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Street to School - Tomorrow
Site Visit Report Dec 2003

Site Visit Report

Status: current / ongoing

Dec 2003

WEST BENGAL


Background:

TF operates an evening school for children. Most of the children come from the surrounding areas and go to regular municipal schools. After they are done with the regular schooling, they come to the TF operated school. In some cases dropout children are coached for the open school exams. The school operates from 5PM to 8PM and uses the premises one local municipal school called the Dharamdas Trust Model School. TF has 36 staff including 21 teachers. They run classes for children from PP (preprimary) to the std XII. There are fewer children in the higher classes but in the next couple of years, there should be lot more.

TF operates in an old part of the city - Kalighat. It is surrounded by slums. There are a few thousand families in the area covered by this organization. Most of the children come from poor families but some mothers are prostitutes.
I visited a couple of slums - Sarat Bose and Masjid which I talk about later in this report.

TF believes in overall development of the child. The evening school is place to (1) continue the formal learning (2) improve mental and physical health, and (3) provide hope, vision and preparation for future for the children, and (3) reaching out to the community through the children.

Summary

TF has been running a school for children from slums in Kolkata for the past 10 years. Consistness and completeness is their objective. They have shown considerable innovation w.r.t keeping the children motivated, involving the community, and working with the local government. This visit comes approximately 10 years after they started and while everything is done as yet, it appears that they are pretty successful in their effort to retain and motivate children. It is an interesting experiment, and throws up many questions regarding the role of NGOs, government, parents and education.

Day 1:


Reached Kalighat subway station at around 2PM. One of staff members, Kaustub, came to pick me up from the station. The Tomorrow's Foundation office was less than 10 min walk from the station.

I was introduced all the staff there -

Anitaji - External relations
Ashish Dey - Teaching
Kasturi di - Counseling
Shiela - Home visit Cell
Kaustub - Accounts
Chanchal - Assistant
Arpan - Teacher and replacement coordinator when Ashish is not around.

and later on
Ashish Roy - Project Coordinator
Tanushree Roy - Ex-home visit cell

Totally there are 36 staff - who take one or more classes. Some come during certain days of the week.

There were a couple of folks who came in later from a local college who were interning with TF.

The office has three rooms one each for Mamoni and Ashish. Another for rest of the staff (accounting, cells etc.)

I gave an update on the sanctuary conference which happened that same week in Mysore, and talked about Ashis's presentation there.

Shortly after I reached office, children started flowing in. They hung around for some time before going to the evening school run by Tomorrow's Foundation at the local Dharamdas School. They recited poem and sang songs for me. While I was there three girls from the open school (Std X) came back after writing their history exam. They seem satisfied enough with their performance but they hope to do better in the next couple of exams - one of which is bengali and another is biology. Then I gave a short test on geography and political map of india. They kept getting confused but made progress. I gave them some simple tips on writing exams.

An interesting thing happened: One of the girls wanted to come to US. I asked why. She replied that she likes to watch WWF and if she comes to US she can see WWF for real. I tried convincing them that the whole show is scripted but they refused to believe it. Later Kasturi di (Counseling) explained to me the significance of WWF. They saw the WWF fights give a vent to aggression building up in them from within. Subtle but unmistakable if you are looking for clues.

I left for the school slightly after 5PM. By the time I reached, the prayer was over and children were in their classes. I visited each class starting from PP (pre-primary to 12th). In higher classes there were relatively few students. I met some star candidades whose name I had only heard of before. I went into each class and greeted everyone. Children naturally welcomed from the interruption. Some of the classes were preparing from exams or taking mocks.

The PP and Standard I children were particularly excited. The standard I children rushed towards me. Most wanted to shake hands with me and try their latest technique for that involving the thumb and the little finger. Some (embarrasingly) wanted to touch my feet - a local custom being drilled into their minds.

I spent almost 1 hour (one period) with Standard 4. I discussed India's geography. They were quite eager to converse about anything and everything, and asked many questions. They made me sing and one of them also sang. It was the most fun part of my visit.

Just before leaving one small girl gave me greeting card and ran away before I realized. She drew a nice picture of a home with crayons and wrote her name and class at the back. Cool! Apparently thats the responsibility of Class I.

Chanchal dropped me off at Ashish and Tanushree's place. We caught up on the conference happenings.

Day 2


Visit to HWH Site:

Day started with a visit to the Half Way Home construction site. (See the pictures). The Half Way Home is a temporary shelter for children in need - there are about 3-4 crisis situations everyweek. There was also a need to consolidate TF activities. With support from Asha and others, they bought some land in Kolkata suburbs near Ruby Hospital off a major highway. The construction has begun in December. Half Way Home was one of the benificiaries of the Asha WAH 2003 effort.

The Half Way Home has been expanded since the original WAH proposal was made - now it is a four storeyed building with an impressive design contributed by an italian. It is about 20-30 min from the Goria (Ashish's place) and also from Raash Beharee (where TF office is). The construction workers were digging the plot - wet, clayey soil - to lay the foundation. Since the place is away from the mainroad (bypass) and there is nothing but a lake behind, it appears that the children of half way home can get some space to play outside. Kalighat area is too crowded. There is a worry about malaria because the lake has stagnant water - but that may not be a new problem. there are ponds and mosquitos all over the place.

Interestingly the local community, after coming to know about the objective of the place, agitated against the construction. TF using some local contacts were able to convince them.

Office:

Swarup dropped in to meet me. He updated me (along with Ashish and Anitaji) about the finances - how the budget of the HWH has grown and how they pooling in money to complete it. At a later point in time I talked to Arup who was in Delhi. He talked about how the organization has grown and how they are trying to keep it a consistent effort. I updated him about the recently held sanctuary conference. I asked about the TF Card project and future plans for them.

The TF Card project is a vocational training center for the older children. The products include cards, lamp shades, books etc. The revenue of this center is around 2 lakhs which is sufficient to break even and generate some profit. The main issue seems to (1) the high cost of the raw material - because they buy in small quantities (2) the demands are seasonal.

There is a possibility that Asha can source material from TF - if we can figure out how to make it happen. The key issue is the costs of transport.

Harlett School:

I paid a brief visit to Harlett school (a christian missionary school) where a bunch of TF students were participating in the their (Harlett School's) Christmas Day celebration. They were a few solos and a short skit -- all with ease in front of a crowd of about 2-300 students. They got a genuine and long applause. One girl in particular had a truely wonderful voice. I wanted to meet her on Day 3 but she was absent. I met her mother, though. She (mother) came to meet TF staff for some reason.

Conseling Cell:

I spent a couple of hours with Kasturi talking about the psychological impact of TF environment on children. She discussed case studies of various children and how they handle them. There are some key skills required for this (1) figuring out when exactly something is wrong with a child. they show up primarily in changed behavior. (2) talking to figure out what exactly the problem is - everything from adolescence-related issues to problems at home. This sometimes take multiple sessions - in one case 20 sessions. Kasturi di also handles career counseling. There are a couple of tests which atleast to a first approximation can tell us about interests about the child. Sometimes a note is passed to the teachers asking them to pay special attention to a particular child and teachers comes back with observations. All these are documents are maintained in a per-child folder. I got to see a few but did not have time to read the notes in detail.

Unstable families - domestic violence, drunkard father, broken homes, loss of livelihood - are the key reasons for dropping out. Poor motivation and lack of family interest add to it. Other issues such as poor documentation (date of birth), lack of proper shelter esp. during rainy seasons also contribute to the problem.

There are standard (psychology) tests apparently give reasonably good hints about the child - interests and mental state.

The case load is higher during monsoon and during exams.

Home Visit:

I went along with Ashish and Shiela on a home visit to the surrounding slums. I visited the slums of Sarat Bose and Masjid. The homes in Sarat Bose are small but generally appear to be clean - no stink from open drains. Masjid was more run down. This walk serves multiple purposes (1) to figure out what the issue is with specific children who have not been turning up at school (2) to urge children who get distracted with activity on the street and forget about TF school, and (3) to identify children who are not attending school. This appears to be quite effective. There were only a couple houses with absentee children. This trip was short and there didnt appear to be any outstanding issues (except with one child who's uncle expired).


School:

I spent more than an hour with standard 6. Pinaki was incharge. He let me spend time. I didnt have much problem with language. Many of the children knew hindi. They like to sing and dance - something that I found they all want to do all the time. They talked about many things including favorite bollywood stars. Somewhere in the middle I mentioned about the personal histories of a public figures. It really got them interested. They couldnt believe that somebody could start small and do well. They repeatedly asked me if it was true. I then realized how they have built mental limits for themselves. I gave a pep talk on why it was possible, and the importance of school and attending classes. One of them confessed about difficulties that she was having with math. Another jumped in and confessed the same about History. I spent the rest of class giving them tips on classes and tried to motivate them about the various classes they take.

Day 3


I spent the initial part of Day 3 (saturday) visiting another organization, Sanlaap. I came back to the school for the evening classes.

This was undoubtedly the most exciting day for the children - only cultural activities were scheduled. There were yoga, drawing, singing, dancing and drama classes. The children were free to choose whatever interests them. The dance class is the clear winner by a huge margin. Almost everyone wanted to be in it. The staff was very impressive. I spent most of my time with the drama class though. The teacher was quite accomplished, I believe, from National School of Drama. He has been with TF with more than two years. When I entered his class, he was discussing scenes from Shakespeare's Hamlet and enacting bits and pieces of it. Later his discussed a little bit of Macbeth as well -- all to students who are between 3 and 8th standards. I read Macbeth when I was in Class 12! The class was preparing for the upcoming annual function on Jan 31. I asked him what the story would be. He said he does know as yet. He plans to "share his experiences with the children", and they will come up with something _together_. The final drama might be a collage. He expressed confidence in the children's abilities and creativity. The children apparently have figured out the basic stage management, lighting and sound principles. I would have loved to have such a teacher who gives so much room for creativity of the children. I left with the comment that enacting Macbeth, whatever be the length of the piece, in 5th standard can do wonders to their confidence.

I left the next day morning.


TF Plans for Future

The primary focus right now is the Half Way Home. They are waiting for it to be built so that they can settle down to think about newer initatives.

Now the children are growing. A couple of years from now there will be significantly more number of children in higher classes. A couple of different plans are in the works (1) ways to give the older children greater responsibility, independence and areas of operations - right in the midst of the community - as a way to demonstrate the value of education. (2) way to engage the children through vocational training activities.

Philosophical Aspects:


I spent all three evenings with Ashish Roy talking about the philosophy and operation of TF.

1. What is TF's role

TF's role is encourage a change in mindset of people. Children - create awareness of their rights. Parents- awareness about their responsibilities, Local government - make them aware of their responsibility to support institutions like TF. The key technique used was to provide partial solution and motivate the parents/government to provide the rest. If this meant delay and pain, so be it.

2. Conduct of TF staff

TF staff all wear bright clothes and always cheerful. The point is a subtle one. It is to create a sense of liveliness and confidence - and create the enthusiasm to attain that stage.

A couple of the staff are products of TF. They provide effective role models - always in front of them.


4. General points to ponder upon (not specific TF but a result of a number of discussions with people and visits to other organizations):

(a) How do we ensure that for any given family, this generation is the last one which require help?

(b) NGOs have vested interest in sustaining the problem (e.g., a certain number of derived children) because their livelihood depends on it. So have to be careful while dealing with them. By using specific words (e.g., devadasi) they may actually help keep the problem domain alive.

More Information

For more information contact Venkata Pingali, Asha-USC (pingali@isi.edu)

Site visit from Dec. 18-21, 2003

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