Saturday 21 August 2010

10th August

Although the children are used to volunteers coming and going, I decided it was about time that I explained when I would be leaving and why I had to leave for England. It must be very hard for the children to have volunteers coming to teach them, making a connection with them, and then the volunteers just leave without keeping contact with the children. They are very mature kids and I am sure they understand that this will occur with all the volunteers but I did not want them to feel like I was just leaving them without a care in the world. I explained that I am only a teacher in India and that I am actually a student in England and I need to finish school. The reactions of the kids varied but most of them just pleaded with me not to go back to England and said that I should stay with them in India. Others just went quiet and had tears in their eyes, and some could not even stand to look at me for a good 10 minutes, which I was quite upset about but it was to be expected as they are only young and I have built good bonds with all the children. What was funny was that for the next few days, lots of the kids kept running to me and bringing me sweets in the centre, and once I accepted them they just said “No go England?” as if the sweets would convince me to stay! So I had to explain several more times that I really want to stay but I must go back home – I think they understood but were not very happy about the whole situation!

I only work at the centre from Monday to Friday each week, but on Saturdays the children attend the centre for activities and games. This Saturday just gone (7th August), they had a PTM (Parents Teachers Meeting) at the women’s centre, to which I did not attend, but Dharmender passed on what was said and for me it was very positive. Many of the parents came in to the meeting very pleased and surprised that their children were actually speaking English at home to their siblings and some of them were trying to teach their parents some English. These children go to Hindi medium schools and their parents are mostly illiterate or have low literacy levels and so the only place English is normally spoken is at the Project Why centre, which is a big problem because they do not practice the English and so this restricts their progression. However, the fact that since my spoken classes started the children have been speaking English at home is the greatest success that I could have hoped to have and I am really proud of the children and I am sure they will improve even further now that they have started practicing more than they were.


Smile girls! Nisha, Moni, Priyanshi and Chandni



Sonom, Priyanka and Aarti

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