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Visitor Accounts

My Visit to the Pratham Centers at Bihar & Orissa by Aruna Goradia-2009

Suzanne Zweben, MBA student from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina on exchange with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad (January-February 2009)

 Visit to Pratham Center - Bainganwadi: Dilip Menon

Inside the Read India Summer Campaign: Chithra Ramesh(May2008)

Dreams of a Better Tomorrow: Anil Shah

An Imprint On My Mind: Mona Parikh

A Life Changing Experience: Bhagwat Kumar

Visit to Pratham Schools: S. Dhamotharan and Rema Dhamotharan

Providing a Learning Environment for Children: Manmeet and Paul Likhari 

My Visit to the Pratham Centers at Bihar & Orissa by Aruna Goradia - 2009 I visited the Pratham Centers in Orissa and Bihar during my trip to India in December 2009, along with the respective regional heads, Rukmini Banerji and Usha Rane. Here are some of my observations. • We were delighted to see the Pratham Library at the government school at Patna where about 300 children were waiting to welcome us and showcase their reading, writing, painting dancing skills, coached by their ever smiling and energetic young tutor. The happiest time for these children - the 2 hours that they spend in the library every day, just being themselves. • At Mukaiya’s Balwadi class, a 10 Feet X 10 Feet classroom 25 pre school children were learning from the Pratham alphabet and numbers charts. • The unique Akshar – Anchal program, where the kids teach their illiterate mothers, is immensely successful and even the Bihar Chief Minister is a fan, with his government providing partial support. • Sankalp Program for street children in rural Bihar is a flagship program of Pratham Bihar. Bihar government has provided financial support to Pratham for the execution of the program for street children (10 -14) with no education. Pratham trains the government teachers, provides the teaching material and monitors the whole program.These children are taught all the required courses so they can successfully enroll in the government school. • Then there is the Maha-Dalit School in rural Bihar with 500 children enrolled, with the Pratham staff monitoring their progress. Pratham has trained the government teachers and young people with high school diploma as teachers’ helpers or Tola Sevak from the Dalit community. • Computer Learning Center in rural Bihar is Pratham’s way of rewarding the unpaid volunteers. Pratham provides them with computer training on basic programs at no cost to them. The group right now is 25/30 strong with just 2 computers and 2 teachers. • The Bhadrak School in rural Orissa is about 100 kms from the city of Bhubaneshwar. We were introduced to the teachers who are the native villagers and unpaid volunteers, traveling long distances to the school to impart the knowledge the children just soak up. • Our group was awestruck to witness first hand, how Pratham succeeds in teaching so many for so little. Our hats off to the volunteer teachers and the enthusiastic student for theirs’ is the true partnership. Visit a Pratham Center and see your donation at work….. View more pictures here

Suzanne Zweben, MBA student from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina on exchange with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad In January and February of 2009, I had the opportunity to volunteer with Pratham Andhra Pradesh.  The time I spent working with Pratham was truly an amazing experience.   First, I helped Sunita Burra, Head of Pratham AP, with various projects in preparation for the Read India Joint Review Mission.  As a result of this experience, I became familiar with the Read India program and got to know Pratham’s staff in Hyderabad.  I was extremely impressed by the incredible dedication and professionalism of Pratham’s staff and knew that I wanted to spend my last few weeks in India volunteering with Pratham.  At the end of February, I visited rural districts of AP and saw the Read India program in action.  My first trip was to the Guntur district.  I stayed in Pratham’s Guntur office and accompanied Pratham coordinators on their field visits.  On these visits, I saw the great impact of several Pratham programs.  However, I was most moved by my visits to Read India centers.  The Read India classes are typically between 5 and 7pm.  There was something especially moving about students who are happy to be in class after school ends and volunteers who selflessly give of their time and effort to make sure these children are reaching their full potential.  I was amazed when I found out that most volunteers have children over to their homes nearly every night during the week for Read India classes.   Guntur’s Karlapalem Mandal has several volunteers who have participated in the Read India program since it began nearly three years ago.  They began as paid volunteers and stayed with the program even after the volunteer position became unpaid.  They have remained committed to the program because of the impact they are having on these children’s lives.  Children come to their home for two or three hours in the evening to practice arithmetic, read stories and sing and dance. Melanie (Pratham volunteer) and the children from her village  Haveela (Pratham volunteer) watching one of the children from her class dance – a dance they had clearly practiced for some time The most enthusiastic group I visited was in Guntur’s Garuvee Palem.  Many of these children beg during the day and then go over to Read India volunteer, Koteswaramma’s house for class in the evening.  Her Read India class is the only education these children receive.  The children in her class are extremely eager to learn and make the most of their time in the Pratham program.  One child comes to the front of the group and recites a table or Telugu vocabulary and they all loudly, and with great excitement, repeat after the child in front.  Please see pictures below of this Read India class: I then spent a few days in Pratham’s Nalgonda office and visited villages and Read India centers across the Nalgonda district.   I had the opportunity to meet several Read India volunteers and members of their community who spoke of the great impact that the Read India program has had in their village.   Volunteer D. Venkateswara Rao & I from the Mandalpare village Nagamani, who is a volunteer in the Gudipally village of P.A. Pally Mandal.   Her class is for the Learning to Read level, and she is using Pratham currency to reinforce math concepts My final Read India visit was in the Dugyala village of the P.A. Pally Mandal.  Please see picture below of this very lively Read India class:

Visit to Pratham Center - Bainganwadi: Dilip Menon After several talks with Tanvi (earlier member of Pratham) and Rakhi, I finally was able to visit the Pratham center in Bainganwadi. I met Rakhi at the Ghatkopar Railway Station and then proceeded to take the bus no. 379 to Bainganwadi. Since it is the last stop, it is pretty easy to get there. However once you land there, it is a confusing place. The streets are well marked, but for an outsider it just looks like a cross mesh. We met Rakhi’s Team-Lead at the bus stop. She was the one who knew the directions and was leading this place. The first stop was the shelter facility of Pratham. This place used to be a shelter facility earlier. However now it is mostly a day-care facility. We arrived there around 11:30AM. When we got there, the main person was not there. There was a substitute girl, who was holding the class together. There were around 30 kids there, an even mix of boys and girls. Most of them looked to be in the age group of 4 – 7 years old though there were a couple of older and younger ones. Some were writing the English alphabets, while some were writing Urdu alphabets. When one of the kid came out for water, Rakhi started chit-chatting with her. The kid mentioned that she was not planning to go to school, since her parents did not allow her to go. She had an older brother who went to school (she did not know the name), and a younger one at home. ( This girl looked pretty energetic, since she kept volunteering to recite poems. So it does seem that the parents did not allow her to go to school, since she looked enthusiastic.) A little while later two more Pratham staff members who ran the school came down. The main staff person, (I believe the name was Mangala), gave me some insight into the center’s activity. She mentioned that earlier it was a shelter facility, but now the shelter part has been moved to Mahim. This facility is primarily involved in the rescue of kids who are involved in child labor. So they look around for kids in this ward who are victims of child labor and are made to work at hotel, factories or any other facilities. If any kids are found working, owners of these establishments are given maximum of three notices to release the kids. The owners are asked to give the kids back to their parents. So some kids are sent back to their villages, while some are local and some may have to be sent to the Pratham shelter facilities. This center acts as a grooming ground for the kids. The kids are encouraged to go to regular school. For this, the kids are taught some English, Urdu, Hindi and other basic things. The goal is to make the kids comfortable in basic items that other kids usually learn in kindergarten. Once ready, the kids go to the municipal school. There are several municipal schools around and so the kids can choose to go to one of them. To encourage parents, Pratham also gives them a monetary reward if their kid attends regular school. Thus the parents do not have to be worried of losing money due to the absence of the kids. In addition this center also at times caters to the local girls, to teach them some extra skilled labor which helps them get a job. Some things I noticed here – there were several charts stuck on the walls with basic things – pictures of fruits, alphabets etc. Then there was a library section which had several Hindi and Marathi story books. So kids can come down and read these books while they are at the centers. There were several basic books – teaching kids on behavior, elementary science and long stories. Additional info I gathered on Pratham from here: There are around three shelter facilities belonging to Pratham in Mumbai. These are places where the kids are provided boarding, and possibly some extra tuition to help their studies. Most kids in Pratham shelter homes go to municipal schools near the shelter homes. From here, we moved on to the next place. Since it was raining heavily, we made the journey a little by foot and little by an auto-rickshaw. We finally got to the balwadi place. Now a little about the balwadis of Pratham. There is one balwadi, for each section. A section is basically around 6 streets. Now these balvadis are not anything spectacular. They are run within a person’s house. We went to one such house run by Shabnam, a Pratham Balwadi teacher. She has around 10 kids in her balwadi and also runs a mobile library. Her activity is a 3 hour balwadi class from 9- 12 and then she takes a walk along 2 lanes of her area with her mobile library. Since she has around 6 lanes to cover, she does 2 a week and repeats it twice a week. She mentioned that at times when she finds kids who are not comfortable with reading, she sits down with them and helps them, using the Pratham reading methods. Since Pratham balwadis start only in October she did not have any kids at her place. However she was really wonderful enough to go and get some local kids. We met 4 kids. None of these kids belong to the Balwadi, but they were part of her library program. We talked to them on their favorite stories, school and subjects. After this we bid them good-bye and moved on. Now after this we decided to go back to the Pratham office in Bainganwadi. There were 4 staff members. Back here, Rakhi explained to me a bit about Pratham work. The main programs are – Balwadi, Library, Scholarship and CCP. Since I had visited the first two, she explained to me the latter two. During schooling there are two scholarship exams. The students usually get special training from specialized teachers. The Pratham Scholarship program is to send possible people for the scholarship training program which would help them be self-reliant. These people get the training, and can then choose to be associated with Pratham or may have their own tuition classes for students. Pratham balwadis are scheduled to start only around October since they have estimated that 6 months of preparation is good enough to prepare the kids for school. After this I went with a Pratham volunteer Sakhina to visit the SSA (SarvaSikhsha Abhyan) class. The SSA is a government funded activity, and Pratham is used since they have a wide network. So Pratham just acts as a mediator to pass the government fees to the teacher. They encourage teachers to find 10 students and start of a class. They give the necessary training to the teacher, and also assess the capabilities and progress of the teacher. There are several Pratham volunteers in the field to do this. For Bainganwadi, I believe there are around 6 such volunteers, and they have around 20 such SSA schools. I visited the SSA class and found the teaching being conducted in Urdu language. The kids were learning Urdu alphabets. We sat down for awhile to see the teaching. Sakhina talked to a few students and asked them questions on whether they go to school, and also checked their books. I did not venture to do this, since I had no clue of Urdu. After this she helped me find my way to the bus stop even though rain struck with a vengeance. Overall I am extremely happy with the way Pratham is functioning. They seem to be ensuring that they are able to reach more students and taking the Read India campaign to every nook and corner. The SSA is a great way to do this, and Pratham is a perfect medium to ensure that it spreads out wide. I believe the main part that Pratham needs to work on is to ensure that the students do go to regular school. This cannot be achieved overnight and will take some time. However I am sure that Pratham volunteers can achieve this.

Inside the Read India Summer Campaign: Chithra Ramesh (May2008) It was a hot summer day, the 12th of May 2008. In the remote village of Thaya Mangalam in the Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu, about twenty-five children gathered in front of the village temple to participate in a bicycle rally. The bicycle rally was part of “Ennum Ezhuthum”(Numbers and Alphabets), the Tamil name for  “Read India”summer campaign from Pratham. These children, between the ages of 9 and 14, rode across the village shouting slogans and distributing flyers in support of literacy and the summer camp in the village.                      What motivates these children to be part of this rally? Fast-forward a few hours to 11 am on the 13th of May. The scene: a Read India summer camp in Manamadurai in the Sivagangai district. Close to fifty children were assembled outside the only primary school in the area. The school was in dire condition, without electricity and proper ventilation in the three available classrooms. It was hardly the right environment for learning. These children came from very poor and illiterate families. While sitting outside the school, the children were immersed in various activities using the Read India kits that were provided to them by the campaign volunteers. The kits included colorful and fascinating reading materials, flash cards, word puzzles, story posters and number cards. Some of the children were reading stories and some were reading simple paragraphs. A few were learning to read words using flash cards while others were playing games and singing songs. All the children were enthusiastically interacting and learning from one another. What motivates these children to attend a reading camp every single morning of their school break, in the scorching heat of the summer? In the adjacent village of Pudhuvayal, Priya and her friend Sumathi are awaiting results of their10th standard board exams. They are certain they will get good grades and continue further with their studies. While waiting for their exam scores, they are excited about taking on the new challenge of helping the children in their village to read and write in four weeks. When asked how they planned to accomplish this, Sumathi answered that they had a very simple and specific plan that would help them achieve their goal quickly and efficiently. The children are first tested on their reading levels and divided into five groups, Level 4(those who can read stories and comprehend), Level 3(those who can read sentences), Level 2(those who can read words), Level 1(those who can read letters) and Level 0(those who cannot read at all). After these initial tests, the children are given learning materials according to their level and the goal for each week is to move the children to the next higher level. The plan is to move the children up 3 or 4 levels at the end of the 4 week campaign. Children already at level 4 are encouraged to write stories as well as help children at lower levels with learning.   What motivates 14 year olds like Sumathi and Priya to plan and conduct these classes, every day for 2 to 3 hours during their summer break, without any monetary compensation?   Mala is a charming, enthusiastic and hardworking homemaker from Sakotai block in Sivagangai. When I met her on May 13th, she had just finished traveling over a two-week period to twenty villages, some of them in the remote areas of Tamil Nadu, to recruit and train at least one volunteer from each village for conducting the Read India summer camps in their villages. What motivates a homemaker like Mala to take up this community outreach role?  It is May 15th, 9.30, and the scene is the District headquarters of Sivagangai. Barati Raja, Shanmugam, Anusya and Maheshwari, the Zonal coordinators for the Campaign, are having a meeting with some of their team members.  They are sharing their experience and trying to figure out better ways of overcoming the obstacles and the challenges of the campaign. These young adults are passionate about making children learn, focused on the goals of the campaign and driven to achieve results in a short time frame of four months.    What motivates these young adults to stay back and work in their villages, resisting the allure of a better life in bigger cities? Anandan and Murgesh are Read India district coordinators of Sivagangai and Tiruvanamalai districts respectively. They have taken a pledge to take the Read India campaign to the 120,000 children in each district. Both of these charismatic leaders are aware of the logistical challenges of the campaign. These two individuals serve as role models for their district teams, using their natural inclination for leadership and communication as motivational tools. Both men have made a conscious choice to be part of this campaign and have resisted joining other organizations that are prepared to offer better financial rewards.What motivates these talented men to be part of the Read India campaign? Read India campaign in Tamil Nadu is run by Eureka Child “ an AID India education initiative. Parham’s partner in Tamil Nadu. It is May 23rd 2008. In Chennai, at the Aid India office at Gopalpuram, the AID India Core Team consisting of Balaji Sampath, Chandra Anil, Damodharan and Gomathi, are eagerly waiting to get the report of my week long visit to the summer camps. The core team has been instrumental in planning and executing the state level campaign. They have worked hard to put together the resources, both material and human, for this large-scale campaign. What motivates these professionals from top educational institutions in India to forgo other lucrative opportunities, in order to help their home state of Tamil Nadu eradicate child illiteracy? These individuals, each one with a different demographic, share the common goal of participating in a large scale campaign destined to change the literacy levels of Tamil Nadu. They are excited about the opportunities of giving back to their communities and empowering the next generation. All across India, Pratham is the leading force behind this permanent change. The “Other India” is undergoing a silent revolution, which does not catch the attention of those not involved in it. The unsung heroes driving this educational revolution will ensure that the children of today will have a chance for a better future. READ India campaign’s success is dependent on the work and dedication of the people involved at each level. The work done by a volunteer at a village is as valuable as the work done by the Management team which puts the resources together. The campaign results will be out at the end of July, and the effectiveness of the campaign in terms of its goal, will become clearer. However, the passion and the energy exhibited by all those involved in this campaign is a success story on its own.  Finally, I ask you, the reader, what will motivate you to be part of the Read India movement? I dedicate this write up to hundreds of individuals who are running the Read India campaign at the ground level. (I want to the thank Mallika Singh of Pratham India who coordinated my trip, the AID India Tamil Nadu team who organized my visit, my family and friends for making it all possible. I would like to thank all the supporters of Pratham’s cause in the USA who are making a major financial support to this campaign)

Dreams of a Better Tomorrow: Anil Shah For over 6 years I have visited Pratham sites in India to get to know the programs and the people behind them and also to assess their effectiveness. In November last year I visited Pratham programs in Gujarat, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh. One of these was the Back to School project that tackles child labor in Gujarat through non-residential and residential programs. The non-residential program reaches out to over 1850 child laborers who live with their parents and aims at getting these children back to school by providing them with age appropriate education. The children also get supplemental nutrition, health check ups, stipend and vocational training. The residential program is for extremely vulnerable children who are orphans or come from families who are unable to provide for them. Pratham enrolls such children in schools and also takes care of their food, shelter, clothing, health and overall development. Sports, computer learning, recreational activities, and vocational training are also a part of their daily activities. I met three siblings at the residential school. The boys (aged 8 and 10) used to work at restaurants. Their father had passed away and their 14-year-old sister stayed at home and took care of their sick mother. After their mother passed away, their aunt decided to marry their sister off to a much older man. Pratham volunteers managed to rescue the girl. Now she and her two brothers all live in the Pratham residential facility and go to school. Recently the girl passed her 10th grade exam. She wants to become an engineer I always ask Pratham children what they would like to be when they grow up. Until recently the answers I got were “teacher”, “policeman” etc. Their dream world was limited in scope. This time when I asked the same question, most students raised their hands to become engineers, doctors and lawyers. I believe, if they can dream, they can become.

An Imprint On My Mind: Mona Parikh The Balwadi that we first visited in Trilok Puri, Delhi, was housed in the village school. From a rather confined street, as we entered the school compound, we immediately appreciated the elongated single story structure and the relatively open environment. Children were sitting on the floor in the verandah with their teacher. You could hear little voices reading, reciting, laughing, and learning. Even on a hot summer day in June, for these little folks, it was a place of joyful learning. Apart from teaching them to read, the teachers were trying to impart simple social skills and building self-confidence in all of them. They were all distinctly dissimilar identities, who as a group shared two common attributes: the burden of an underprivileged life and the unwavering desire to learn. In one corner, two groups consisting of 3 to 5 year old children were reading and reciting poems. A little girl who was probably 3 years old was sitting next to her teacher and crying. In response to our question, the very young teacher said “She has been coming to the Balwadi for the last 6 days. Throughout the day, she cries intermittently - except when it is snack time.” As the conversation continued, the little girl stopped crying, sat in the teacher’s lap and stared at the book that the teacher held in her hands. Hanging on a wall was a drawing by the teacher which read: “Pratham Balwadi: Hamara Pariwar” [Our Family]. Several little handprints surrounded the quote. We ventured further along on our tour of the classes operated by Pratham in the surrounding area. Adjoining a small temple, out in the open courtyard bounded by a compound wall, were approximately 50 young children, divided into 4 sections, each headed by a teacher, all seated on the ground. One class was engaged in story telling, another was absorbed in story making. A third group was busy role-playing and reciting. An old line tied to two opposite compound posts displayed so much more than their writing skills and drawings. On a still, hot summer afternoon, the blended creative and artistic talent of these children and their firm desire to learn was glistening in the sun.

A Life Changing Experience: Bhagwat Kumar (Age 12) Visiting Pratham was a life changing experience for me. Before I went there I was naïve and wasn’t aware of all the hardships that people in India were going through. When I went to the villages I saw around a hundred children, who even though they had almost nothing in life, were excited to learn and obtain knowledge. It was amazing because they had such high hopes and ambitions and seeing how hopeful they were made me reconsider what goals that I had for myself. It really made me think because if these children could be so hopeful then I had to be able to achieve so much more than what I previously thought I could. Pratham is a perfect example of the saying “Give a fish to a man and he won’t go hungry  for a day, but teach him to fish and he won’t go hungry ever again”. You can donate money to villages and it will last them for a small amount of time but teaching the children how to get a job will last them for all their lives I think that everybody should go to Pratham at least once in their life because it changes your view on life and what you expect of yourself. It was amazing to see so many children trying to learn and be so enthusiastic about it. I enjoyed my visit because not only did I learn a lot about the organization Pratham and the children, but I learned a lot about myself.

Visit to Pratham Schools: S. Dhamotharan and Rema Dhamotharan                                                                                 We visited schools in two villages near Madurai on Jan 28th, 2008 with Pratham volunteers. We spent about half a day visiting two schools. Even with the short time we were able to see the very positive impact of what Pratham and its enthusiastic volunteers are able to do. We were very impressed.

Providing a Learning Environment for Children: Manmeet and Paul Likhari As long time Pratham supporters Paul and I have always wanted to visit one of the programs to find out first hand how Pratham’s goal of “every child in school…….and learning well” is being accomplished.  In March 2008, we had the opportunity to visit Pratham’s programs in Delhi. The two Balwadis and Community Library programs were being held in two different temple grounds.  In one of the Balwadis children were learning Math.  The teacher was very eagerly teaching them numbers using flash cards.  The kids were equally attentive and responsive.  At the Community Libraries it was inspiring to see pre-kindergarten children very attentively listening to the librarian narrating a story enthusiastically and the students were equally engaged with their eyes glued to the librarian.  Our hats off to the committed and skilled teachers who are teaching the essentials of reading, writing and math!  During this visit a thought did occur in our minds - where would these children be if they were not in Pratham’s program? We were also thoroughly impressed by the convincing documentation being maintained by Pratham’s staff to track the children and their progress.  We felt Pratham is making good strides in accomplishing its goal by mentally stimulating the children in a better environment