Monday 26 February 2018

It Takes a Village


- Nomita & Somya
Last year Adity (our writer- volunteer) had written about Vijay. Vijay came to us in January 2016 Hindi literate, highly motivated and almost twelve years. When we would be doing our work at the
Friendships & Learning
bridge center he would nudge us to engage with him. We would give him some Math problems to solve- the mechanical kinds – and that he knew. When we would write the same as a story problem in Hindi he would be stumped. We gradually started filling his foundational numeracy gaps while we explored alternate learning spaces for him. Options, like Ananya, did not work out for him since he was just above their age cut-off. We started exploring the NIOS route for him but one step at a time. We started English for him from Kindergarten level; Math from grades 2 and 3.
We also started exploring the volunteer route for his education. Our early stage volunteers with Vijay were Seema and Shilpa. The beginning work that they did with him kick started his education journey. Now he is navigating his way around Grade 6 NCERT curriculum in English and much of it as self-study. Since August 2017, he has been guided, supported and mentored by a wonderful set of volunteers who are constantly keeping an eye on his progress.  He is tackling Geography and History with Beena, Geometry with Sindhu, Science with Kaushik, Data Entry Operation with Arpita, English Literature with Reema, Coding with Vedant and Hindi with Garima. We are all collectively working towards him completing his Grade 10th by 2021.
In the meanwhile, another program, Gubbi Udaan, has kick-started with Lluvia Bakery. Our older children (11+ years) get exposure to occupational opportunities as a means to look at entrepreneurship up close, while picking of skills and connecting their learnings to developing literacy and numeracy. At Lluvia Bakery, Vijay has learnt to knead dough while his peers roll and cut and bake. Under the gentle, yet firm guidance of Durga (entrepreneur of Lluvia Bakery) they demonstrate amazing teamwork – building camaraderie within the cohort. Last weekend they successfully sold all the cookies at a bake-sale! Learning the commerce of selling - marketing to customers, billing, keeping accounts was part of this experience. This aspect of learning wouldn’t have been possible without Durga, very generously, not only throwing open her professional space, but investing her time to guide them through the stages.
It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child…we are living it through our wonderful volunteer-community! A heartfelt THANK YOU, to each of you!

7 comments:

  1. Great Job. Nice to know about his progress. Keep up the good work.

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  2. Simply heart touching experience sharing ! However, I personally feel that more than Vijay, those who touched his life, are fulfilled because of the opportunity that came to them strengthening their faith in themselves and their potential to do good. So much to do and so little is done but that so little done may mean a lot to someone; in this case Vijay!

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  3. Yes! We are definitely getting fulfilled. Thank you for stopping by.

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  4. Lovely! Commendable work being done by the Gubbachi team - both staff and volunteers! I very much look forward to visiting the next time I am in Bangalore.
    Love always.

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  5. Is your tyke arranged for kindergarten? It's the fundamental rung on the academic venturing stool, and every so often gatekeepers contemplate whether their youths are set up for both the scholastics and the social relationship in a kindergarten classroom. Play School in HSR Layout

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