Where there is a will, there is a way!
In the first year of my first college ( yes, I did change colleges during my undergrad, not something I am proud of!), I remember being told by my professor to volunteer at any NGO as a part of the curriculum.
I have always been an empathetic person and because of this I was thrilled by the opportunity of making a difference in society!
So, I started working at Sewa Bharti.
They have various education centres in Delhi and I really enjoyed working there.
I later volunteered at 2–3 other NGOs, all of them working for an amazing cause and I have always felt blessed to be a part of it.
You may wonder, ‘why does she feel that way?’
Well to explain it in really simple words, not everyone feels the need to help people.
There are so many well to do people on this planet and yet not so many people who are actually willing to help the poor.
So yes, I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to help these beautiful people!
Being born into a privileged life, we tend to take things or life in particular, for granted.
I think it’s really important to reflect as well as be grateful for the lives we are blessed with.
I mean it’s not like I am a saint, I have taken my life for granted as well and I probably still do sometimes.
Just like the famous quote of Twilight, “Death is peaceful..easy. Life is harder”.
We all are struggling in one way or another, what matters is not giving up on yourself!
Recently, I started working at a non-profit called Beyond Exams, they work towards providing quality education to all for free.
You can read more about what they do, here.
Two months ago, they started a very innovative virtual learning program called E-Vidya.
Now, you may be wondering what is so innovative about this programme?
The educators use Whatsapp as the mode of teaching, surprising, isn’t it?
You may not think that this is innovative but just ask this to yourself, would you ever hold an online class through Whatsapp? I wouldn’t!
I clearly remember when my mentor explained to me about this programme, all I could wonder was, ‘is it really true?’
To get a better idea, I asked him to add me to E-vidya’s Whatsapp groups. He also asked me to interview some of the teachers for some real time insight.
It took me approximately 2 days to conduct this research and the result shook me.
I am not being dramatic because I work here (it’s all in the genes ;) but because all of this is too new for me.
Starting with the interviews,
I interviewed Ms. Shayantani and Ms. Arushi, both of them were too happy to talk to me about E-Vidya and I had such a nice time talking to them about the kids and the learning process.
My findings:
Currently they have around 10–11 underprivileged students.
Who they have divided into different groups depending on the grade they are in, which is from class 2 to class 9.
They also have a dedicated art and craft group where everyone who is interested is there regardless of their grade.
Now coming to the main question, how do they actually take classes?
The teachers are extremely innovative with this.
They use voicenotes to conduct classes, videos, posts and pictures are sent throughout the class to give them reference as to what exaclty they are learning.
Upon hearing this, my only question was, how is the response of the students?
It turns out that these kids are nothing like you and me, they are very prompt with their replies, fearless and super dedicated.
This is not all, the teachers not only use the theoretical approach but rather a blended approach, where practical learning is given as much importance as theory.
To prove this, Ms. Shayantani shared an example with me, where she told me that they usually include activities right after they are done with the theory to ensure proper implementation of the lesson.
Apart from this, they also organize various events and competitions to make sure the kids are happy and excited enough, so they keep coming back for more! So cute.
Initially I couldn’t understand why they stuck with Whatsapp.
Why not video/voice call them instead.
The problem that the kids were facing was the lack of proper internet speed.
The best thing which clearly is the deal breaker is this situation is the enthusiasm of the educators as well as the kids.
Sometimes, the passion is so great that the students had to be chased in order to be taught.
Patience doesn’t come easy, it’s probably the most admirable quality a human being can possess and the fact that all these educators are head strong about this cause makes their fight a little easier.
Next I looked into the Whatsapp groups and the fun had just begun.
Every morning, these kids start the day through meditation and their classes start exactly at 9:30.
Everyday when I wake up, I have hundreds of messages from these groups, full of pictures of greeting each other good morning and voicenotes and all the possible things they can try to communicate with each other.
It fills my heart with warmth knowing that these kids have people in their lives who are not ready to give up on them.
This whole process made me realise the true meaning of, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.
This was all for this blog, I hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know if there is anything you want me to write on! Thank you for reading!