William Kamkwamba, a Malawian secondary school student, saw a picture and explanation about a windmill in a book from the local library. From the book, Kamkwanba built his own windmill to provide electricity for his family.
Roopankan started with a similar belief in the power of books. Ashok Dubey (Ashok Ji), a university gold medalist in mathematics and a teacher for fifteen years, launched Roopakan as a library in 2002 with a group of like-minded people. From its humble beginning, the library has grown from a book repository to a space of deliberation and action.
In 2004, two girls from the library group started Koshish, a night school offering a non formal educationto children of a nomadic ironsmith migrant community. Soon after, other volunteers launched two more non-formal night schools, Dosti for child labourers and Neev for the children of construction workers. Neev focuses on children between the ages of 4 -13 who beg or do daily wage labor. The Neev school, now with 50 students, has shifted to the premises of the famous Khazarana Ganesh temple.
The Neev school has two teachers and one coordinator. Most of the children enrolled at Neev are first time learners or drop-outs. Neev is an activity-based non-formal school; children learn through games, sports, stories, acting, and hands-on experiments. Activities are designed in an innovative manner to assist in learning. For instance, to help children learn the alphabets, teachers create skits with student actors as alphabet letters. From time to time, Neev organizes workshops where artists, storytellers, and poets are invited to teach the children. Children later create their own stories, sculpture, and craft. Children also publish their stories and art in the 8-page quarterly Roopankan newsletter.
Volunteer-run activities are key to Roopankan’s culture of creative expression. Evenings at the Roopankan center buzz with volunteers discussing poetry, making crafts, and creating new activities for the school such as skits, sports events, and poetry classes. Roopankan invests in capacity building for its volunteers through computer trainings and regular workshops on creative writing, poetry, and theatre.
Roopankan has initiated other volunteer-run programs related to various social issues. In 2007, Roopankan convened a women’s self-help group called “Roshni,” which assists with income-generation activities (small craft businesses). In addition, Roshni invites counsellors to counsel women in domestic violence and harassment issues.
Since its inception, Roopankan created wall posters with social messages written in beautiful calligraphy. Roopankan sells these calligraphy posters to support Roopankan activities.
Need for Project:
The Neev school strives to provide each child an environment that nurtures his/her unique talents and builds individual and group confidence. Two teachers and a coordinator run the school from 9am to 2pm. Other volunteers from Roopankan teach part-time and design educational activities for the students. Neev understands that the children have many influences that shape their thinking and personal growth. This requires aligning influences from parents, teachers, neighbours, and others to create an environment of continuous learning. Thus, Neev wants to reach out to families of the students in an effort to include them in the education process.
Neev currently has 50 regular students between ages of 4-13. There also many irregular attendees from nearby communities. Neev plans to create learning centers on-site in the local communities by developing a local volunteer base and then helping these interested residents generate educational opportunities in their own community.
Neev also wants to revise and improve its curriculum of non-formal education. The current Neev curriculum focuses on teaching Hindi, Mathematics and Science.
As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will contribute in the development of non-formal education for Neev. You should begin by participating in the daily routine of the evening school. You should find ways to connect with the children; activities such as storytelling, singing, and games are effective ways to engage youth. You should plan home visits to meet the children’s families and understand their backgrounds.
As a part of the Neev team, you will participate in designing a curriculum that includes a broader set of subject matters. You will develop activity-based teaching methods and exercises to create an interactive learning environment in classrooms. You should include Roopankan’s volunteers in the development of all new processes, techniques, and activities. You will partner with the coordination committee of the school (one coordinator and two teachers) to research, develop, and implement practices that improve the functioning of the school and create a nurturing environment for children. This includes surveying children, holding parent-teacher conferences, and improving study areas to create a holistic learning environment at home and school.
You will encourage creativity in students by involving them in the production of the Roopankan newsletters. Students should be involved in all aspects of the process, including documenting activities, writing articles, editing, etc.
You should also assist with expansion plans. You should find ways to encourage youth in the local community to volunteer as teachers. You can provide basic training, assist with teaching materials and discuss classroom management. Creating an energy around learning will automatically make it easier to attract more children to the Neev educational environment.
Throughout the process, you will take careful notes and reporting of your findings and outcomes so that you can share your learnings with Neev staff for future programming.
Target Community:
Neev is located on the premises of the Khazarana Ganesh temple. The target population includes the children between the ages of 4-13 living in nearby slum communities who beg or earn from daily wage labor. Many of their family members also earn daily wage labor. In their limited free time, these children watch television or play local sports (cricket and football).
Objectives:
• To improve curriculum for a non-formal education school
• To involve parents and community in the education of their children
• To expand the reach of the non-formal education school with the help of volunteers
Challenges:
• Adjusting your programs to fit the students’ schedule of household chores and labor jobs.
• Encouraging a strong educational environment in the home
• Creating materials that are interesting and relevant to the children of this particular community.
• Creating a sense of discipline and purpose without traditional enforcement mechanisms.
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case Roopankan – will be hosting 2-4 Fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps Fellows, your focus is to strengthen the volunteer culture of Roopankan to support community development programs. Team members will focus on different area including capacity building of a non-formal school and forming a vibrant volunteer cadre at Roopankan.
You will be provided accommodation close to Neev School in Indore. Simple vegetarian food will be arranged by Roopankan. You will do your own laundry and chores. Indore is well connected to other cities in India through trains and buses. International dialing and internet facilities are available at the Roopankan office. Shared auto rickshaws and city buses are generally available for local transportation.
The language spoken at Roopankan is Hindi. For this project, a basic knowledge of Hindi is required. If you do not have basic knowledge of Hindi, you can still apply if you commit to learning the language before the start of your Fellowship year.
What excites you about this opportunity? What particular experiences have led you to want to do this project?
2.
Design an engaging geography lesson plan about major bodies of water (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.) for a group of children who reside in the nearby slum. How would you describe an ocean to a child who has never seen one?
3.
Every child is unique. How have you helped a child realize his/her unique abilities?
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