Two summers ago, I volunteered to teach at an English-medium school for impoverished kids in a slum outside of Bangalore, India.
Through making art with my students, I was able to teach them lessons focusing on issues of health, hygiene, safety, and their value as human beings .
Here's what I did:
• Raised over $8,000 ($5,000 above goal) for my summer in India
• Taught at a school for 240+ impoverished slum children for 1½ months
• Painted a school mural with the kids
• Collected and painted benches so kids wouldn't have to sit on the floor
• Turned an old woodshed into an extra classroom
• Oversaw school for three days while director of school was on sick leave
• Interviewed perspective teachers for the kindergarten teacher’s position
• Collected stories of tragedy from women and children, and gathered footage for use at the Dalit Freedom Network (dalitnetwork.org)
• Started working on an arts and music curriculum for possible future use in 62 DECs (Dalit Education Centers)
• Raised over $13,000 for the educational music and art curriculum for Dalit children (lessons and their corresponding materials make up a simple curriculum that not only facilitates language learning, but also promotes social justice and human rights on individual and community levels while nurturing each students' artistic, verbal, and writing creativity)
• Mentored at-risk girls
• Discovered a brothel with young girls and reported it to international authorities
Please consider sponsoring one of these students in India, so that they too can get a chance to rise out of poverty. Thanks! :)
