Tuesday 26 June 2012

Preparation in Anticipation




Tomorrow is my first day teaching at Parichay and I am looking forward to the experience. I have already received lesson plans for the forthcoming few days, and have begun preparing a plan for the tomorrow's class.
The class will be in English, and having read over the first chapter of the story we shall be reading, I have been fully utilising my newly purchased digital dictionary from Connaught Place in Central Delhi.
My preparations are already showing me what a valuable experiences there are to come, and perhaps the most unique aspect of the experience is the reciprocity - I am learning many new Hindi words already!

Thursday 21 June 2012

A Warm Welcome


Yesterday I had my first opportunity to meet some of the children from Parichay and see the project sites. I learned that there are two project sites, the first which holds educational programs/classes for mentally challenged children. There I witnessed Vijay conduct their daily morning yoga session, and I was impressed with the attentiveness of the children and how well behaved they were.

After this we walked a little to the second project site, where there are two classrooms and a room which are used by the women to prepare spices to sell. There are four classes a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. After meeting some children and having a glimpse in the fragrant spice preparing room, some of the children dressed up after giving me a warm welcome and (after overcoming their pleasant surprise at my ability to read and write Urdu!) we set off for Tribal Fusion.



Tribal Fusion is an international advertising company that has been assisting Parichay for a number of years where they can. Since there is no projector at the project site, we decided that I should utilise this opportunity to show a presentation of my life in London and about my family to break the ice and allow the children to know a little more about me. After this I then witnessed how not only the various ways in which Tribal fusion donates to Parichay to be beneficial, but also how visiting a professional environment shows the children that success IS obtainable and within reach. The children there were given some computer training and played a game on India's geography split between two teams.





After this, I joined Vijay downstairs in the staff canteen where he was selling spices to staff members (there are approximately 150 staff members in Tribal Fusion), in addition to spices there were also henna hair powders mixes available, masala mixes, besan (chickpea flour) and also paratha (seasoned flat bread) mixes available. The day showed me another approach of how Parichay is extending support for it's work through different and everyday (and most importantly ground-level and approachable) means.



Wednesday 20 June 2012

An Early Start




Me and Vijay decided that it would be beneficial for me to bring my internship forward and start today to see how far he is spreading the Parichay Philosophy. Vijay has been assisting with an NGO called Vidhya Niketan for the past 2 1/2 years. Vidhya Niketan is a Christian Organisation based in Bilaspur that focuses on providing education to children up to the 8th standard.



They also work heavily on women's empowerment:- giving women practical advice on nutrition (and during lactation especially), dealing with social/familial problems (domestic violence, child marriage, female foeticide). Today Vijay gave two workshops I felt were delivered in a very practical and approachable way, given the context. The first focussed on showing how women from other rural communities in India such as Chennai are coming together to improve their financial situation such as producing handicrafts, working in the food industry and so on. The second focussed on birth control and family planning, and revealed the benefits of careful planning when beginning a family.



I felt that the incorporation of music in to the first lecture and comedy films in the second helped create a sense of approachability between Vijay and the ladies from Bilaspur. The promotion of Parichay's philosophy of working as a community and being self-reliant was present throughout and gave me a great introduction of what Parichay is truly about - a borderless philosophy promoting self help through education and community.

Monday 18 June 2012

Introduction

A few months back a fellow post-Hindi student from Thailand forwarded me an e-mail from University with a unique opportunity - interning on AID India's program in India. After some natural reluctance at such a daunting idea, I decided to apply. India sees kinds of poverty which are vastly different from poverty in Britain, and therefore I knew the experience would be worthwhile and time well spent. After perfecting my application and passing through the telephone interview stages, I was elated when I found out I had obtained a 5 week placement with Parichay Abhigyan Society (परिचय अभिज्ञान सोसाइटी, meaning 'The Society for the Introduction of Knowledge'), an NGO which promotes, above all, self-sustenance.

After spending less than 24 hours in Delhi and learning about Parichay's operations from it's founder - Vijay Bajpai, I am determined to make as much impact as possible during my time in Tukmirpur (where the project is located in East Delhi). In spite of the heat and the regular power cuts, I am already warming to the charms of Delhi, and I relish the experience of Delhi to come - through and with the children that study at Parichay's project site, and the Women that prepare their handicrafts and spices in the Women's Unit.

Parichay is a multi-faceted organisation which helps with the education and health from children from low-economic backgrounds (such as offspring of Rickshaw Pullers), it provides women from these communities with the tools to grow both in terms of confidence and financially through it's handicraft & spices program. It also assists with the education of children with learning difficulties and educates the wider public about various conditions (physical and mental). To learn more about Parichay's work, see:- http://parichayonline.org/