Fig 1: RISHI Team with teachers and Headmistress at READ school
I am part of a non-profit on campus called Project RISHI, and this year I was fortunate enough to receive funds from the BLUM Center for Developing Economies to go out into the field and live with the community that I was out to work with. Every interaction I had with the community leaders to the small children in the village, has gained a particular spot in my memories and I hope to go back very soon to further strengthen the connections I was able to make in the last month.
When we arrived at the guesthouse in Andimadam (a village in the South Indian of Tamil Nadu), we were greeted by several smiling faces, we couldn’t recognize. Over the days, we were given the opportunity to know these community leaders who were taking out time from their busy schedules to welcome us, live with this and make us feel at home. Indeed, when we had been in conversation with the primary correspondent and head of Rural Education and Action Development (READ), the NGO we volunteered with, we had no idea of how his support would translate into cute homely gestures from his board members.
Fig 2: Teachers helping us carry out our activities at READ School
When it came to project implementation, we received immense support from all the staff of the schools run by READ. I am going to elucidate this, with one of our most successful events from this trip. Every year, we run “Hygiene Day” for students from KG1 - Grade 5, which is a fun day of activities and games that teach the kids about good hygiene practices and why these are necessary. With around 20 games that are organized into a timetable, such that each class plays 3 games, the event can be a LOT to plan for. Moreover, all our game instructions are translated and printed only in Tamil, the local language, which means that we must know every game in and out if we are to explain it to the teachers of the schools.
Fig 3: Carrying out Hygiene Day activities with help of teacher
Half a week before Hygiene Day, we planned out a meeting with the 40 teachers to explain them every game, every material and every issue that could arise on the day of, that they had to be prepared for. Luckily, we had the support of the principal’s of one of the schools, who was so bright that she not only understood all our games in a glance but also made sure that all the teachers got the hang of the same. She also helped us with our schedule and material printing, to make sure that we were maximizing our time and resources. For example, one of our games was called Coloring Sheets, wherein KG students were given hygiene related pictures - like a dentist cleaning a child’s teeth- to color. Another activity for some children was Hygiene Art wherein the students had to draw what came to their mind when asked about Hygiene. She said that using different papers for the above was a colossal waste of resources. While that could seem like a setback to us, in terms of how we wanted everything to be separate and perfect, she showed us how to be more sustainable by doing the math right to make sure that at least students who had the Coloring sheets game could use the back side of the paper for Hygiene Art.
Fig 4: Post Hygiene Day meeting with teachers to get feedback on implementation
Indeed, we were fortunate to get to work with community leaders who not only provided us their support in words but also worked with us so mindfully to ensure the most successful implementation of our projects!
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