The building where the girls live and study, right, Usgaon. Brick Kiln sites nearby the school, below.
Keith and I have been a week now at the Vidhayak Sansad campus at Usgaon Hill, Maharashtra, India. We are teachings songs, and flute, to the girls at the residential school on the campus. We visited the brick kilns where the girls would be if they were not in school. There at the kilns, children and their parents live in huts on the worksite, making bricks for the needs of the metropolis of the Mumbai area. As I am surveying the conditions of the kiln, I begin to long to rescue these children and place them in the school. Money has been cited as the obstacle to getting more children out of the kilns and into the classroom. It costs $500.00/yr to cover the basic costs of one student. This seems like such a small amount for such an important cause.
Life at the school is a sharp contrast to life at the brick kiln. At the school, the children, girls age 6 to 16 study English, Hindi, Math, Science and other topics. Their electives include art, karate, music and dance. The children at the school are joyful, intelligent and full of life. They learn quickly and easily. The teachers are excellent and the conditions admirable. I am greeted with many "Good Mornings" and "Hellos" by group of kids when I start my day. We have had 4 music classes with the girls this past week. We also sit in on and assist with the English class and meet with the teachers of the school to help them with their English.
This morning we taught "Sunshine on my Shoulders" by John Denver, using a picture book of this popular song, in the English class taught by Rahul, a young energetic teacher from a nearby town. Yesterday we led "This Little Light of Mine," "Siyahamba," and "Come and Go with me to that land" in the music class. We also jammed with Sanjou and Chaten, the harmonium and tabla teachers. I taught basic flute to the music teachers here as well as to the students. The math teacher, Prashant, also decided to take up the flute and join in the class. The meanings of the mostly English songs we are teaching are translated into Marathi, the language spoken in Maharashtra, to give the girls a more precise understanding of what they are singing.
Vidhayak Sansad, an organization which works for social change in Maharashtra, is making a difference through this residential school in Usgaon for tribal girls. They responded to some sad facts about the education of tribal girls in India, and set up their special school in Usgaon to remedy the situation. These facts include that 77% of tribal girls drop out of school before the 10th grade and only 2.4% of them reach the 12th grade. 50.2% of children work 7 days a week in India ( Ministry of Women and Child Development study 2007).
Today and yesterday we met with Pooja and her English teacher, Rahul. We are helping Pooja study for an English grammar test. She is in the process of studying for upcoming exams, which she must pass in order to move on to the next level of study at a different school in the area. The girls' school at Usgaon has been in existence for 7 years or so. Pooja, an orphan, is poised to be its first graduate.
There is so much more I have to share--videos of the darling girls singing, pictures, and audio files of the kids singing prayers and chants in Marathi--but my access to the computer is limited at the moment. I will post more at a later date.
Tommorrow, I am going to see one of the slums in Mumbai as well as 6000 people washing clothes outdoors in the city of Mumbai, as well as visit a music shop. We have made one other excursion to Mumbai and one to Ganeshpuri since we have arrived in Usgaon. Usgaon in located just north of Virar in the Thane district of Maharashtra. We are 20 minutes by bus from Ganeshpuri and about 30 minutes from the Arabian sea. Numerous vehicles pass by on the road outside of the campus continually all day. Buses, rickshaws, bicycles, motorcycles and cars, as well as people on foot continually pass by the campus entrance gate. Recently we ventured out on the public bus to visit the former nearby home of Nityananda, a spiritual figure now deceased. Unable to speak the local language, we showed the bus attendant a photo of the sign in front of Vidhayak Sansad campus so that he would understand where we were trying to return to on the way back to the school. We will be here at Usgaon Hill until March 14th. We arrived in mid-February.
Below are the words to a prayer the girls sing energetically each day. ( My attempts to post sound files and videos of their singing have thus far been unsuccessful.)
Our prayer of the day.
This is the dream of my life.
May it come true
May the children of human beings
Live with human dignity
May no one sell their bodies
To quell the pangs of hunger,
And may my inner urge ever be
To destroy oppression
May the flowers yet to bloom
Not be trampled underfoot
May every breath I take
Help new flowers to bloom
May I never be weak, vulnerable
And powerless
May I find within myself
The strength to contain storms
The night that has just passed
Was the long and darkest
Let the emerging rays
Live forever in the huts of the poor
May those who have no food
And no dignity, be my inspiration
May every step I take today
Be in the service of that God
This is my prayer
May it come true
May the children of human beings
Live with human dignity
------- Vivek Pandit
