Beyond the Classroom : A Volunteer’s Journey to Transform Lives !

Meeting new people is not my cup of tea. But this fellowship journey has opened up my unknown “self.” Daily interactions with people in the field have given me lots of new experiences. You know, the common people are the ones who inspire me the most.

Yes! This blog is here to share about a common woman whom I came across in the field 8 months ago.

So, about my project ? “Mission Empower” – the foremost objective is to improve the spoken English proficiency of children in classes 1-5 in 6 schools at Mecheri block, Salem District in Tamil Nadu. My plan is to implement it with the help of ITK volunteers. Who are the ITK volunteers? They are part of the Tamil Nadu Government’s volunteer-based program to bridge the learning gap of children post-COVID.

What Next ? The temporal, spatial, and dimensional boundaries of my project are fixed. The next step is to engage with the stakeholders and get their support for the implementation of the project. Therefore, I organized an ITK volunteers’ meet from all the panchayats of Mecheri block. To much of my surprise, 49 ITK volunteers participated, and the meeting went fairly well. The volunteers were very cooperative.

During the course of the meeting, a volunteer named Mrs. Meena started requesting to include her village’s school in the list. But, I had already selected 5 schools. She kept on requesting the same thing again and again. Finally, I agreed to visit her village and analyze the situation of the school.

Where is that school ? I came to know it is in a remote village named Kuttapatti. Thus, the primary school of the village came into the limelight thanks to the efforts of Meena. The school has fewer infrastructure facilities and a smaller number of students (19). Anyhow, I have decided to implement the project in the school to do something better for the children.

After that, Meena became a good friend of mine. She is temporarily working in a government school which is 10 km away from her village. She is regular to her work and a very good volunteer who helps the village children in all other ways possible.

Then, I prepared the first edition of the spoken English module and received feedback from all the relevant stakeholders. The implementation of the first edition of the spoken English module has started successfully in all the 6 schools. I met all the other volunteers and distributed the modules.

Now comes the time to meet the volunteer of Kuttapatti, Mrs. Meena. I am very much excited to meet her for the day. Although the school is 10 km away from my place, I chose that school thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Meena. I could not avail the transport facilities to go inside the village. I got frustrated and waited at the bus stop for a long time. Mrs. Meena herself called and inquired about my visit. As she understood the situation, she came to pick me up from the bus stop to the interior part of the village. I felt relieved and happy as I don’t know anyone apart from her in that village.

Finally, I reached the ITK center at Kuttapatti village. I was really surprised by the way the center was run. What an environment! The room is filled with lots of charts, boards with the much-needed educational content. I felt optimistic about the children’s future. The cute children were ready to learn something new excitedly. The Spoken English session went on for an hour. Meanwhile, Mrs. Meena also became a child and enjoyed the session with them wholeheartedly. The day went well.

From then on, Mrs. Meena consistently takes sessions from the Spoken English module and helps the children improve their spoken English proficiency. To boost their attendance, she also prepares sweets, snacks, and distributes them to the children every evening so that they can remain active till the end of the session.

From an unknown village, now the first edition of the spoken English module is successfully implemented in that village. Weekly sessions are consistently conducted, and the level of the students is being monitored continuously.

Mrs. Meena is a common citizen of the village. She receives a meager amount for the volunteering purpose. But still, she does her work exceptionally well. Is it all needed from all of us? By seeing her, I realized that doing my job consistently and continuously would definitely impact the life of a few people.

Thanks to the fellowship, I am discovering new version of myself and also the exceptional qualities of the common people in the field.

More to go…!!!