Monday, May 23, 2011

Project Green Book- Week 1

The spread of education among the weaker sections of our society is vital as education is a prime requisite for socio-economic development. A gap has emerged between the educated elites and the tribal people.

To bridge this gap, “Wild Wing Society” (WWS), a grass- roots group, was formed in the year 2009. With a passion to help the needy and aim to protect our Mother Earth, WWS has carried out various activities which include creating awareness on education, afforestation and tiger conservation among rural areas and distribution of solar lanterns among 100 families in a remote tribal hamlet of Malliamman Durgam in the district of Erode, Tamil Nadu.

Backed up by the enormous credits and encouragement received ,WWS has now taken up the project “Green Books” in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve which completely focuses on tribal education. To put the tribal students on an equal footing with the non-tribal, WWS has adopted a tribal school at Topslip. In the first phase, every weekend (from March 5, 2011- May 8, 2011) WWS volunteers will conduct teaching sessions in the topslip tribal school to improve the educational status of the children. They (5 volunteers + 1 WWS coordinator) travel from Coimbatore to topslip every Saturday morning and engage the tribal children with various assigned tasks for their development. On Sunday, volunteers either spend the day with tribal children or go on treks, wildlife safaris availed by forest department in topslip and return back to Coimbatore by Sunday evening. The first phase of this project was successfully initiated on March 5, 2011 with the help of 5 new volunteers of WWS who were directly involved in this mission and 5 volunteers who were indirectly involved, with various supports from the help of local WWS members in Pollachi which includes scientists and organic farmers.

The present scenario at the tribal school is as seen below





Water is the elixir of life.


As our first activity, on March 5, 2011, three RO Water purification plant were installed at Topslip tribal school, hostel and Parambikulam tribal hostel respectively .Topslip tribal school is the only school for 7 tribal hamlets inside the core zone of tiger reserve and the children studying in the school are very much prone to diseases caused due to high fluoride content in the water which the drink. Being a residential school, children will be able to access potable water which will sustain their health. Arrangements have also been made to use the same water for cooking purpose. The volunteers also conducted a complete survey on the status of education of tribal children with various parameters and created a profile of 30 students with the details of all the skills and education they have. A meeting with Mr. Vijayananad IFS (Field Director- Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary) was also held to discuss on activities in Parambikulam tribal school.


Our Volunteer with tribal kids

Only by providing better communication facilities, teaching materials and methods we can hope to bring about an attitude change in the tribal population towards education. Otherwise in the present state of affairs, the dream about tribal education would always remain a dream.

Join hands with us to make this dream come true.

Project Green Book- Week 2

March 12,2011(Saturday)

Top slip is a favorite tourist destination that is at a 3.5 hours drive from Coimbatore. But the WWS team was there on the Saturday evening for a different reason. A team of five people from WWS reached Top slip tribal school at 5 PM, met the students and staff of the school and had a discussion about engaging the students in different events for the following Sunday.

March 13,2011(Sunday)

At 9:30 AM, WWS reached the school. The students had their breakfast and were expecting the team. We were amazed at the students’ enthusiasm to come to school on a Sunday. We had kept our expectation low because we were visiting a school at a remote location where schooling was not considered as an essential part. But we were surprised at the increase in strength to the last time we visited the school!.

Our team got introduced and chitchatted with the students for a few minutes. We started off with screening a documentary video - THE PLANET, that ran for 30 minutes.

                                                      Screening of the documentary

Following it we made a statistical report on 46 students who were absent last week, the report included their name, name and occupation of their parents, goals, handwriting, reading ability in Tamil and English. One first standard kid said his dream was to become conservator of forests and many kids had their own dreams of becoming Collector (IAS officer is what they meant), Doctor n so on.At that moment whatever doubts we had vanished and we were determined to do all it takes to assist them in making their dreams true. This report would help to improve the educational status of the children.

                                          Our volunteer making the statistical report

Following it, we screened funny animal videos for 20 minutes and the kids enjoyed the videos.




After lunch, kids who were interested in dancing and singing performed 8 solo dances and 2 children drew beautiful picture of Goddess Saraswathi and sceneries. It was an incredible sight to watch a kid who has the talent of walking with his hand!

Our team then discussed with the students and teachers about their requirements for school and hostel, sports facilities,etc. When we left the school by 6:00 PM the students and the staff there told us it was a memorable day for them and so for us. This is the second activity from the WWS’s Green Book project.

We need all your support and encouragement to go-ahead and help these children find a better way to live. Join hands with us, let us make a difference.

Project Green Book- Week 3

My mind was kind of occupied than usual when I was nearing Pollachi in the bus on Saturday morning. I wanted to make one thing for sure, when I leave Topslip by Sunday evening, the imprints that our team was going to leave behind in the school should be fulfilling to us. May be the imprint is not a tree, but atleast a seed and a few drops of water to it.
Met Karthik, Aruna and Haritha for the first time, accompanied by Sekar. We were all strangers to each other but the ice was broken in few minutes, thanks to our common intention for the trip.



 A camp elephant welcomed us to Topslip by noon.
“Its time, we go straight to the school, no checking in to the dormitory now!” claimed Velavan, one of the finest teachers to my knowledge, whom I took with our team and Manoj,one of our good friends ,who works with the Education department.
But we settled down and walked towards the school in few minutes.
“Are you like the people who came last week?” asked  Shivanesh, one of the toppers in the school, from Std 6.
“Oh ya.. how many of you are there?”
“A lots.. wait I’ll go get the classroom keys” Shivanesh ran away. He was not actually running, but jumping and moving with joy.
Smile was the only answer from most of the girls, on what ever we asked.
“heyy vaanga vaanga vaanga..” howled one little girl on the ground, pulling in people to the classroom. Vow, what a way to communicate, no mailing, no pinging, just a shout, and they are all there.

      One of our volunteer interacting with the students

We came to know that few of the kids in the lower grade were struggling in counting numbers, in English, just one to ten. We started off with a song, one little stanza for every number up to ten. Not just singing but dancing for every English word they pronounced. They were told about meaning of each and every word.
“Five is Sky.. skyalaka skyalaka skyalaka sky”, the plesant noise hit the whole class. The way each and every kid sprouted out, opened up themselves and sang and dance was worth the watch a thousand time

  A session on English



 After a bit of some more classroom work, we hit the ground for seven stones. We couldn’t match their energy level, while we were gasping after a game, one of them smiled on us and his look said “How about one more round?”.
“Sorry buddy, we are done!”

    Kids enjoying after a classroom session


The next day started with the Mathematics session. A 7th std kid was struggling on a basic two digit addition. At a point I realized, temporary workshops like these will help them in the short run. Let us all come up with a well planned structure, a plan based on their current level of exposure, which would make a sustainable impact on their lives.

 Enthusiastic responses



Visiting them every week would certainly help them in a way, but we are capable of touching their lives even deeper and stronger. Ain’t we?
Separate session went on for girls, about basic hygiene, and the good touch and bad touch. A lot of myths were cleared. Courtesy: Haritha and Aruna
Kids asked our signatures on their notebooks!! Truly embarrassing for me but such a joy.

Looking forward to strengthening ourselves in the way we approach the project. Let’s make a sustainable impact on their lives. We owe those kids a lot; they are making us to introspect

Project Green Book- Week 4

I started for the trip to Topslip on March 26, 2011(Saturday) along with my batch mates Illakiya, Gangai, Vinoth and Anand (a new friend through this trip) and WWS coordinator, Kiran, with a vague mind just to spend my weekend in a fruitful way.
We reached Topslip at 12 noon, refreshed and reached the school within ten minutes. Initially, we started getting introduction from the students.

Our Team


First thing which made me feel proud to join this trip was because of the response from a kid when I enquired whether we were disturbing them to attend the classes even on Saturday & Sunday (blessed holidays for us!!)  The response was- “We don’t find any difference between holidays and other days. We enjoy and eagerly wait for you to visit and make us engaged by dancing, singing, playing and teach us new things”.
After the introduction, we divided the kids class-wise and started to teach them Mathematics (division). Our friends from WWS who had visited last week made our work easy, as they had taught them the basics of addition and subtraction. The kids showed a lot of interest to learn and responded very well, which encouraged us to teach them more. I realized that teaching is not very easy(I salute my kindergarten teachers!)

One of our volunteers teaching the kids


By now the kids had multiplied their energy too. We stopped the Mathematics session at 4pm and screened a movie (Kavalan) for them.

Kids watching "Kavalan" movie

Fun session like dancing, singing, and playing games followed. Playing with the kids reminded me of my childhood days.

Playing 'Kho-Kho' with the kids


They didn’t let us to go but finally managed to leave by 8pm.The next day we got a chance to visit few places in Topslip .Driving through the dense forest was really adventurous and we were lucky to spot few elephants.We reached the school on Sunday at 10 am. Students had already come. The Mathematics sessions ended at 12.45 pm .It was time to leave them. The kids asked for our mobile numbers. I heard one of them calling out, “bye Ramya akka”. I felt proud for my recognition. All of us shared a common feel, “We too had achieved something in life”.

Our Achievement


 
We started for Coimbatore at 1 pm. At that moment, I had a new definition for life, not as vague as I thought while I had started for the trip.I experienced a bitter truth through this trip that  our country has still many more  tribal villages like this where the kids have to walk minimum of 10 kms to their school. I feel happy about my contribution.
Friends, all I would like to say is,”We are really gifted”.
“Service to the mankind is service to the God”

Project Green Book- Week 5

WWS initiated Project GREEN BOOK on March 5, 2011.Every weekend, volunteers have been conducting teaching sessions in the Topslip tribal school to improve the educational status of the children. The 5th week was a different one. Instead of the volunteers travelling to Topslip, we brought the students down to Coimbatore for a one day excursion.
In this present world, students need a wide exposure apart from academics. Only then they will be able to correlate and apply their subject knowledge practically, which is essential for their career development.
The excursion was on April 2, 2011 for the students of VI, VII, and VIII standard and on April 3, 2011 for the students of III, IV, and V standard. The students were accompanied by their teachers and also one of our volunteers from Pollachi. They started at 6am from the school and had breakfast at Pollachi. The first place of visit was the Airport. The students reached Coimbatore Airport at 10 am. Transportation was arranged by the WWS team.
It was such a pleasant sight for me when the kids got down the van in twos and arranged themselves. I became a little nostalgic about the excursions during my school days!

Students at Coimbatore Airport



Meanwhile, we had made arrangements at the airport for the kids to view the plane from the gallery. We spent about one hour at the airport gallery telling them about airplanes and run way, takeoff and landing. The expressions and exclamations made by the kids when they saw a takeoff was the best; all of us could actually feel their excitement that they had.

At the airport gallery


We left the airport at 11am for our next destination-Gass Forest Museum.
The half an hour drive from the airport to museum was filled with frolic and fun. The students sang songs that they had learnt as lessons and also popular cine songs. Few volunteers had already reached the museum to receive the students. Each volunteer formed their batch of students and explained everything in the museum.

Students and volunteers at Gass Forest Museum, Coimbatore


After spending one hour inside the museum, the students had lunch.
Walt Disney’s “The Lion King” was screened at the forest college auditorium in the post lunch session.

Kids enjoying "The Lion King"


 
After a while, a small recap was done for the students to remember the new terms that they had learnt in the morning. At 3 pm, we headed towards the V.O.C Park which has a small zoo attached. They claimed to have seen almost all kind of snakes but the pelicans and storks were new to them. One of them pointed out at the camel and said, “I’ve seen this in my book”.
After a ride in the mini train at the park, we took them to the playground. Few preferred the swing while few were running and chasing. As the clock struck 5, I realized that it was time for the students to leave. It was really hard for me to bid adieu to them.
Taking the head count each and every time we got up and down the van, was a small game for them. There would be echo of each number and I would miss the count. But the final head count was not that jovial. Even the kids realized that the day was over. They thanked all of us for showing them such places.
Day 2 of excursion also had the same activities, except that we had to say goodbye to the tiny ones a little earlier than the day before.
On behalf of team WWS, we thank all the volunteers who helped us making this activity a successful one. And we wish to see many more to join us in near future.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Project Green Book- Week 6

Food, clothing and shelter are the basic needs of human. But now “Education” seems to dominate the list! This also includes good infrastructural facility. It’s true that early day education in India was under a tree, the so called Guru-Shishya tradition. It slowly became classrooms and with the advent of modernity these turned into virtual ones. Although so much has improved, education for the weaker sections of Indian society has yet to come up.
Project Green Book is an initiative by the Wild Wing Society (WWS) to improve the tribal education system. With the support of many volunteers, the project has entered the sixth week now. Till date, every weekend volunteers would go and teach them. But this weekend saw an infrastructural uplift.
 Utilizing the vacation time of the school, WWS’s Week 6 activity of Project Green Book was a colourful one. The Topslip tribal school and hostel were given a fresh look by re painting them which was painted 5 years back.







 It was co-ordinated and lead by five WWS members along with the help of 45 voulnteers of Vivekananda Pasumai Gramam ,Selappanpalayam.



A special thanks to these volunteers for helping in cleaning the school premises before the painting work began.


They had reached topslip on 15th May,2011 and  stayed there for the night. The next day morning was spent in cleaning. The Forest Range Officer, Topslip, gave a small talk on Anamalai Tiger Reserve. Volunteers were taken on a jungle safari by the forest department.
Our members have analyzed the place to set up the children’s park and the works to be done.
 WWS aims at starting the new academic year in a bright mode by making a better environment to study.