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Noida homemakers make room to teach underprivileged kids
NOida: For 25 women working as volunteers with an NGO to help teach underprivileged children some basic and spoken English, their work is as rewarding as caring
NOida: For 25 women working as volunteers with an NGO to help teach underprivileged children some basic and spoken English, their work is as rewarding as caring for their own children. Their motivation is a sense of accomplishment that stems from these kids doing well both in school and life.
They teach and provide mentorship to students from the lower income group who are associated with Saakshar Hum, an NGO working in the field of education. The founders, Pooja Chawla and Piyali Roy, themselves have 10 years of teaching experience.
“Presently, we are working with the government, through corporate social responsibility initiatives, in 10 schools and providing basic and spoken English lessons to about 1,200 students .We are also providing after-school remedial classes for free to 50 students in our educational centres with the help of our 25 volunteers,” Roy, a resident of Sector 76, said.
The volunteers are mostly homemakers from Noida who have associated with the NGO through word of mouth. The NGO, which started in September 2018, has developed its own English curriculum.
Roy said they aim to teach 2,000 students by the end of the current academic year.
“We undertake sponsorship for children who are from disadvantaged backgrounds. We tutor and mentor them and help them get admission in formal schools. For the year 2018-19, we sponsored the educational expenses of nine students,” Roy said.
For volunteers, teaching these children brightens up their days.
“I got to know about this NGO through a friend who was already volunteering with it. The respect that we get from these students fills us with joy. The sheer sense of giving back to society is a wholesome experience,” Sudhashree, a volunteer, said. A teacher by profession, she had given up her career to focus on domestic life but now that her children are grown up, she decided to teach again by becoming a part of Saakshar Hum.
Some of these children are having the time of their lives. They partake extensively in the NGO’s extracurricular activities such as dramatics, dance, etc.
“I will always remember the day when they took us to a mall. It was my first visit to such a place. We ate a lot, took a lot of photos and had loads of fun. We sang and had an amazing day. We are all lucky to have these great teachers,” 12-year-old Neha, who comes from a low-income group family, said.
The NGO plans on taking their activities further and include self defence, sports meets, economic sustainability for women, computer development, etc in its curriculum.
