved in the second week, where the first timers did a wonderful job of initiating and carrying on conversations with the labourers.  Though the number of volunteers dropped, the volunteers from the same locality continued the survey till it covered the target area.

With 52 children identified in approximately 1 square kilometre, the first phase of the campaign achieved what it set out to achieve, a handful of volunteers completing the survey of the locality, identifying children in the age group of 6-10. The labourers found were mostly from north Karnataka, and the rest from West Bengal.

The campaign has now moved on to the next phase, evolve a plan of action along with Gubbachi.  The data thus collected have been handed over to NGO Gubbachi.  Therefore the campaign stands at a crucial phase, where without any funding, it has to solve problems such as setting up a bridge school, arrange for transportation, etc. The positive response from Gubbachi has kept the hopes of the team high so far. The team hopes that in the coming weeks, it will be able to address most of these challenges.

- Reported by Ranjit A Pillai, ECC - Bengaluru

Independence Day - No Child Should Get Left Behind

This Independence Day, 15th of August 2016, The Kahani Project got along with Door Step School to take the message of continuous education and schooling for all kids. Ajay Dasgupta and Chetan Vohra from The Kahani Project, along with Ankita and team from Door Step School engaged the parents and children  through storytelling, dance, and songs. At the end of the session, children promised the team of going to school everyday. This event was organized for communities in Dighi, Alandi Road, Pune. Here are some snapshots of the activities -

What do you use to hear stories - your ears and not the mouth.

Everybody broke into some impromptu dance.

So much fun with dancing and singing before the stories started.

Getting ready for some storytelling.

Chetan Vohra from The Kahani Project has the kids enthralled with Sochu.

Chetan Vohra and Sochu.

Chetan Vohra tells the tale of Chotu as everyone listens spell bound.

Ankita and Sadashiv from Door Step School explaining to parents and elders why it is important to go to school.

"We must go to school everyday!"

Thumbs up to a promise that we will go to school everyday.

Everyone sang the national anthem.

Another venue with over 60 children.

Ajay Dasgupta from The Kahani Project in the middle of a telling.

Buddhu Chalak is a hit wherever the story goes.

Chalak is on Buddhu's back.

Setting An Example of Volunteering

This is the story of a dedicated and concerned volunteer working with Door Step School children in Pune. Sharmishtha Deshpande from Wipro started volunteering from June 2015 at construction sites and brick kilns in Kondhwa area. She was teaching a group of around 15 children between 6 and 13 years of age. Many of the children attended nearby government school till 3:30 in the afternoon and joined Sharmishtha Tai's class from 3:45 till 5:30 in the evening.

Sharmishtha wanted to teach these children English. She used simple methods like teaching them how to spell their own names and addresses. She introduced them to colours and numbers in English. Then she proceeded to teach them other English words and made the learning process interesting by adding drawing and painting activities.

A specific room was not available at the location for Sharmishtha to conduct her class. There was a vacant room in the labour vasti, which was initially used as a classroom. But the class was scheduled to happen only once in a week, on Saturday. This room would usually get occupied during the week by some new labourers joining the construction work here. But Sharmishtha was very determined and she would conduct her class anywhere she found a place to sit with the children. There were times when she conducted her class even in the shadow of nearby houses. She never complained about uncleanliness of the surroundings or state of the children. She also arranged all the required teaching aids on her own. Although some mats and slates were provided at the site, those were frequently stolen and misplaced due to lack of storage space.

Sharmishtha gave beautiful pictures to the children and got them painted. Once the painting was done, she collected all the pictures and got them laminated. She was always against rejecting any of the pictures for not being painted well. She didn't want any of the children feel bad for their picture not being selected for lamination. So involved she was with the children that she could not think of seeing them sad.

While conducting the class, Sharmishtha noticed uncleanliness of the surroundings and decided to run a cleanliness drive. Next Saturday, she herself brought 10 volunteers with her at 8:30 in the morning and got the entire area cleaned. Looking at the enthusiasm and initiative of volunteers, even the builder of the construction site sent two labourers to help volunteers clean the area. The volunteers then planted trees in the premises. Children at the site were involved in all these activities and now they have taken ownership of the trees and are seen taking good care of them.

One day, Sharmishtha proposed to take these children on a tour to Lohegaon Airport. Neither the children nor their parents had ever visited any airport. All of them were too excited about the trip. A total of 42 children from various construction sites in Kondhwa, Undri, and Pisoli were taken to Lohegaon Airport. The volunteers guided the children through various sections of the airport and answered their never-ending questions. It was truly a lifetime experience for the children.

The children are very much fond of their Sharmishtha Tai, who not only helped them in their studies but also gave them life lessons of cleanliness and nature conservation. On behalf of all these children, Door Step School would like to thank Sharmishtha and her group of volunteers for bringing hope in the lives of these marginalised children.

DSS Republic Day Celebrations at Oxford Group, Mundhawa

It was that time of the year when the entire nation gears up to celebrate the most important day of Indian Constitution. 26th of January 1950, the date on which the Constitution of India came into force as the governing document of India by replacing the Government of India Act (1935). The republic day of India is celebrated with full patriotism in the national capital of India – New Delhi, with ceremonious parades at the Raajpath, which are performed as a tribute to India; its unity in diversity and rich cultural heritage.

Door Step School also decided to celebrate this histrionic day of Indian history by giving a message of kindness and love. The venue was Oxford Group construction site, Mundhawa, Pune. The children at Oxford Group Camp, aged from 3 to 15 years, were enticed and intrigued by the celebrations in their school earlier in the day. Furthermore, they were equally excited about celebrating with DSS Volunteers and Co-coordinators. DSS Volunteers led the event all the way starting with a tribute to our motherland and shouts of Jai Hind.

Every child in the camp, irrespective of the age group participated in the shout with equal compassion and respect. Following the awe-inspiring shouts of nostalgia, the kids were asked to write a paragraph from one of their text books as it was being read out by the volunteers. The winner was to be announced on the precision of words used and their handwriting, of course. The language used for the paragraph was Hindi or Marathi. To add to their vigour, their parents showed full support with cheering their children. The kids of relatively smaller age of 3 to 5 had a drawing competition. The winners of both events were handed over prizes and everyone got a special treat.

DSS will continue to help these kids craft kind and brilliant minds with an intent of shaping them to live a better life. Many kids lack the self-esteem necessary to cope with the challenges the world puts in front of them. At DSS, we help to build self-esteem in the belief that once people see the value within themselves, they will begin to see that value in others. This behaviour becomes self-perpetuating, and spurs an “upward spiral” of kindness. This is why we are here.

Fun Activities for Children and Parents from slums

This Republic Day was celebrated with children and parents in various ways by the ECC project team. At few places, sports and drawing activities were conducted for children and fun games were organised for parents. Parents took part in the games and enjoyed a lot. They said that they had never played games or fun activities before. On some sites, story sessions were held for children and parents with the help of volunteers. One of the volunteers conducted Puppet Show at Suvidha Nisarg construction site. In Gaudara area, Magic show was organised for children and parents from Brick Kiln, Katkari slum (fisherman community), and temporary slum. After Magic show, the children played games. They were so thrilled that they didn’t want to go home. ECC Field Associates conducted the activities and talked to the parents at all the centers, with help of volunteers from corporate, colleges, and individuals.

At Nehru Nagar slum, the parents opened up after the event and started sharing their feelings. One of the parents told us, “Madam, iske pehle humse kisine itni baat nahi ki aur hamaare saath khela nahi. Aaj humein bahut achha lag raha hai, khub maja aaya. Bachche bhi bahut khush hain...” (Nobody had spoken to us so nicely before this. Nobody had played with us. We are feeling great today, we enjoyed a lot. Children are also very happy...)

Storytelling session by volunteer Mr. Ajay Dasgupta

Drawing activity for children with volunteer support

Storytelling session by volunteer Mr. Ajay Dasgupta

Fun games for parents

Puppet show

Magic show

Visit to the Planetarium

About six months ago, one of the DSS volunteers - Rohit Verlekar's son and his two friends conducted a small workshop on Solar System for our students at Sumashilp construction site. It generated a lot of interest among the children. As a follow-up to the workshop, they took the kids to the planetarium at New English School, Sadashiv Peth, Pune on 9th of January, for a 45 minutes show about space and various constellations. 40 students attended and enjoyed the show.

Mr. Ramdasi of New English School was very cooperative in arranging the show despite his tight schedule and explained and answered children's queries with a lot of interest. He was so impressed with the children that he voluntarily offered his services to conduct an on-site workshop wherein he would bring in his telescope and show the children an exciting view of the moon, sometime in the month of February, when the full moon can be observed.

Priyanka Dnyaneshwar Mhaske, an 8th Std student from Shri Shivaji Mandir who has always shown a spark in whatever she does, also made her presence felt with some intelligent questions. Mr. Ramdasi suggested that she be sent for outbound Sky Workshops that he conducts in which he takes the students through an exciting space journey with his large telescope.

Special mention about Anuradhatai, Umatai, Ashvinitai for excellent coordination and for taking good care of the children as always...

Students along with Mr. Ramdasi

Art Session for DSS Children - Vibha Volunteers' Initiative

Vibha, Pune​ volunteers conducted a session with Door Step School​ Site at Balewadi to introduce kids with Warli painting. Most of the kids used brush and colors first time and the results were magical!

Thanks to the awesome team Khushboo Bali, Shraddha Trivedi​ Gajbar, Mangal Pandey, Nav Kush, Ankita, and Swati.

Thanks to Kanika Gupta for the beautiful photographs.

Contributed by - Anjeli Singh​, Vibha Volunteer

Let's begin

Volunteer Khushboo giving Warli lessons to kids

Classroom

Shraddha Trivedi giving art lessons to kids

The teacher and the student

First day at school.

Volunteers

Volunteer Mangal playing with kids