HOPE worldwide Rajasthan - American Embassy School Volunteer Programme - October 2009

American Embassy School

American Embassy School’s (New Delhi) 16 students and two chaperones volunteered with HOPE worldwide Jodhpur. The four day programme was scheduled in two of the Govt schools were HOPE worldwide is currently teaching. The volunteers took various sessions teaching Rhymes, Spoken English, Craft, Interactive indoor games and concluded by a sports day event between both the schools. During the programme the volunteers also visited student’s families, painted and beautified both the schools. This programme was a beautiful platform for cultural exchange as the volunteers were of various countries, the school children never experienced any foreigner interacting with them, and thus helped in building their confidence and developing social skills. This was the first time in the history of these schools that the sports event at the school level was conducted in a stadium. All the students were overjoyed and expressed to have similar events more frequently.

Comments from the volunteers:-

“It was excellent well planned and so informative a real insight to many of the lives in Rajasthan, I had so much fun teaching the students at the school and visiting students houses was the best part of the trip”. - Ms. Sherrie Williams

“ I had fantastic first experience with HOPE worldwide. It was great teaching and getting to know all the kids, visiting student’s houses was insightful” - Ms. Noor Ambika.

“The experience was overall very good and it was great to get to know the kids and the culture in Rajasthan. Sports day helped me to bond with the kids’ more. I think there was a lot of team spirit and we all had good time”. - Ms. Ayano Ueshima

FORGOTTEN ZEAL

Tarranum with Anil Masiya(HOPE staff)

Tarranum is an intelligent student, but she lost her interest in studies until HOPE came by….

Tarranum is studying in class 9th at Govt. Secondary School in Maderna Colony. Her father, a driver, works for a travel agency and earns hardly 3500/- a month. Tarranum first joined the school in 6th class. She is punctual, always finishes her homework and came first in her class. One common practice in most Govt. Schools is that the focus is on completing the syllabus. It’s completely irrelevant whether the students understand or not. At first the zeal of learning new things kept her going but as time went by Tarranum got completely discouraged by this kind of teaching. HOPE worldwide came into an agreement with the district education department to start a free computer training center with this school and while the set up was going on, the HOPE staff started teaching spoken English at the school.

Since the time the HOPE staff started teaching spoken English (mostly through play way and interactive methods) Tarranum has got her interest back in the studies. Tarranum could hardly understand any English when HOPE started the classes, she was scoring 40-50 in her exams in English but now she is able to score more than 75 in her English subject. She feels that the spoken English and the life skill classes which HOPE is conducting in the school have increased her self confidence. She is grateful and thankful to HOPE worldwide.

After School Tuitions at Govt Secondary School- Police Line - Jodhpur

Roseleen- HOPE Staff with 6th class students.

Amrutha Valli - Hope  staff with Class 7th and 8th Students

Tuitions are conducted since Oct 09 for students who are weak in English subject from 6th - 8th classes after the school hours. Children have shown interest in developing their language skills. They are slowly improving their English learning ability.