The Summer of a Lifetime

Áine O'Connell is a 3rd Year B.Ed Student who spent her Summer as a volunteer in India. The following is her account of the experience.

Answering the inevitable question “How was your summer?” is not as easy as it may seem.  Every other September I would’ve answered that question with something along the lines of “Ah yeah, it was grand…went here or there...blah blah”.  But returning to Pats’ this year saw me at a loss when trying to explain my summer of a lifetime.

I was one of twenty-two volunteers who were engaged in a ten week teaching placement with an Irish NGO called Suas in Delhi, India.  But the volunteer programme isn’t just a question of teaching overseas.  It’s a journey of compelling challenges and unpredictable circumstances in achieving the best results in terms of community impact and personal development.

This journey began in mid-June which saw myself and my fellow team-mates begin teaching as assistants in ten different non-formal learning centres in the slums of South Delhi.  These centres had been set up and funded by Prayas, one of the largest NGOs in India, as an alternative to mainstream (Government) school.  Our main goal was to teach the children the basics in English and Maths so they could pass an exam to gain entry into mainstream school while also creating a fun learning environment.  This doesn’t sound like such a challenge I suppose but when you’ve forty-five children staring up at you without a word of English, a Hindi teacher who has barely any English either, no electricity and no resources besides a worn blackboard...well let’s just say it was a little bit daunting from the offset!

That said, I’ve never enjoyed teaching so much as I did in that underground shed in 45c singing ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’!  Or even to see the shock and pride on a child’s face when I gave him a star for getting sums right was so touching, especially after he had  been cast aside by the teacher as ‘stupid’ due to a mild disability.  Part of our role while teaching was also to be role models of current teaching methods for both teachers and children alike. It’s important to realise that we didn’t go into these schools with the attitude that our way was the ‘right’ way, more so in the hope that the teachers would incorporate our methods into their own where possible.  For example, we could see as the summer progressed, that the teachers appreciated and began to use positive reinforcement in the classroom rather than always attempting to prevent misbehaviours through corporal punishment and shouting at the children as had been the case.

We also had the chance to visit some of the children’s homes and survey the impact of our work in the schools on the children and their families.  We were greeted with exceptionally warm hospitality in such impoverished areas.  The families in these slums had so little yet were so happy.  In every tiny house I was greeted with ‘Good afternoon Mamji!’, offered a seat on the single board ‘bed’ that fit both parents and I was fed traditional Indian food.  In nearly every house I was given glass after glass of Pepsi from a 2 litre bottle that was bought especially for me and would’ve accounted for the daily wage of a typical family in our slum.  It’s incredible how generous people are to you, you’re almost treated like royalty in these homes despite being a complete stranger to most of them.

Besides working in schools in the morning, we had the chance to work in other projects with the NGO in the afternoon like in child protection research, marketing and fundraising, teaching arts and crafts classes, organising events for the children or social work in the girl’s shelter which was what myself and my teaching partner Aoife were involved in.  We taught English, did arts and crafts, dance, cooking or even just sat and talked to the girls who were aged 13-19 and had been taken into care by the NGO for a variety of reasons.  I set up a correspondence between these girls and Irish girls of a similar age.  All involved were absolutely thrilled to make contact with other teenagers from a different culture, something they had never experienced before.  Myself and Aoife brought the girls to the cinema too which was a new and exciting outing for them as well as holding a few birthday parties throughout the summer too.  All these activities notably raised their self-esteem and improved their English dramatically too.  We were delighted to see some of them progress on to getting jobs in banks and beauty salons in Delhi as a result.

In our final week of the placement, we organised a ‘Creation Week’ for the children with the help of the shelter girls and the support of the NGO., It was comprised of five days namely ‘Sports Day’, ‘Culture Day’ and three ‘Environmental Days’.  ‘Sports Day’ was like a typical Irish sports day with egg and spoon, tug-of-war etc. culminating in a prize-giving ceremony.  ‘Culture Day’ was the day I had the chief responsibility of co-ordinating along with the support of a committee.  This involved celebrating Indian culture through arts and crafts, drama, dance, puppetry etc.  The three ‘Environmental Days’ were concerned with using recyclable materials to make costumes, musical instruments, murals etc. as well as using SPHE as the main focus in educating about personal hygiene etc.  The five days were a huge success and catered for 200 children, teachers and parents in one of the worst slums in Delhi.  We rounded off the summer then by bringing all of our schools on a school tour to places like a science museum, playground, a gigantic Hindu temple and even just to see the sights of Delhi which many would never have seen before.

That is only a taste of what we experienced over the summer and I haven’t been begun to mention the odd weekend of travelling to the Himalayas we managed to squeeze in!  I would highly recommend volunteering with Suas to anyone who wants to have an unforgettable, challenging, yet rewarding experience while making friends from every walk of life through your team and your placement. Just one piece of advice – don’t put it off, just do it now!

Check www.suas.ie to view blogs from the volunteers who work worked in India and Kenya and to find out more about how you can help in educational development in Ireland and overseas with Suas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: Tuesday October 17 2006