Enrollment "rally" for the Malleshwaram schools...

Reminders of a rally I went to once and the rythmic call out of strong messages...

But this rally was much more gentle while being as meaningful and was much much more closer to our cause as DSF volunteers ...

"Beke beku ..Vidye beku" (We want education) ...
"Yene barali, Oggatu iralli" (We want to be united) ...
"Shaale bitta makalannu shaalege serisi" (Put you kids who've dropped out of school, back in).
















And we saw our young leaders (Parthiban...among others, now in 5th standard...a smart and well rounded little personality) among the rallyists who shouted their lungs out during the entire 1 hour walk through their community!

We joined the Headmaster, some of the teachers and the TCH trainees associated with the school and quickly mixed up with the younger crowd to hear their side of the story.















Why a friend wouldn't come to school because her mother expects her to go to work, how a girl has to take care of the new born while her brothers can go to school, how one of them has no explanation for not going to school except her silence, how another school in the neighbourhood is preferred because the medium of teaching is Tamil, how quickly one can use the pretext of the unknown school that he/she is going to being on a holiday.















Kids always amaze you! Whether it's an innocent smile... or the quick "scurry away" act they perform when they see the headmaster... or shoot back with a quick rude repartee... or just plain say the truth :)















There are problems in bringing kids to school on a sustained basis... and there are complex causes to these problems... there are some we can't own up to find solutions for. It hurts to be helpless in the couple of cases we saw today... But we are also happy for all the children who do go to schools, seeing the kind of environment they are brought up in...the lack of nutrition among other things... they go school- get a meal, books, clothes and a mediocre education... And I, just like you, don't like the word mediocre for our children. There is so much to be done...and so little we could do
















Wish this group of volunteers is always as motivated as they have been and as they were in the "rally" today :) ... Thanks Chilli, Vikram, Ameya, Rashmi, Smitha, Pacchi and Nisha !

Ameya's chase being the highlight...and here he comes, a winner, with Vishnu.. the kid he chased all the way to the ... don't ask :)
















Success in this case has a tough set of determinants... I can't say we were completely successful in achieving the cause of this rally... Just hope the kids we took to school today keep coming through the year...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Where in malleswaram was this rally? Which government schools are being referred to here? I'm interested because I live there.

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