Warwick Laksh Project Summer 2013

Spending four weeks as a volunteer for the Laksh Foundation, a small NGO in Mangar, Haryana, India, and being a part of an exciting and rewarding project that strives to educate local children and provides opportunities for women to work as seamstresses.

By Inger Verweij

The Laksh Experience

Laksh Schools & Our role at the schools during the placement

Our work focussed on engaging children in English lessons in the local schools in the villages Mangar and Selakhari as well as teaching and training the local teachers at the Laksh school, offering exciting new ways of teaching and team-building activities.

On our arrival at Laksh farm we spent the first two days mainly observing the kids and teachers in the schools and introducing ourselves to the kids.

The school in the village of Mangar is situated on a hill, in front of the house where two of the teachers, sisters Ritu and Sangeeta, live with their family. There are three classes with about 15 students each, ranging from as young as 2/3 years old in the youngest group, up to 15 years old in the oldest group. The school has a very homely feel, with family watching over the kids during the lessons and cows and goats walking around freely. It is very much a safe haven for the local children where they are valued, cared for and enjoy going to school. The small, close team of teachers, consisting of Ritu, Sangeeta and Sandeep, are very dedicated and love working with the children.

The second afternoon school we visited is situated in the Muslim village of Selakhari. The initial impression is one of a hugely challenging school with simply too many children for the one room that has been made available in the building.

At the start of July, slightly over 40 children, with ages ranging from around 4 to 16, attended classes here from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. According to monthly accounts, this number expanded to 123 children by the end of July. Apart from the fact that this increase is hugely encouraging and a reward for the collective efforts and passion of the teaching staff, volunteers and coordinator Madan, it has presented obvious difficulties in creating a learning environment.

For us, the teachers, it meant being thrown in at the deep end and standing in front of a group of up to 50 students with a broad range of abilities and ages. Basic resources, i.e. notebooks, pens and chalk, are made available for all the children by Ila. However, on a day to day basis, children struggle to bring those resources with them to school.

As a result from being in a big classroom, the behaviour of the kids was challenging; shouting and running around the classroom trying to get our attention and hitting one another when they were bored. Whereas in Mangar we were able to teach from the first day, it was immediately clear that such a learning environment was non-existing in Selakhari, a school described as a ‘boxing class’. Behaviour problems and the lack of structure at the school had to be tackled first and initially took up a lot of our time.

Compared to the children at Mangar, I found that most of the kids at Selakhari lacked both confidence and ability to speak English and it communicating with them, explaining what was expected and what needed to be done, was challenging at times.

In terms of the management of the school, there are three main teachers, Shokeen, Ramesh and Jagmohan, who take care of one group each and were originally supported and coordinated by Madan. Now that there is a new school opening in the village of Mangar, that coordination has gone. With two volunteers in place per day to teach and one new teacher recently added to the staff to replace Ramesh who will be teaching at the new school too, this problem has been solved for the short-term.

Although I have a lot of faith in the remaining teachers at Selakhari, certain problems will return once the volunteers have left. Problems that I have talked through with Ila and that I feel could be solved if there is a continuity of volunteers.

At first, the structure of the classes seemed inconsistent with children moving back and forth every day between different groups. During our time there, there were enough teachers available to improve consistency and efficiency with students being put into different groups according to their ability. We took photographs of all the students and a proper registration system was set up.

Although the registration system, I am sure, will remain in place and kept accordingly, there will be the problem of management of space and big teaching groups. The classroom itself is quite spacious but crowded, there are too many kids, not enough desks and many of the smaller kids end up sitting on the floor at the back of the classroom, struggling to engage. For the students currently working outside of the classroom, their groups will expand with only three teachers remaining. Although it will be difficult if not impossible to access another room in the building or more space, I feel being able to work in smaller groups would provide real benefits for the children.

Some of these benefits clearly started to shine through during the time we were there. Not only will they be taught and

challenged according to ability, they will receive the attention they need and deserve. The amount of confidence they gained from working in smaller groups was clear to see. There was more of a continuity in the teaching and they were all excited to learn.

The example that stands out for me is when, at the end of the first week, I took the more capable boys out of the classroom and started doing maths questions with them. I brought in posters and coloured paper and we did fractions together. It was great to see them engage and enjoy learning so much instead of being bored and not being challenged in the classroom. Working in a smaller group increased their confidence and they started talking more English, asking me questions and talking about themselves, something they wouldn’t have done in the big classroom. We would have conversations about family, friends, India, cricket and school and even started doing a little bit of English grammar. We continued this during the second week, an hour each lesson, and a real transformation took place. I started giving them homework and they started doing work on their own, thinking of questions and solving them as well as writing English stories and helping each other.

Work with the current teachers at Laksh & Impact

When observing the teachers during the first days, their commitment and their love for the kids is there for everyone to see. Their understanding of teaching and teaching methods result directly from their own education, there is no clear lesson structure and they all stick to the traditional monotonous teaching with the blackboard.

During our time at Laksh, our goal was to introduce the teachers to new exciting ways of teaching that they could use in the classroom in order to make a lasting impact.

A few examples include ‘circle time’ where we sat down with all the children and made up games making sure everyone was involved as well as brining in a lot of props, singing songs, dancing and more ways of kinaesthetic learning that had

never been explored before. The kids loved it and most of them really engaged in the lesson.

During our first two weeks, we spend one hour each morning doing ‘teacher training’ with the teachers where I tried to teach them the importance of attitude and presentation in front of the classroom as well of making eye-contact with the kids and making sure everyone was involved, not just the brighter kids who were normally picked to answer questions. I also set the teachers an assignment: ‘a lesson about your favourite thing’, with only one rule: no blackboard. They started thinking of new ways of teaching themselves and brought in props, drawings and pictures to the classroom.

While I have not had any professional teacher training myself, I can see how much the teachers have benefitted from the things we did together and the feedback we have given them. In the future it would be great if we could send someone out there who is more professionally equipped and can give them more training.

To inspire the Laksh teachers and to bring a new sense of enthusiasm to learning English, we also introduced plays and performances in the classroom. Henry VIII and his six wives, with the boys all dressed up and wearing headscarves, the Romans and the French revolution were all big successes.

The final performances of the plays during our farewell party, with an audience existing of Ila and a group of the school children, showed them successfully working as a collective, encouraging and complementing each other as well as how

they have all blossomed and gained confidence in their English speaking in during the four weeks we were there.

The potential, energy and passion that the teachers have is remarkable and it is a real shame that initially this did not transfer to the classroom. I feel like we have equipped them with new ways of teaching and have inspired them as much as they have inspired us. Working with them has been an absolute pleasure and with their enthusiasm and passion now starting to shine through in the classroom, I feel the project can move forward and really has a bright future.

Logistical Arragements, Fundraising and Costs

Apart from being an amazingly beautiful and relaxing place, Laksh Farm is the centre of the most exciting, innovative and rewarding projects. Ila is a truly inspirational woman and my admiration for her is strong. To be able to have been a part of her project and her family has been a truly wonderful and motivational experience. Together with her family and staff at the farm, Ila made us feel comfortable and at home from the very first day. We were being cared for amazingly and wanted for nothing during the time we were there.

Weekend Trips

There would be a taxi ready on Saturday morning to bring us to Agra for our first weekend and Jaipur during the second weekend. We would arrive at our destination around lunchtime which would give us 24 hours to explore the city. It was enough to do and see everything we wanted and these trips definitely enhanced the overall experience. The accommodation was very satisfactory during both weekends and the taxi drivers who drove us around were both lovely. Although the trips to Agra and Jaipur were both amazing, we decided against a trip on our third and final weekend and stayed at the farm to rest, visit the villages and went on a school trip to Delhi Zoo on the Saturday.

Fundraising

Raising the money for the project was not too difficult, donations from family, friends and sport clubs made up the 500 pounds. Although it was very much a luxury to have everything covered for by the University, I don’t think it would be a problem for future volunteers to pay for their own weekend trips and to donate the money directly to the project instead because the benefits would be huge.

Personal Experience & Future of the Project

Overall, working as a volunteer for the Laksh foundation has been a fantastic experience and I have taken many happy memories back with me. The initial impression was one of a huge and completely overwhelming challenge but I have loved every minute and the results that we have achieved on a day to day basis made all the hard work worthwhile. The hard truth is that most of these kids will never leave their villages and will certainly not be offered the opportunities that every child deserves to have. Laksh foundation, led by Ila and her teaching staff who are fighting that truth every day, inspires and offers access to education and experiences.

Being so far away from Mangar, Selakhari and all the children, I am convinced there is still a lot that we can achieve. I would very much like to assist in any way I can with the marketing of the project, both inside and outside of the university as well as recruiting and training the future volunteers. I have a clear view of what the project is all about and what needs to be done in order to make it even more successful.

First and foremost, the project has to be put out there. Although it’s a project on a small scale compared to Warwick in Africa, there are still volunteers needed throughout the year to provide that continuity. This a great and rewarding project to be part of and I don’t think it is getting the rewards that it deserves.

The second thing that has to change is the communication, between volunteers across the years and also between University representatives on one side and Ila on the other side. I think the idea that it is difficult to contact Ila and the farm is wrong. There is internet on the farm and Ila has her phone with her most of the time. More importantly though, is the communication among volunteers. From earlier reports it becomes clear that, when arriving at Laksh farm, none of the groups had any idea of what to expect and what exactly they were being asked to do. Although life in rural India is worlds apart from the life we live and there will always be cultural differences and many surprises, I do feel that we could have been more prepared beforehand.

Furthermore, I think volunteers should be more involved in the application process for future volunteers and we need to make sure that there will be eight fully prepared and motivated people turn up at the farm each summer if the project is continuing in the same form as it was this year. If not, we are letting Ila and the kids down.

During my time in India, there have been so many great moments and the one that stands out for me is the school trip to Delhi Zoo with 60 of the school children during our third weekend. The responsibility that Ila has trusted us with was heart-warming and it was such an exciting experience for all the kids and teachers involved. The relationships we build with the Laksh teachers and the kids are really special. The project that Ila has set up is amazing and that is why I feel like the four weeks in India are not the end but the start of my involvement in the project.