Sunday I woke up early so decided to take a walk around the town with its beautiful collection of handmade kite stalls… but it wasn’t long before one of the Pratham workers spotted me. No time for strolling, the ‘4-wheeler’ had arrived to take us on our visits. In the car I was introduced to
Pandit who, little to his knowledge, would become my personal translator for the day. He’d learnt English as part of ‘Operation Mobilisation India’ where he worked for 3 years as a Christian missionary. I would also later learn his family had converted to Christianity after a gentleman from South Korea came to his village in 1962 and built one of 30 churches in the area.
Nandurbar DRC covers 85,000 children across 1059 villages where Pratham has implemented Marati, Maths and English classes. The first village we visited was Avthipada where, to the whole class’ entertainment, I was taught the Marati alphabet by a 5 year old boy names Sujit. In this village I also met a women’s committee who collectively pooled money in order to provide lunchtime food for the children and a before-school care for 3 to 5 year olds. In Mothe Kadvan village I met Pryanka who spoke excellent Marati having come through Pratham ‘Boli Bhasha’ programme.
When she started school at 5 she only knew her tribal language ‘Mauchi’. I was extremely impressed to realize that this 10 year old knew more languages than me – Mauchi,
Marathi, Hindi and now thanks to Pratham, English! By the time we got to the third village, Nangipada, I was beginning to be weary but the children weren’t – oh no! I arrived as 5 girls were acting out a drama show, written by Pratham in order to teach the numbers 1 to 100 in
Marathi and English.
Sitting on the cool floor in Pandit’s clay-walled home eating spicey nut chutney with homemade chapatti, Pandit told me of his vision for the future. He has seen Pratham’s reach double in size over the past 3 years. In the next 3 years he told me he will go ‘door-to-door’ to spread Pratham’s message and set up projects in currently inaccessible locations. I know with the determination I’ve witnessed among Pratham employees and volunteers in only the past 3 days ‘sub kutch miliga’, ‘everything is possible’.
______________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
Pandit who, little to his knowledge, would become my personal translator for the day. He’d learnt English as part of ‘Operation Mobilisation India’ where he worked for 3 years as a Christian missionary. I would also later learn his family had converted to Christianity after a gentleman from South Korea came to his village in 1962 and built one of 30 churches in the area.
Nandurbar DRC covers 85,000 children across 1059 villages where Pratham has implemented Marati, Maths and English classes. The first village we visited was Avthipada where, to the whole class’ entertainment, I was taught the Marati alphabet by a 5 year old boy names Sujit. In this village I also met a women’s committee who collectively pooled money in order to provide lunchtime food for the children and a before-school care for 3 to 5 year olds. In Mothe Kadvan village I met Pryanka who spoke excellent Marati having come through Pratham ‘Boli Bhasha’ programme.
When she started school at 5 she only knew her tribal language ‘Mauchi’. I was extremely impressed to realize that this 10 year old knew more languages than me – Mauchi,Marathi, Hindi and now thanks to Pratham, English! By the time we got to the third village, Nangipada, I was beginning to be weary but the children weren’t – oh no! I arrived as 5 girls were acting out a drama show, written by Pratham in order to teach the numbers 1 to 100 in
Marathi and English.
Sitting on the cool floor in Pandit’s clay-walled home eating spicey nut chutney with homemade chapatti, Pandit told me of his vision for the future. He has seen Pratham’s reach double in size over the past 3 years. In the next 3 years he told me he will go ‘door-to-door’ to spread Pratham’s message and set up projects in currently inaccessible locations. I know with the determination I’ve witnessed among Pratham employees and volunteers in only the past 3 days ‘sub kutch miliga’, ‘everything is possible’.
______________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
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