A smile and a deep breath of satisfaction

July 11, 2009

Today is the first day that I feel truly proud of what I am doing here in Hubli.

The education program that I have been setting up for the past five weeks finally commenced today. We have 17 volunteers from The Women’s College that are split up into groups to teach at four different primary schools. This morning each of the groups went to their respective primary schools and spent an hour introducing themselves and playing games with the kids in order to get to know them before they start teaching the health and sanitation curriculum next Saturday. I went with one of the groups and sat in the back of the classroom and watched.


The children’s faces had huge smiles during the hour that the five volunteers were standing in front of the class. The volunteers asked the kids to tell jokes, what their favorite hobbies are and made sure that the kids were respectful (all in Kannada of course, but I could still understand what was going on). When it was over the volunteers told me that the kids didn’t want them to leave and that the kids said they would be waiting for them next Saturday. The volunteers were so delighted by their experience.

I took the bus back to the Women’s College with the girls and I ran into some of the other volunteers and asked them how their mornings went at the primary schools. Laxmi told me that she had a great time. Only half of her group showed up, but she was fine with that because it meant that she got to talk to the kids more. Sarala, a volunteer from another group, could not stop thanking me for setting her up with the primary school she was at. She said that the kids were so cute and she just wanted to pinch their cheeks. The head master of the school asked if she and her group would come teach a class everyday of the week for them! Sarala and her group were all smiles and could not stop raving about their morning.

Seeing all of these girls so happy to be helping kids that really need it just warmed my heart. The kids need these positive role models in their life to inspire them to go to college and to show them that learning can be fun. The lesson plans have lots of games and interactive activities so that the kids get really into it. I can’t wait to watch the volunteers begin teaching during my last few weeks here. I can tell that they are really going to make a different in these kids’ lives.
-Nina