Shillong Primary School (North East India)
Introduction
Do you want to really make a difference to the lives of the poor? Come on an adventure to the tribal villages of West Bengal and help teach English, math, computer studies, science or any other skills you have.
The skills that you can offer will help the desperately poor Santhal tribal children at Uma Nivas, a primary and girls’ high school with attached orphanage.
Join our children’s daily yoga and meditation sessions and develop your full potential while helping our children to develop theirs.
Environment
Non Mynsong is a particularly poor area of Shillong, in the state of
Meghalaya, Northeastern India. It is a melting pot of cultures:
Bengalis, Nepalis, Biharis. Khasi (indigenous tribal group).
Most families live in rented wooden huts with one family per room on
this crowded hillside. For most families, it is a daily struggle to
survive.
W e have only a small school. In the future we want to develop our
education programmes and increase the size of our orphanage and hostel
to give more destitute and rural children from outlying areas the chance
to study.
Activities
you can get involved with
Would you like to help teach our school children? 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?
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!
Management
Didi Ananda Kalyanbrata is very kind and easygoing. She shows her warmth and hospitality by showering you with loads of delicious food. Her English is a bit weak, so she is hoping a volunteer will help her to improve. Didi has recently bought a new computer for the school and needs help to learn how to use it.
Volunteer Coordinator
Malati is originally from England, but has been working in
India for over 15 years, learning about the culture, the languages and
about the people. Five years ago she started a programme to help provide
infrastructure to struggling village schools and has since arranged
funds for many schools to help them to become self-sufficient.
Accommodation
Volunteers stay in a classroom that has been converted into a simple bedroom with a large bed. In winter it gets really cold even with a heater. So bring warm clothes and a good sleeping bag.
Who do we need?
We prefer female volunteers; You must present a good, moral character
and respect the local culture.
Your job as a volunteer
Role of Volunteer
- 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
What
to expect
In India rote learning is the norm and hundreds of bored pupils stream
out of our schools every day burdened with books and with hours of
homework ahead of them (an effort to compensate for the teaching defects
in class time).
We would like a volunteer who can help train the teachers how to make
lessons more interesting using playway methods. If you are a
kindergarten or lower primary teacher with a creative mind and the
capacity to work wonders on a shoestring budget, we will welcome you
with open arms.
We would like a second person to teach English to the children and
teachers to improve the standard. In India the children only learn to
read and write English but never learn to talk it! We want to remedy
this.
To learn more about our volunteer programme
Email: info at poor.org.in
Other Projects accepting volunteers: Uma
Nivas, Jaipur,
Trivandrum
Read more stories of our volunteers
Meet our volunteers who spent time at Shillong
Sarah and Abigail
I'll never forget the experience that I had there and I've gained so much from it, so thank you very much for the opportunity. Didi was wonderful and extremely kind and the children were the most amazing I have ever met... (more about Sarah and Abigail).
Anna
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... (more about Anna).
Evan
My name is Evan and I am a 28 year old primary school teacher from the United States. I volunteered for POOR in the spring of 2007 in the city of Shillong and it was truly a beautiful experience. Volunteering allowed me the opportunity to work closely with the children of India inside a community that I would otherwise never had access to... (more about Evan).
To learn more about our volunteer programme
Email: info at poor.org.in
Read more stories of our volunteers