When I was told that I have to volunteer at an NGO, the first thing that came to my mind was the heat, the villages, and the rural areas that I’d have to visit. Then I gave it another thought. It hit me that these are the people who lack the basic education to be able to make a living for themselves.
Having the privilege of being educated in a private institution, school as well as college, makes me feel obligated to contribute to the society in whatever little way I can. My aim is to make at least one child, one student come out stronger, more educated by the end of my internship program. I want at least one child to be able to do what she/he needs to pursue a career or hobby that they would be interested in.
Working at Sshrishti India Trust in their Gurgaon center, Ujala, my job was to teach the children everything, from scratch. The average age group of these children would be 5-14 years, some younger and some elder too.
The most challenging part was of course managing the kids. It was a task to go around the home (Jhuggi’s) and gather the kids every morning. Most of them outright refused to come and study and the rest who came had an attention span of barely 15 minutes at a stretch. It is a complicated task to deal with children of such a small age group.
Some days we taught them the alphabets and other days’ numbers (1-50,1-100), other days we let them play for a while. After the first two weeks, we taught them a little about colors. Occasionally, to break the monotony, we played ‘Hopscotch’.
One of the main reasons I’ve always wanted to work at an NGO and under CSR was Women Empowerment. Our country undermines the capabilities and value of a woman, almost in any sector of work or in any social background. A woman, for whatever reason is considered inferior to a man, even in the 21st century.
One such experience I had was, when we were sent to take surveys to start a new center in Ghatta Village, Gurgaon. Our main task was to ask the villagers about them and their family details. Age, family income, names of other family members, and the number of children willing to study in the school were some of the basic details included in the survey forms.
Since we went at a time when most of the men of the house were out working, their wives and children were at home so we surveyed them. Most of the wives, when asked about their occupation or family income replied saying that “Mera pati mujhe kaam nahi karne deta” (My husband doesn’t let me work) and “Woh mere saath yeh sab baatein nahi karte” (He doesn’t share such details with me).
Women should get an equal right to earn for their families, or to the least be included in the important family decision making and they must be aware of the family income.
Palak Katyal
Class Representative
IBM 2014, Section-B.
Having the privilege of being educated in a private institution, school as well as college, makes me feel obligated to contribute to the society in whatever little way I can. My aim is to make at least one child, one student come out stronger, more educated by the end of my internship program. I want at least one child to be able to do what she/he needs to pursue a career or hobby that they would be interested in.
Working at Sshrishti India Trust in their Gurgaon center, Ujala, my job was to teach the children everything, from scratch. The average age group of these children would be 5-14 years, some younger and some elder too.
The most challenging part was of course managing the kids. It was a task to go around the home (Jhuggi’s) and gather the kids every morning. Most of them outright refused to come and study and the rest who came had an attention span of barely 15 minutes at a stretch. It is a complicated task to deal with children of such a small age group.
Some days we taught them the alphabets and other days’ numbers (1-50,1-100), other days we let them play for a while. After the first two weeks, we taught them a little about colors. Occasionally, to break the monotony, we played ‘Hopscotch’.
One of the main reasons I’ve always wanted to work at an NGO and under CSR was Women Empowerment. Our country undermines the capabilities and value of a woman, almost in any sector of work or in any social background. A woman, for whatever reason is considered inferior to a man, even in the 21st century.
One such experience I had was, when we were sent to take surveys to start a new center in Ghatta Village, Gurgaon. Our main task was to ask the villagers about them and their family details. Age, family income, names of other family members, and the number of children willing to study in the school were some of the basic details included in the survey forms.
Since we went at a time when most of the men of the house were out working, their wives and children were at home so we surveyed them. Most of the wives, when asked about their occupation or family income replied saying that “Mera pati mujhe kaam nahi karne deta” (My husband doesn’t let me work) and “Woh mere saath yeh sab baatein nahi karte” (He doesn’t share such details with me).
Women should get an equal right to earn for their families, or to the least be included in the important family decision making and they must be aware of the family income.
Palak Katyal
Class Representative
IBM 2014, Section-B.
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