Room to Read Blog

Guest Blog: Twitter Visits Room to Read Programs in India

Below is a re-post from Twitter's official blog from December 30, 2009.  We are re-posting it here with permission by the author.

When Twitter announced The Fledgling Initiative in October—making and selling wine to benefit an organization called Room to Read, I was thrilled.

This past month, my enthusiasm and commitment increased dramatically when I had the chance to visit some of the sites where Room to Read works in India.

Teachers and students in Hardiwar gave me the warmest of welcomes. I was given the opportunity to help children read books in English and one group of students even invited me to sing a song for them. My performance of Itsy Bitsy Spider (see above—pit stains included), sent the kids into fits of laughter.

The schools in these areas face incredible obstacles but the community approaches problems with passion and vigor. One school was having trouble with a dangerous elephant so parents volunteered to take turns walking the kids to school and would even sleep there for a night or two.  When I was little there were snow days but nothing like this. Seeing kids get excited about learning to read made my heart skip a few beats, and made me feel proud to work at a company that chooses to partner with world-changing organizations like Room to Read. Here are some of the photos from my trip and you can learn more about Room to Read at their web site.

-- Maggie Utgoff or @mutgoff, Twitter

Karmic Blessings from India: One Father's Thanks

From the verandah where we were sitting I could see him sitting on his haunches under a tree across the dusty road and squint to keep out the sun.  He had been sitting there in the hot sun for more than two hours and I thought he was waiting to escort his child back from school.

We had barely finished talking to other students, but perhaps our movement of picking up our files gave him the cue -– for in a jiffy he was standing on the edge of the verandah with his palms pressed together in a namaste.

The moment he caught my eye, he walked towards us with his hands still folded. He looked tired and a little dehydrated and before we could ask him anything he said: “My name is Nagaraj, K Nagaraj,” emphasizing the ‘K’ as if is his whole identity hinged on that one letter.

He sat on the periphery of the grass mat and looked at the floor as he spoke.

“I know you are busy but I will take just two minutes,” he said before continuing, “When I learned that you were coming to this village, I asked your Room to Read staff to help me get an appointment so that I could personally thank you all for all that you have done for my child.  I don’t know how or why you chose to help our village, but I am sure my daughter has done some good karma to be blessed with this opportunity. If Room to Read had not helped my child, today she would be sitting at home and I would have been cursing my fate.  Please convey my family’s gratitude to all your staff for doing this good deed.”

When he looked up his eyes were wet but he was not finished.

“I have three children and I could only afford to educate two. Since the older two were already in school when Kripa, my youngest, was born, they continued with their schooling.  When Kripa was five, I found it difficult to tell her why she should not go to school. What made it even more difficult was her enthusiasm for school. She would get up early and even before her mother could cook breakfast she was ready with her school bag!”

Nagaraj is a farmer and has a small piece of land on the outskirts of the city. It is not a very fertile patch but he manages to coax a groundnut harvest each year from that. The little earnings from that is all that the family has for a livelihood.

“This land is all I have and if I sell it or pawn it, my family will starve. I was in a dilemma because from my own experience, I knew too well that education is the best gift we can give our children.  I was helpless.

“It was then that Room to Read came to my rescue. Since my daughter was a good student, she was selected as part of the Girls’ Education program and Room to Read helped to find her a school with a boarding facility so that she does not have to travel long distances.”

Nagaraj’s voice breaks but his broad smile conveys his happiness. Currently, all three of his children are in school and he is a proud father. Kripa is a brilliant student and is now in 8th grade.  Her elder brother is about to graduate grade twelve and her older sister is in grade ten.

“We get to see Kripa two or three times each term.  Her mother misses her especially when there is a festival or family gathering. Sometimes I catch her crying softly at night and I know she is missing Kripa.  But, I chide her and remind her that we are lucky that our child has this opportunity and we should encourage her to do well instead of making it difficult for her.

“For me it is important that my children study because when I was growing up, my parents did not realize this. My father thought it was more important that I tended to the cattle. As a result, I only studied through 5th grade. When I see my old classmates now, I cringe with shame but because of my children, I don’t have to cringe any longer.”

-- Reena Luke

To learn more about our programs in India, click here.

Age of Enlightenment in India: Muslim Village Breaks the Illiterate Cycle for Girls in their Community

On the border of the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan sits a small, rural and very remote village of Mirzapur that claims they found enlightenment -– enlightenment from education.   I was fortunate to visit this village last week.

It’s a 5 hour drive to reach Mirzapur from Delhi along the highway and dirt roads packed with cars, trucks, 3-wheeled “autos”, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, camels and many, many people.  We are being taken into this protected Muslim community with Room to Read’s partner organization Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development (AMIED) who encouraged this once illiterate and uneducated community to support education and particularly, girls’ education.  They have found success -– since India gained independence 60 years ago, this will be the first generation of girls to attend school in this community.

In Rajasthan alone, Room to Read’s Girls Education program works in five districts and supports over 800 girls through five partner organizations.  In partnership with AMIED, Room to Read helps close to 200 girls remain in school -– some of those girls attend a pilot “bridge course” which tutors those forced to drop out of school and helps assimilate them back into school by catching them up with the mainstream curriculum.  When we visited the Mirzapur bridge course, we met over 40 young girls who are desperately trying to find their way back into school.

I saw one girl -- possibly 12 years old with a small infant and wondered if this was her own.  No, it was explained: this girl brings her baby brother to the course because she is responsible for taking care of him and if this means she has to bring him to school, that is what she does.  The teachers in the course encourage this; they encourage anything to help these girls transition back into the school system.

It’s not just the financial struggle for the family that keeps girls out of school.  Even more so in Rajasthan, it is cultural barriers among the Muslim communities that gave this community a statistic of a 0% literacy rate among women.   Girls are not encouraged to study and if there is school, it was typically taught by religious leaders outside of the mainstream school system.   But AMIED would not hear of this and a few years ago began an underground movement to ingratiate themselves into this community and start a “wave of enlightenment” -– starting with the men of Mizapur and teaching them the value of education.  AMIED felt if they could just convince one of the stronghold Muslim communities to change their ways, they would act as a model for others in the region who would want to follow their lead.  And, it’s been working! 

 

We sat with the men’s educational council who explained after many years they have recognized the value of education and feel comfortable with girls attending school because they have trust that it will help their community in the long run.  Just four years ago before the campaign began, only fifteen children attended the local primary school – all of them boys and since 1952, only 20 men in all had graduated.  Now, after AMIED’s campaign and with Room to Read’s support, there are 575 children in the school and 275 of them are girls and with so many students attending, they built a secondary school so students could continue their learning!  In fact, we met Rajbala, the first girl ever in this community to complete 8th grade and she is now being treated as the local celebrity.   She told us, “when I graduate, I hope to become a teacher and give back to my community who has provided me this opportunity.”

-- Rebecca Hankin

India: Shobha has a story to tell us all

DELHI, INDIA -- We walk into a class and hear a lion roar!  At the center of the room stands a petite looking young girl with her eyes wide open and hands spread out. There is a pin drop silence as she takes a deep breath before walking with measured steps towards a small boy and looks him straight in the eye. The child cringes, and moves back…

Obviously this is Shobha at her best, telling stories like only she can.  Her narration is packed with drama and action and it is amazing to see that every child in the class listen in rapt attention.

The twenty-minute session is exhausting and she wipes the small beads of perspiration from her face.  She joins me with a big smile.  “How do you manage this?” I ask her. “Well if you enjoy something then you give your all” she says still out of breath. “The secret to good storytelling is that you have to ensure the group is engaged – use simple language, modify our voice, maybe mimic at times and make it participatory by asking a question or two.”

Well, theoretically it sounded brilliant but to practice that and to work with children on a routine basis is certainly not that easy.  Shobha agreed and explained, “I actually plan my story sessions in detail. I read a few stories and mull over them. Then I short list at least three stories, keeping in mind that the story should appeal to both boys and girls. I then read it out loud, and put in the right expressions and keep a track of the time each story takes.”

I am curious to find out if she has a theater background. Shobha clarifies, “My family is very conservative and even in my school days I was not allowed to participate in such activities. I do get to watch plays and soap operas on the TV now and my skills for acting are all self-taught.”

Shobha added “Perhaps what really helped me was the training I received from SAKSHI” (Room to Read’s  NGO partners).  “The training helped me to get over my inhibitions and also understand how to take this exercise forward.”

Shobha is enrolled for a correspondence course and is also a volunteer at SAKSHI.  She visits this school each week to conduct story telling sessions. “The idea is to encourage children to read story books. Sometimes I narrate a story and just as we are close to the dramatic end, I stop the narrative and ask a child to read and finish the story."

-- Reena Luke