Volunteer: Prof. Margaret Andrews, Canada

Prof. Margaret Andrews, Canada
I am a retired Canadian university professor of history and have just returned from my second volunteer experience in Assam. I taught spoken English at Parijat Academy last October and returned in April of this year to help at Prajnalaya Academy and Asha Darshan.
Uttam Teron of Parijat was my initial contact in Assam and I learned of him and his work through the Omprakash Foundation website. I had been to India a number of times, but never to the northeastern states, and his school provided a perfect introduction to the area. I am deeply indebted to him and his family for welcoming me into their home and providing a window on life in Assam. As a volunteer I worked each day with the children in Classes 4 through 8, helping them understand my spoken English and encouraging them to speak English through a variety of games and interactive activities.
I fell in love with the beauty of Assam and the warmth and openness of of its people, and I wished to return. Uttam suggested volunteering at Prajnalaya and Asha Darshan and was highly instrumental in arranging my stay at both.
I spent one week at Prajnalaya where Prabudh Basak not only organized my work at his own school, Pranjnalaya, but also arranged visits to several other schools in the area. I thus had an opportunity to speak with teachers in both large and small schools and, with the aid of a translator, to their students. At Prajnalaya I met with all the classes, but perhaps more significantly, had extensive contact with the school's hostel students. Since I was staying at the school, they were able to visit with me in the evenings or join me on my early morning walks. These informal settings significantly increased their willingness to try to speak in English.
Subsequently, I spent three weeks with Biju Borbaruah and Asha Darshan, staying first in Kumarikata, and then in Tamulpur and Guwahati. My initial task as a volunteer was to lead a six-day training program in spoken English. The participants were either teachers from Asha Darshan schools or Asha Darshan staff. I then visited eleven of the twelve Asha Darshan schools and wrote a report on each, describing both the schools' condition and improvements requested by the teachers. I also took illustrative photographs. The most inadequate school was completely surrounded by water in the wet season and consisted of one large room with only three bamboo walls (there was a hole big enough to walk through in one of these). There was no toilet, drinking water, or furniture (the children sat on floor mats brought from home). There had been a lunch program, but money for it ran out in December 2009. Two teachers taught Class Nursery through Class Four (158 students). They estimated that 30 per cent of the children who started in the school finished Class Four. My final task with Asha Darshan was to help organize thirty boxes of books (sent by Omprakash Foundation) into a working library.
I am reasonably certain that my volunteer work is useful, both directly in the contact I provide with a native English speaker and indirectly in the evidence my presence offers that the rest of the world cares and is willing to encourage and support the work of these teachers and pupils. Incidentally, for many of the pupils I was the first non-Indian they had ever met. In addition to my work, I made a modest monetary donation to Asha Darshan; Prajnayala would not accept any such, considering it (I think) a slight to their hospitality. But clearly money is needed - for teachers' pay and for repairs and further development. If anyone reading this is in a position to help monetarily, I hope they will seriously consider doing so.
Margaret W. Andrews, Ph.D
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
21 May 2010