Visit to CHILD orphanage - August 2015
INTRODUCTION:
A year prior to this trip I visited CHILD to teach the kids about Microsoft Office and how they could apply it for their schools. During this trip I found that I could help CHILD. Their computer lab was quite small with minimal computers. While it was still great for the kids to explore it wasn’t quite enough. However, during this trip I was limited in time so I didn’t get the chance to find out the exact problems that I could address. Afterwards, soon before the second trip, the idea of a computer literacy program was brought up by one of the co-founders of CHILD, Anand Kumar. He educated me on how the schools in the area lack computer labs. They tend to have about two computers per school. So by the time students reach college they have little to no knowledge of computers. So the idea was to address this issue starting with CHILD. I planned on raising funds for CHILD in Seattle that would aid in the creation of a larger computer lab in which students from government schools could attend computer literacy classes. While it was quite a large project I decided to start it with the coming trip. The following consists of my experience during the trip:
DAY 1:
I arrived at CHILD for the second time and the experience was once again very enriching. As soon as I walked in we initially interacted with the caretaker and manager of the CHILD facility. We discussed the future of CHILD and the possibility of instituting a computer literacy program for children in the surrounding area. For example opening a large computer lab that is publicly accessible. Children would come whenever they wanted to learn and become familiar with computers. Of course, in order to do this we thought of several ways in which we could achieve this. The most plausible way to do so would be me doing a fundraiser from overseas in Seattle. After talking for some time we proceeded upstairs. As I was walking most of the children greeted me with a handshake and their smiling faces. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm given the situations they have been through in the past. After making ourselves comfortable in the computer lab upstairs the kids all took a seat in front of us. They began to introduce themselves by telling us their names and what they wanted to be as an adult. Subsequently, we began to ask questions pertaining to their experience with Khan Academy (i.e. What are you learning? Do you find it interesting? Are you having trouble? etc.). After asking a few questions we decided that I would teach them what I learned in a course prior to my trip in India in Computer Engineering. This is due to the fact that the kids said they wanted to learn something new. I began the teaching soon after this. I taught them about how a circuit works (current, voltage, and resistance) and basic logic math. All the kids received the information very well with the exception of a few. One of the children did not know English very well so some of the students had to translate for him. However, he ultimately got a good grasp for the concepts. There were a couple of students who may not understand the concepts completely; however, I plan to address that in the following class. As we got into the car to take our leave, the children stood beside the car a cheerfully waved goodbye to us.
My experience was very similar to last year. All of the kids were teeming with joy and the constantly made it a priority to treat me like family. They would ask me question to get to know me, and they would tell me about themselves. They asked me what the US was like, what grade am I in, etc. In one day I got to know some of the kids quite well. Even the children that knew meager English would greet me and try to make conversation. I was very impressed with their effort to do so, and with so much enthusiasm.
DAY 2:
Today I immediately started the class upon arrival. I had to skip over some of the material because some of the children did not know Algebra; however, I was able to complete a majority of the material. Today’s class was slightly more difficult. This is due to the fact there is a language barrier to some extent, and the material itself was more difficult than before (logic gates, relays, breadboards, and logic tables). So it was somewhat difficult to articulate what I was trying to teach. Nevertheless, irrespective of the fact that the children were having some difficulty learning, they were gladly accepting the information. They were clearly making an effort to understand. One student that know more English than the others would constantly try to make the concepts clear for the other students. I was happy to see them make such a great effort to learn. After about an hour I was finished with the class so I decided to teach a spoken English class to all the students, in which I would teach the students to speak English correctly, i.e. some students ordered their words incorrectly, pronounced the entire word incorrectly, etc. The students, as well as I, enjoyed the experience thoroughly. I started the class by telling them to ask me questions. I would then phrase the question they had previously asked into a grammatically correct question. I then had them each repeat the question correctly and answer it. In this manner the children were able to build upon their English skills while also getting to know me, and vice versa. After about 30 minutes or so I had them carry out an English conversation on their own as I went around correcting their grammar and pronunciation. Towards the end of the class Senthil the manager/caretaker in CHILD suggested a homework assignment in which the students were given a topic and they had to write a few sentences about this topic. So I ended the class by announcing the assignment. As we left, we were once again treated with a jovial goodbye.
DAY 3:
Today I decided to teach something a little different. Prior to this trip I had traveled to the Agastya Foundation, where I had been assigned to teach students about electromagnetic induction. They provided me with some materials (Galvanometer, copper wire, magnet, and a plastic tube (to make a coil)) and told me to teach with them. So in Chennai I decided to purchase these materials and do a similar class for these children. After purchasing those materials we headed for CHILD. Once we had arrived I began the class. The kids were immediately intrigued due to the fact that they got to do an experiment. I started with the question, “Where does electricity come from?” After some time a student replied, “Water”. So I asked if they knew how a dam worked. They all replied no. So I moved on to Faraday’s experiment in which the students had a coil (copper wire) and a magnet; the two components necessary to create current. Then, I had them figure out how they could create this current. They ended up putting the magnet in the tube and shaking it, creating small amounts of current. From there I moved on to show a simulation to explain the concepts. The kids had received this class very well and seemed very interested. They clearly had a deep interest in the subject; however, we had to move on to the spoken English class. In today’s English class we went over the homework in which each students red their sentences pertaining to a certain topic. After doing so I would correct the grammar and have the whole class read the correct sentence. The class continued like this for the majority of the allotted time. We concluded by reading an English conversation aloud one by one. As always, the class was very enjoyable due to the vast enthusiasm of the kids. They are always helping each other out, asking questions to me/about me, etc. with genuine curiosity and enthusiasm, and it is always very heartwarming to see this.
DAY 4:
Today I arrived at CHILD and all the kids greeted me with their smiling faces once again. I had previously decided that I would attempt to teach the 8th grade students algebra. As I began the lesson I knew that the kids would most likely have trouble with the subject because they had clearly told me before that they find algebra confusing. However, the goal of the class was the clear the confusion. Surprisingly, although I was teaching math I found that today the language barrier was quite a large problem. Even though I was teaching with numbers I had trouble expressing some of the concepts; for instance, isolating “x”. They did not know what isolation was. I tried to show that “x” had to be alone on one side of the equation but I still had trouble getting them to understand. For some of the explanation I had to have someone translate for me. Nevertheless, the time period given to me was quite short given the difficulty of the material so I had to cut the class short. As I moved on to the spoken English class. I decided that we should follow what we did in previous classes to an extent. We first learned a little vocab, then moved on to reading aloud English conversations. Towards the end of the class I showed the students the game of hangman. Using this as a medium I attempted to make the students remember the vocab that we had previously learned. The children and I enjoyed this thoroughly. We had a great time while being productive. After the classes had ended we proceeded down stairs. My family and I had prepared gifts for each of the children (ranging from backpacks to candy). As we passed them out I was delighted to see how grateful the children were. Afterwards they even gave me a plaque to thank me and my family for our service. I was overjoyed to see the children were thankful for what little service I could do for them.
Looking back my experience in CHILD has taught me quite a bit. Preconceived notions that my parents had instilled in me were emphasized throughout my experience with CHILD. For example, it made me realize that I sometimes take it for granted that I have such a luxurious life in comparison to the children at CHILD. In fact, the children are, most likely, more grateful for what little they have than I am for the plethora of things I have. Moreover, the children were so ardent whenever I saw them. They have clearly gone through much more than me yet I sometimes find myself unhappy with what I have been given. I was reminded of such things throughout the entirety of the trip and, if anything, it has been a very humbling experience that will hopefully be lasting one.