About Vazhai :
Vazhai is an NGO established in 2004 working on mentoring underprivileged kids from Dharmapuri(Bangalore wing of Vazhai) and Vizhupuram(Chennai wing of Vazhai) districts where due to social and political reasons literacy rate is very low. It was formed by Presidency college graduates under the guidance of experts like writer Gnani (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnani_Sankaran). Vazhai does get some financial aid from The Agaram foundation. Vazhai’s main motive is to raise the children to be a socially responsible person and to groom them so that he/she gets to lead a dignified life in the society. My initital notion about Vazhai was that it is like a typical educational NGO that would focus on academically training the students and to financially support them. But these do NOT feature as a priority in Vazhai’s agenda. Infact they provide very minimal financial aid to the students. Vazhai works like this :
· Senior members of Vazhai visit the government schools near Vizhupuram/Dharmapuri districts in the month of June and shortlist students (6th std – 9th std) who fall into one of the below criteria :
1) First generation graduates with nobody in the family to support them and guide them in their career
2) Students who do not have parents or those who live away from their parents due to the nature of their job
3) They also shortlist some students based on their financial status.
· The shortlisted students are assigned a mentor from the list of Vazhai Volunteers. The mentors interact with the students and get to know about their abilities, shortcomings, family problems etc. The mentors guide the students through all the 6 weekend workshops that happen in a year. They also keep in touch with the students weekly once through phone/ letter. This creates a personal bonding between the student and the mentor.
· The students are trained in basic academic skills like Basic Tamizh, English , Maths and science and physical activity. Essential life skill training, personal hygiene and talent identification workshops are also conducted. Apart from this the students learn a lot of stuff morally and emotionally throughout the course of the workshop from the mentors as well as the senior members of Vazhai
· Vazhai’s fundamental aim is not to make the students excel in academics but to mould their social skills, soft skills and their inherent capabilities to make them a socially aware and responsible citizen. The academic sessions are there to just impart the basic academic skills necessary for survival.
· Students are segregated based on their capabilities and required care and attention is provided accordingly. They make sure that students do not know about the capacity based segregation
· The students typically stay on with the mentors till 9th std . They also stay in touch with their mentors and other senior members after 9th std to get support and guidance in their career and life
· Volunteers can choose to be mentors, supporters or co-ordinators. Role of a mentor is already explained above. Co-ordinators are not allotted children but they help in co-ordinating various activities and workshops in Vazhai online/offline. Those who will not be able to spend time, can choose to be supporters and help Vazhai through donations and other logistic or technical support
Vizhupuram visit - Bus travel and accommodation :
I registered to be a volunteer for Vazhai along with my roommate Virumandi through Vazhai website. We got a confirmation call and received intimation about the workshop on March 3 and 4 through mail. We were asked to assemble at Tambaram Bus stand on Friday(2/5/18) at 9:30 PM. Vazhai had booked a full SETC bus to pick up the 17 new volunteers and 50 other senior volunteers. The trip started with a short introduction about background of each of the volunteers. All the new volunteers belonged to the age group 22- 28, the senior volunteers from 25- 36. The 4:30 hour long travel, filled with song sessions and fun ended at 2 PM and we stayed at an old wedding hall at Ananthapuram, Vizhupuram. The hall was comfortable enough to stay for a couple of days and the food provided was decent and reasonably hygienic. A nominal charge of Rs.500 was collected from the volunteers for travel, accommodation and food expenses for the 2 days. First aid kits were available at the hall and there were also doctors and MBBS students present amongst the volunteers to help, if medical support is required for the volunteers/students.
1st day summary and experience:
The day began with an ice breaking session for the freshers and an introductory session about Vazhai by senior volunteers. The kids arrived in autos at the wedding hall at 8:30 PM and were allotted mentors after breakfast and physical activity. I was allotted a 6th standard student. The day’s schedule had Basic Tamizh, English and Maths sessions followed by library and talent identification sessions.
Basic Tamizh:
· For 6th std students, the activity involved forming Uyirmei letters by combining uyir and mei ezhuthukkal. Most 6th ,7thstudents still struggle to read big sentences fluently. However, with regular workshops and practice it can be improved. Overall, I felt that the students faired quite well in Basic Tamizh.
Basic Maths:
· Most 6th students are lagging behind very much in basic math skills that is generally expected at this level. The activity for the day involved addition of 2/3 digit numbers with carry. Most students completed the activity but majority of them were not able to do addition mentally. However, I found some of the students to be really sharp in picking up things if we explain it to them clearly.
Basic English :
· As was expected, almost all students have developed a fear for English and consider it to be the toughest subject. The activity for this session involved rewriting upper case words to lower case, arranging words in alphabetical order etc.
· Many 6th students are not able to read, understand or write in English. English session was definitely an eye-opener for me regarding the state of the schools in such remote districts
Self-served Lunch :
The best part about the lunch was that all the students were taught to wash the plates cleanly, wait in queue , eat without wasting any food. Some students also helped in serving the food. Most students in general were well behaved and obedient. However it was a tough task to engage the students to sit patiently through the workshop sessions. There were regular 5 minute ice-breaking sessions, outside the rooms, which helped in avoiding monotony and making the workshops less stressful for the students.
One-to-one session :
This was the session that really helped us to get to know the students personally and made us aware of the plight of students. Most of the students have parents doing daily wages and other jobs which do not give them time to spend time with their sons/daughters. Some students live away from their parents while some do not have parents at all. It was so moving to know that many students come to school after cooking and doing other household chores. One of the boys said that he wakes up at 3 AM everyday, cooks , washes the cow and do other errands before coming to school. We got to know from the senior volunteers that the situation of students around Dharmapuri is even worse. The houses of the students are located in remote places. Some of the students have to walk for Many Kms through hilly terrain to reach their schools.
My one-to-one session went pretty well and I found it easy to engage in conversation with my allotted kid as he was very talkative and chirpy. But for many, it was very tough to get answers from the students as it requires a lot of skills to understand their psyche and interact with them. I feel volunteers who have been brought up in a rural background will be better able to connect and converse with the students.
Talent identification:
There was a talent identification questionnaire circulated to the students to know about their interests and talents in various fields like arts, sports, academics etc. We read out and explained the questions to the students and filled up the survey. This was followed by a cultural event. Students were given 45 minutes time to practice for a song/dance/drama/recital performance with volunteers aiding them. It was heartening to see the students open-up and overcome their stage fear to perform on stage with confidence. There were some versatile kids who excelled in dance, singing as well as recital
Feedback and some fun :
The day finally concluded with a feedback session at 10:30 PM. The best thing about the entire day was how punctually all the sessions were organized. The way Vazhai organizers managed time showed their back-end preparation and years of learning gained from experience. The senior volunteers are the backbone of Vazhai. Some of them have been associated with Vazhai for more than 6-8 years. All of them are extremely self-motivated and passionate about their work and exhibit immense social awareness and maturity. They are very observant and they keep noting even the smallest of feedbacks which are exhaustively discussed in review meetings. They know each of the kids personally as they have done the bulk of the ground work, visiting their houses, getting to know their family.
After the feedback session, as we were about to go to bed after an exhausting day, we came to know that it was a tradition in Vazhai to end the night with a game of Mafia 😊 . This immediately blew away all the thoughts of exhaustion and 15 of us stayed up till 12 o clock for 2 exciting rounds of Mafia. The game helped in developing a bond with some of the senior volunteers
2nd day summary and experience:
Sunday’s schedule included a sports session at 6:30 AM followed by a Life skill training session and a science session.
Sports Session and Life skill training:
Students were taken to a ground near the wedding hall, where they played volleyball, football, kho-kho, Kabaddi, Badminton and Silambam. This was followed by a life skill training session by Vignesh, one of the senior members of Vazhai from Caterpillar. The focus was on getting rid of stage fear and making the students speak or sing on stage. There was a slideshow presentation which was not presented in a very engaging manner and hence the kids started getting restless. After this, kids were divided into teams of 6 and were made to read out a scene from Veerapandiya Kattabomman movie on stage to overcome their fear of stage
Science Session and Star awards:
The science session had Rameela, a senior volunteer and Siva , a fresh volunteer explain the concepts of refraction , scattering of light, Full moon and new moon formation in an intuitive way in Tamizh. The science committee also trains the students to take up science projects and makes them participate in state and national level competitions.
Lunch was served at 1 PM after which there was a star award session in which volunteers can award stars for the kids as a token of appreciation of any small impressive work that the kids might have done in the couple of days
Winding up :
The day was wrapped-up at around 3 PM and the bus started from Vizhupuram at 3:30. During the bus travel, new volunteers shared their experience and it was evident that most of us had a lot of takeaways in the couple of days and everybody showed interest in continuing as mentors. For the rest of the travel, we engaged ourselves by playing dumb charade and singing songs.
My state of mind and opinion:
The 2-day workshop was an enriching and liberating experience and I, for sure want to continue contributing as a mentor. But after listening to the mentorship experiences of the senior volunteers, I understood that mentoring requires some serious dedication and I felt I lack the communication skill that is required to engage the kid continuously to develop a personal bonding and I am afraid that I will not be able to do full justice. But the senior volunteers assured me that mentors will be put under a mentor coordinator who will guide and train the mentor to interact with the kids. So, I have decided to take the plunge and try out mentorship for a year as I feel it will be a good learning experience for me as well, and I will get the satisfaction of doing some ground work to make a little contribution to the society from which I have only been taking without giving for a long time.
I think Vazhai is a perfect platform for those who are interested in doing ground work in the education sector rather than just making a financial contribution. Vazhai is being run by dedicated and experienced people, is very focussed in its agenda and is reaching the sections of society where there is dire need for mentorship. So, those who are in line with these ideas can register and enroll for mentorship.
If one interested in being a mentor, Vazhai expects us to stick with them for a minimum of 1 year. During this period, the mentor should positively attend 6 workshops and occasional conference calls from Vazhai and keep in touch with the student through phone/letter. For those who feel they would not be able to spend much time but are still willing to be part Vazhai can choose to be co-ordinators or volunteers.
(This is not really a proper blog post or an essay. This is a very informal write-up. The intention of this write-up is to cover as many points as I can about my experience in the hope that it would serve as answers for the many questions that one may get after reading about Vazhai. (Please go through http://vazhai.org/, https://www.quora.com/What-should-I-do-to-join-an-NGO-in-chennai/answer/Natty-Nataraj ). If you have further queries please feel free to ping me through whatsapp. Also, Please share the info with those who you think might be interested in being part of Vazhai).
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