An American spring for underprivileged students

Tagged with: Amy Partridge    Assam    English educator    Georgia    Kamrup    Pamohi village    Parijat Academy    underprivileged children    US

Amy Partridge teaches exercise steps to students of Parijat Academy.

Deepika Patar, Guwahati (Apr 27): Sankar Bongjang rattles off English alphabets, and that too with an American accent. So does many of his friends like Seuti, Neha, Susmita, Bikash, Ganesh, and Mohan who no longer considers themselves underprivileged, thanks to the pioneering work of a young volunteer from the US.

Each morning, the children of Parijat Academy – a school for the underprivileged — eagerly wait for their new English taken, Amy Partridge. Amy Partridge, who hails from Georgia in the US, is rendering voluntary service only to communicate with the underprivileged children of Parijat Academy, located at the outskirt of the city at Pamohi village Kamrup.

This is Amy’s first tour to India where she selected the Parijat Academy for her volunteer work. She joined the Parijat Academy as an English educator on April 2 and will complete her tenure on May 4.

“I am very happy with my work. Assamese people are really very helpful and they try to understand what I say. Moreover, the children of Parijat Academy are also co-operating with me a lot,” Amy told the Seven Sisters Post.

The Academy was established in the year 2003, and at present there are as many as 500 students belonging to economically-weak families of 14 tribal villages.

“Literacy rate is very poor in this area, where school dropout is high here. Most of the students of our academy were school dropouts from nearby Garbhanga village,” informed Uttam Teron, the founder of the Academy.

Speaking about the problems faced by Amy while teaching the students of the Academy, Amy said, “It is a challenge for me to exchange knowledge with 500 students alone. Moreover, there is a communication problem with the students for which I took help of the English and the Assamese teachers of the Academy for translation.”

Amy has worked in various schools and non-profit organisations in various countries like in Korea and Hungary as a volunteer educator of English. Amy told this reporter that she is very interested in teaching the students of Parijat for their eagerness and promised to visit the school again. Amy Partridge teaches exercise steps to students of Parijat Academy.

“When I will go back to my place, I will convey the message among my people to help the underprivileged children through education. And next time when I will visit this school, I will bring a team of academicians from US.”

http://sevensisterspost.com/?p=8170#

Today 27th April, 2012  in Telegraph Newspaper
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120427/jsp/northeast/story_15423165.jsp#.T5ok_8Wonmk

Students Skype with Aussie varsity

SAURAV BORA

(Above) Students of Flinders University in Adelaide and Uttam Teron and Parijat Academy students during the interaction on Thursday. Telegraph picture April 26: The distance separating two groups of students — one in a hamlet on the outskirts of the city and another in Australia — were thousands of miles over ocean and land but they connected in an instant. In a first-of-its-kind online interaction between a group of 20 post-graduate students of Flinders University, Adelaide, and 15 students of Parijat Academy in Pamohi this morning, the discussion revolved around indigenous communities of Garbhanga near Pamohi and its surroundings and their sources of sustenance and lives. “During the hourlong interaction that began at 6 this morning on the video chatting site, Skype, the students of Flinders University, who represented nine different countries, wanted to know about the livelihoods of the indigenous communities and how significant were forest-based resources in their lives. Besides, the importance of school education for children of the hamlets in and around Pamohi, was discussed,” Uttam Teron, principal coordinator of Parijat Academy, toldThe Telegraph. The academy, opened in 2003 at Teron’s initiative with just four students, currently provides free education to over 550 students, most of whom were school dropouts from nearby Garbhanga — an area around 20km from the city, inhabited by Karbi and Bodo people. The novel project of Teron, who hails from the area, has drawn the attention of national and international organisations. Udoy Saikia, a teacher at the School of the Environment, Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, coordinated today’s interaction. “The need for such an interaction was felt a couple of weeks ago by Udoy Saikia who asked me if I could share information on topics such as primary education, community development and the local environment with students of Flinders University. Saikia, who hails from Jorhat, has been working with us through a South Australian charitable organisation for the past four years,” Teron, attired in a traditional red Karbi jacket during the interaction, said. The inter-relationship between tribal livelihoods and nature, especially forest, and threats to the community owing to deforestation, man-animal conflicts and wetlands, among others, were also discussed. Asked about the questions raised by the students of the Australian university, Teron said: “One of them, a female student, had asked me why investors were not attracted to Assam and the Northeast. Another student asked how difficult it was to get funds for the school when it was set up. To the first query, I told them that some areas in the Northeast still lacked connectivity, which affected investment, and to the second, I shared some of my difficulties when I set up the school in a cowshed. I also shared my dream of making all the children of the locality literate.” Teron also spoke on how the villagers coped with the problem of man-elephant conflict and how youths of hamlets in the vicinity needed to be weaned away from deforestation activities and encouraged to take up agriculture on a small scale. About the feedback from Australia, Teron said: “Saikia informed me after the interaction that, as a first step, it was fruitful and more interactions needed to be organised in the future. He said the students were eager to come and work in the community sector in Assam.” Sankar Bongjang, a student of the academy who appeared in the matric exam this year, said: “It was a unique experience. They asked us our names and which classes we were in. Bhal lagil (Loved it). We also sang the song We shall overcome... in unison. They loved it.”

Skype Interacting with Flinders University, Adelaide

Furniture for Garbhanga Parijat Academy

Desks  and Benches  for  the   Garbhanga  Parijat academy.  The  furniture  are  made  at  Parijat  Academy, Pamohi and  later hired  one pickup van from Parijat to Garbhanga. It is  20 kms from Parijat  Academy. Children are  now  happy  to sit  on the  new desks and benches. 

Nature Trekking to Garbhanga from Parijat academy

A  one day  Nature  Trekking was  organised  by  Parijat  Academy on 18th April, 2012  with  50  children, teachers  and volunteers. The  starting  point  was  from Parijat  Academy  to  end point  Garbhanga. It was  20 kms. It took 3  hours  going and coiming 3 hours. The programme  was  for as  individual  leadership  and survival capacity.  After  reaching Garbhanga  the  group  taught the  children in Garbhanga   school children   and played  games with them. The  games   and sports  carried  from Parijat like football, volleyball, cricket,  badminton.

The  Garbhanga  Parijat  Academy  is run by Parijat  Academy. There  are two  teacher  there. They are  Hafizur Rahman  and  Kumud Phangsho.  The  school is from Nursery  to  class VIII.

Interested  volunteer  welcome to teach  to these  children.

contact:  Uttam Teron

email:  parijatacademy03@yahoo.com

Volunteer from USA, April 2012

Volunteer from USA, April 2012

Her experience expression http://omprakash.org/volunteerstories/Story/Parijat-Academy-4

Amy's note

Parijat Academy India
Amy Partridge

Hello folks,
I’ve been staying at Parijat Academy for 10 days now and I can finally start sharing my stories. Right now we are having a holiday called “Bihu” and we will not have classes again until Monday. The next few days I will be partaking in some culture activities and I will have some extra time to update my experiences.
First, I will say that this experience has been quite the challenge for me. I am currently the only volunteer here and sometimes it can be overwhelming for me because I have never volunteered solo before. However, this is a great learning opportunity and it has really pushed me to put more effort into connecting with people around me. Uttam and his family have been fantastic! They treat me like I am part of the family and they always make sure I am well taken care of.

Now let’s talk about the fun stuff, the children at Parijat Academy. I just recently finished a teaching job in South Korea. I was there for almost 2 years and the education system is extremely different from India. In Korea children are overwhelmed with education and in India children are thirsty for it. The kids here are eager to learn and they are very excited to have a foreigner in the classroom. The energy level is very high and seeing the glow in their eyes is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever experienced. The English level is very low, so sometimes it can be discouraging, but yesterday I started to notice that some of the children were starting to catch on and I could hear them using simple phrases that I commonly use…phrases such as, “high five,” “excellent,” “fantastic,” “Are you ready?,” “Is it okay?”. After noticing this I started to feel more hope. Also, they have pretty much mastered the “Hokie Pokie” and I have a blast every time I lead them in the song/dance.

I still can’t believe I’m really in India working with kids and getting immersed in the culture…I used to dream about this! Anyone can do this if they are willing. I want to encourage you to get involved and to take the leap of faith to come to India. I have met so many people that want to be involved with social justice, but usually volunteering in another country is very expensive. Fortunately, this is not an issue with this organization, so start considering it…and please try to bring a team. I can’t even imagine the progress that could be made if we had a group here. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will post more later.

Best Regards,

Amy