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Indian Orphanage

Placement number: 0158
Location: Shillong, North east India
Preferred Languages: English
Date:  All Year
Minimum Period:  1  week

Teach in Beautiful Shillong

Teach English and core subjects to poor children and orphans in the beautiful hilly town
of Shillong, North East India.

Little Prakash and his friends in Shillong need help! In a poor tribal area of Shillong,
a primary school with an attached orphanage housing 10 children is being run by Didi
Ananda Kalyanbrata, a yoga nun. The school currently has 120 children, some of whom study
free as their parents are unable to pay even minimal fees. All the children learn
meditation and yoga.

Would you like to spend some time with us, teaching your skills to our schoolchildren?
Would you like to help care for the youngest orphans, who express their creativity
through naughtiness the minute no one is looking? We also need help with fundraising to
build better classrooms for our children?

Now we have only a small school. In the future we want to develop our education
programmes we want to also run a high school, start village schools in the tribal
villages around the town, increase the size of our orphanage and hostel to give more
destitute and rural children from outlying areas the chance to study.

If you would like to come and share your skills with us for a week, a month or 6 months,
we will welcome you into our small family, teach you about our culture and give you a
rich experience of the Indian way of life. If you wish, we will teach you yoga too!

Role of Volunteer

1.   * to teach English, maths, computer, science, history, geography or any other academic
         or non-academic skills you have to the children
      * to train the teachers to plan and teach creative lessons
      * to help with after school homework
      * to play games with or organize activities for the children during recreation time,
         teach them about your life and share theirs
      * to help us find ways to fundraise a better building for our school
   

Cost

Although we ask you for only $50 per month for food and accommodation, we do require  you
to help us by fundraising at least $300 for the development of the school before you come

Travel

We will arrange for you to be met at Kolkata or Gawuhati Airport if you wish and escorted
to the project.

 

Volunteer Stories

Dear Malati

We arrived back in Japan yesterday morning and still have wonderful memories of India, 
the AM school and the wonderful children we shared our lives with for a week reeling in
our heads.

It was really nice to meet you and hear the stories about the wonderful work you are
doing.  Thank you for your help in settling us in while you were with us.  We had an
amazing time at the school, it was a truly great experience.  I think we were fortunate
that you couldn't find accommodation for us in town, because it was really nice to be so
close to the Didis and the 'orphans'.  Avey and Mikeila had a great time playing and
chatting with them and we seemed to get on really well like a big family.  It was nice to
see the slips of the little girls laughing and smiling.  I had great chats with Rupa too,
a really lovely girl.  We tried to join their daily routine as much as possible, helping
them to carry water up the stairs, and so on.  They all work very hard.  Everyone was
extremely kind and hospitable and we felt as though we  could stay there forever.   We
really appreciate Didi and yourself for organising the programme. Thank you so much.

All 3 of us fell in love with the little darling, Prokash (not sure of the spelling
sorry).  He become very relaxed around us and we lavished him with love and attention all
his waking hours.  He spent alot of time in my arms while I taught him Japanese and
English nursery rhymes and songs or on Avey's shoulders taking in all the sights.  He is
so clever and picked up lots of English, imitating us and using the English in the right
context.  He seemed to have stopped messing himself at night and just urinated into the
nappies, which were dried out during the day and recycled.   I bought a double sized bag
of nappies to keep him going in the meantime.  We would love to adopt him and give him a
chance at a better future...possible?  We will really miss him coming up to our room
early every morning to say hello and play with us.  I went and bought him some new
clothes yesterday because I hear it's going to get really cold in Dec/Jan and he seems to
have so few things that aren't ripped or torn.   I'll also send Mikeila's winter wear
that doesn't fit her anymore - it's all like new and with lots of cute Disney and
Japanese designs for the girls.  We left everything we could...clothes, toiletries,
towels, umbrellas, but I still feel it wasn't enough.  I will try to find a good CD/tape
recorder for next time.

I really enjoyed teaching the different class groups.  We taught Japanese origami, games,
English and did a drawing exercise, giving pencils, rubbers and Japanese toys as prizes
as you suggested.  The children seem to love anything different from another country.  I
left around 80 new pencils in your suitcase for you to give to the students of the free
school you talked about and have more pencils and rubbers here in Japan that I can send
up with the group in December if you want them.

The Cultural Festival, unfortunately was cancelled due to all the rain we were having. 
It was made into a 'Celebrate the Teacher's Day' instead and held inside the big
classroom.  Crowded and noisy, but good.  I was delighted that 'the dance Didi' as we
called her, included Avey and Mikeila into the programme.  In fact, Avey was given a
major solo dance and had to learn an Indian song.  It was amazing seeing them both
dressed up and performing with the other children.  Magic.

We actually missed our domestic flight to Delhi on the day we left.  We got a jeep but
even allowing 2 hours before our flight departed, it seemed to take ages to get to
Gauhati, with the driver making lots of stops, and then the airport.  We stayed the night
in Gauhati and then left the next day flying Kolkata and then Delhi.

It does feel like something of a let down being back in Japan and at work today, but my
co-workers have been fascinated listening to my stories about the wonderful time we had. 
I wondered if you could send me the profiles of the 'orphans' that you showed me on your
computer.  Now I know the children better and their names, it will have more meaning if I
read the profiles again, plus I'd like to get them and the school some support amongst my
students in Japan if I can.  I wrote out for Didi the info you gave me for her in the
mail.

Well this mail isn't going to do justice to the appreciation and thanks I want to give
you for giving us the privilege of joining the programme and living with these wonderful
people, but a big thank you anyway.  If you have any advice or suggestions of things I
could be doing back in Japan here (before our next visit!) please let me know.

Regards
Anna, Avey and Mikeil Fujimoto

 

 

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