Kitab Korner: Recommended Read (1)

When I was in Bangalore some time in June I looked out of my car window and saw a poor old woman crawl away from her even older husband on the side of an over-crowded main street, where cars were rushing by a mile a minute (pictured below).  This scene reminded me of a New York Times article I had read a couple of months ago – “Fighting to Shut Out the Real India” – (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/world/asia/07iht-letter07.html?_r=1). 

It’s easy to become desensitized to poverty when it is ubiquitous.  And I find myself guilty of looking at acres of slums, beggars with stumps for arms, starving cripples on street corners and not feeling, not caring as much as I should.  The article was a good reminder that forgetting that the "real India" exists is a convenient strategy.  Not an acceptable one.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (10)

June 21, 2011

Initial Workshops 

We had our books, stationary & other supplies with us when we arrived at Ms. Usha Devi’s school (Shri Sharada Vidya Niketan or SSVN).  It was only our second visit to the school, but we were prepared to hand over the materials and run our first workshop (where we train the staff and students on how to catalogue and organize a library). 

SSVN is very limited for space (if you remember from my earlier description – it is like a multi-layered cake where floors have been built on floors as and when maximum capacity was reached).  Consequently, we decided that it would be most practical to set up a small library against the far wall on the ground floor; a wall which was already shared by the ninth grade classroom and Ms. Devi’s office.  On the plus side, the library would be easily accessible for all students and it would be right under Ms. Devi’s nose.     

As soon as we entered, Ms. Devi rounded up her most experienced and responsible teachers and students and had them stand around her desk.  I marveled at how kindly she directed everyone, and how obediently they listened.  A wonderful leader, she earned the respect of those around her, including me.

We first showed everyone the books we had brought – always a highlight for me.  I feel like Oprah during the “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episodes where she gifts the audience her favorite things, from scented moisturizers to cars.  And no matter how small or big the gift is the audience is always beside themselves with excitement.

I accept that it is selfish (in a way) to take enjoyment in your own pleasure as you are trying to do a social act.  But I can’t lie.  Man, it feels awesome.  The teachers and students light up at the sight of the first hand, excellent quality books.  Seeing the excitement of the kids as they itch to get their hands on the glossy Encyclopedias and the teachers as their brains run a mile a minute thinking about the 100 different ways they can use their new resources… seeing that makes me genuinely happy.

We spent about an hour at Usha Devi’s school, ending the workshop with the tasks we wanted them to complete before our next visit. 

***

After SSVN, we made our way to the Dolphin School, to once again hand over the books and stationary and run an initial workshop.  The principal was a lot more soft-spoken at this school.  She also stressed that during our workshop we had to convince the teachers about the value of the library.  It was difficult for her to motivate her employees to extend themselves beyond the job they were paid for.  Ah…this made me nervous.

We ran the workshop in a kindergarten classroom for about 10 to 15 teachers.  Looking around the room, I could see genuine interest in about 2 or 3 of their expressions.

In social work, how well a sustainable project runs is in large part due to the community benefiting from the project.  We, as Kitab Korner, are here to provide the resources, run training workshops, to follow up and monitor the libraries, and to run activity sessions.  But what we do will be inconsequential if the community benefiting from the library does not step up and deliver on their end of the partnership as well. 

We had a good feeling about the Dolphin School during our first visit.  I hope that with the help of 2 or 3 teachers and the principal, our initial hunch will be proven correct.

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Picture One:  First workshop at SSVN.  Principal, teachers, students and Anbu look on eagerly as we teach them how to cover and catalogue the books.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (9)

June 21, 2011

Spit

The agenda for this Tuesday morning was fairly packed.  We had to first visit the Aerolex Government Model Primary School – the one school we had still not seen.  We were then scheduled to run two introductory workshops across the city – one at Ms. Usha Devi’s school and the other at the Dolphin School. 

At 9AM sharp, our car arrived at the entrance to the Aerolex School.  I opened the door and was instantly hit with a nauseating smell.  Months, or maybe even years, of garbage had piled up just outside of the school.  Pigs, crows, cows, flies and dogs were reveling in a mountain of mud, feces, and rotten food.  The image is vile.  But the reality is that these unsanitary waste mountains are a prevalent feature of urban life in India.   A volunteer at the school told me that a few months ago she had rallied her students to protest to the authorities about the garbage.  However, not so much as a piece of paper had been picked up.  I can just imagine a well-fed, self-satisfied gentleman chucking a cigarette onto the trash as he is being lectured on waste management by a group of desperate six-year-olds.  It paints a delightful picture, doesn’t it? 

We were visiting the school per the request of a group of volunteers who are intimately involved with bettering every aspect of the institution.  The volunteers’ efforts include collecting uniforms and shoes for the students, running meetings for mothers to get them involved in the girl child’s education, and soliciting donations to renovate classrooms.  The volunteers even sit in for the teachers when necessary.  And apparently “when necessary” comes along more often than not.

The volunteer group was keen to have a Kitab Korner set-up in the High School and Elementary School.  We were confident that the group would do an excellent job monitoring the libraries, so we committed to working with them on both projects.  After briefly discussing schedules and timelines we said our goodbyes and headed for the exit gate.

A group of boys were playing cricket in the courtyard (just before the gate) underneath an expansive banyan tree.  One of the boys absent-mindedly turned around and spat with an impressive amount of gusto.  Unfortunately, the spit met my jeans before the floor.  Spitting and urinating are commonplace activities in India.  In most countries, you see “no littering” signs everywhere.  In India you see, “no urinating”. 

Granted, the boy did feel bad for spitting on me.  Especially after I sassily lectured him on how hepatitis is spread through saliva.  And he and his cricket team made quite a show of dragging me to the tap and scrubbing my jeans clean with water.

As I made my way through the exit gate, I made a mental note to run a workshop on 'spitting', or more accurately 'not spitting,' once the Kitab Korners started up at this school.

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Picture One: A prominent mid-day meals NGO bringing lunch to the school for the students.  Mid-day meals incentivize parents to send their children to school instead of making them stay home and work and they help provide proper nutrition to students.

Picture Two: A list of individuals who donated money to the school for the renovation of the main hall.  Help is everywhere!

Picture Three: Some of the volunteers sorting through uniforms, shoes and books in the main hall.  

Picture Four: Some of the boys who were playing cricket in the courtyard. 

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (8)

June 18, 2011

A Question Worth Asking

(“Readers” is a fictitious name for the organization in this blog)

After our visit to The Round Table School, I was quite keen to meet with the founder of Readers, the company that had initially organized the library there.

We began the meeting by telling the founder what Kitab Korner is; detailing the history of how it first came about, to where it is now, to where we hope it will be in a few years.  The founder, in turn, told us about Readers.  He had started his organization 10 or so years ago.  He wanted to provide lesser-privileged schools a system for managing their libraries.  The founder said that it had taken several years of trial and error to perfect his system.  And he now had a simple and effective model which schools could use to organize their books, to monitor the students’ reading levels and progress, and to help students make the most of what they learn through books.  He walked us through the system and also showed us some of the activities his organization distributes to schools.

Readers introduces their system into schools either directly or indirectly.  If I remember accurately, Readers sets-up about 20-30 (though it could just as easily be 80…my memory is failing me) libraries themselves each year.  The organization does not provide any books.  And they charge the schools a fee for their services.  Alternatively, Readers sells their services to a third-party organization; they train the organization on library management and provide the organization with teaching materials.  The third-party organization then adopts the system and implements it in the schools they work in.  One very prominent non-profit, for example, bought Readers’ services before starting a project to roll out 5000 libraries in North India.

Readers also works with the Government of Karanataka.  The founder mentioned that the Government of Karnataka had committed 24 crores or 240 million rupees to establishing libraries in its 45,000 schools.  If we exclude administration costs (which is a laughable notion), each library is worth about 5,300 rupees or about 120 dollars.  I shudder to think about how stretched resources are in my country.  And how inadequate each of these libraries must be.  I have to emphasize that I have not been able to confirm these values.  But I also have no reason to believe that they are untrue.   

The basic library that Kitab Korner provides is about 45,000 rupees or about 1000 dollars.  About 90% of the money given by a sponsor who “adopts-a-library” goes directly into the library.  The remaining 10% is mostly spent on transportation costs.  And our workshops are free.    

I had several opinions about Readers once we had finished our meeting.  And the following paragraphs – where I brain dump my thoughts – are not intended to argue how one organization is superior to another.  Rather, the paragraphs reflect how something as simple as setting up a library can be accomplished in many different ways, and it is important to think critically about which formula works best.  To ask – is what we are doing and the way we are doing it the most effective method to instigate the change we hope to see?

I really liked Readers’ model for organizing books.  It is simple and effective.  And it lends itself to easily measuring the progress each child makes in reading – a critical feature for understanding a library’s ultimate ‘social impact’.

On the other hand, I struggled to reconcile the organization’s desire to encourage reading in truly underprivileged communities with the fact that they charge a fee for their services.  Granted, there is a logic behind charging a fee – it teaches the community to value a resource.  However, I believe that there are more suitable ways to encourage an underprivileged community to care for and utilize a library.  Examples include, involving the community in the set-up process so they understand the effort taken in establishing the library, running several workshops on the importance of reading (a lesson that cannot be taken for granted in India), and, if the community is able to, asking them to invest in a very small part of the library.  

I think the most significant difference between Readers and Kitab Korner is that they do not directly provide books, whereas we do.  There is a tradeoff involved with this strategy.  On one hand, Readers is able to reach more schools given a certain amount of funds.  On the other hand, we provide a variety of books and quality books that 1) satisfy the desperate lack of good educational resources at most underprivileged schools, 2) cater to exactly what the school requires and 3) inspire children to read and learn.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (7)

June 17, 2011

Books & Rats

After spending the first part of the week jostling through Bangalore traffic and finalizing our schools, we felt we were ready to source our stationary and books.  We had met with the principals, teachers and students and had a clear sense of the books each school required.  

Since this is our first time working in Bangalore, we do not have a network of contacts we can rely on – printers, painters, publishers and the like.  So, similar to how we initially functioned in Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad, we leveraged our personal relationships and 'Google search' to start to create that network.

Sanjay Bajaj referred us to a large-scale printer, tucked away behind a main road in the heart of Bangalore.  The printer was set-up in what must have once been a beautiful colonial Bangalore bungalow.  But, like most of the ‘once beautiful’ Bangalore bungalows, this building was now rundown and covered by years and years of shrubbery.  After two meetings and viewing several proofs, the printer prepared a summer’s worth of stationary and marketing materials for us.  We took his card, ready to advance order next time.

In Pune and Mumbai, our main source for the books are various publishers and book houses including India Book House, Scholastic, Tulika Publications, National Book Trust, Pratham Books (a local non-profit with highly subsidized books for the underprivileged) etc.  Publishers usually give a 30% discount on the market retail price for all books.  In the future, when we are operating at a larger scale, I hope to source the books directly from an even more fundamental contact we have in Delhi.

India Book House in Bangalore has books from the publishers we use most often – Dreamland, Scholastic, and ACK.  So, we decided to pay them a visit first. 

I cannot describe how frustrating and time consuming sourcing books at a new location is.  I wish I could simply advance order the books online and have them delivered to each school in Bangalore.  The reality is, however, that unless the manager and staff at a new location is familiar with our organization, the order won’t happen on time…if at all.  On that first visit we have to show up with a business card, some marketing materials, invoices from past purchases at a similar organization (even if it is in another city), and a hefty down payment.  (Though, to credit India Book House in Bangalore, they did not ask for any money in advance.)

In a way, though, I am glad that I have spent several hours digging through stacks of books and weaving through a maze of shelves at many a book house.  It has given me very thorough first-hand knowledge of the best reading resources available to children in India.  My talents are sharpened to the extent that I can rattle off and describe, in detail, most of the Dreamland series available to first-time English readers.

Because we wanted our order from India Book House to be completed quickly, we sat in the store and pushed the process along.  A very focused gentleman scanned each book onto a single computer.  A few electricity cuts caused delays, but on the whole, it was a fairly smooth process given that one man battled 2500 books.

When it came time to pack the boxes – four or five gentlemen suddenly got involved.  It was only one man’s job to do the packing.  But the other men in the shop could not resist the allure of folding the cardboard, taping the corners, and tightening the rope.  The whole fiasco was quite telling of India in general.  Whenever anything remotely interesting is happening everyone feels entitled to get involved.  If two men are arguing on a street corner, there will be another 30 men standing around them – listening, staring, commenting.  I remember this one time in Delhi when my mom, sister and I were driving to the golf course and there was a rat in the car.  My mom pulled over to the side of an upmarket residential road.  We took out a golf club and started dancing around the car, periodically jabbing the 7 iron through the open windows and doors.  After about ten minutes or so we still had no rat.  What we did have was a crowd of 4 to 5 “chaukidars” or watchmen, several “aiyas” or maids, a few fruit sellers and a couple of passerbys.  One watchman had his gun pointed at our car, ready to shoot the rat.  Or, at least that's what it looked like.  And two of the maids were loudly discussing the variety and size of rodents they had had the pleasure of coming across in their own homes.

We rounded off our purchase of books at Crosswords – the Barnes & Nobles or Borders of India.  We needed certain books that were not readily available at the publishers. 

Next time we operate in Bangalore, India Book House has reassured me that I just need to call in and place the order and they will have it ready and delivered to the location shortly.  Even if it takes a little longer than “shortly”, I look forward to the comparative ease of our next transaction.       

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Picture Two: Getting the books ready, one step at a time

Picture Three: Apparently it takes four people to pack one box

Picture Four: Part of a 'Good Habits' poster we bought for each school.  Very much Indianized.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (6)

June 16, 2011

Round Table  

 (“Readers” is a fictitious name for the organization mentioned in this blog)

 We met Sanjay in front of a Pizza Corner at 10.45AM.  He then directed us to The Round Table School.  We had travelled about 2 kilometers or for about 15 minutes when he asked us to take a U-turn from under a highway onto a narrow one-way road.  We were making our way down the road at a cool (and almost exhilarating) 30 km/hour when we realized that we had overshot the turning to the school.  Shoot.  We had two options at this point.  First, we could continue down the one-way street, turn back onto the main road, and make the U-turn under the highway again.  This honest decision would compromise another 30 minutes of our time.  Or, we could turn around and make our way down the narrow one-way road, against the oncoming traffic.  India being India, we naturally chose the second option.   As luck would have it, a cop was standing on the side of the road.  But, again, India being India, the cop did not fine us for our actions.  Instead, the mustached fellow, in his brown suit, aviator sunglasses, and white helmet twirled his wooden baton and helped us along, directing us around the potholes and oncoming auto rickshaws, scooters and cars.  I love the randomness and ridiculousness of this country.    

The school was located several small “gullys” or little streets off the narrow road.  There was a huge red clay playground in front of the gates.  "The Round Table School” was proudly painted across the front of the main white building in big blue letters.  

The first thing that struck me about the school was how it had literally been pieced together by donations that The Round Table Society had either given themselves or sourced.  Science labs, books, classrooms, walls, meals, toilets, and staircases…you name it and it was sponsored by something or someone. 

There is a definite gap in the system as far as educating the underprivileged in India is concerned.  And people and NGOs exist to fill in this gaping hole.  One NGO might help provide meals to schools, while another one might help paint walls in schools, while another might tutor children after school, while even another might set up libraries…  I believe that grassroots change in India will ultimately come from the synergy of these various individuals and organizations.

There were plaques and signs all over The Round Table School, displaying and thanking the various sponsors and donors for their gifts.  It was a beautiful display of the combined effort it has taken to create the school.  A visual model for what individuals and NGOs working within the education space should strive to achieve.

Sanjay introduced us to the principal of the school, Mr. Anand.  A tall and enterprising man, Mr. Anand greeted us with a firm handshake and a soft smile. 

Mr. Anand led us to the library the school already had.  The library was neat and organized, yet the few books they had were not of a very good quality.  Mr. Anand and Sanjay explained that a Bangalore based organization called Readers worked with the school to organize the books into levels and to educate the school on which activities they could run.  The organization, however, was not an NGO.  They did not source any books and they charged a fee for their training workshops.

I flipped through our booklet and shared our work with Mr. Anand.  I highlighted that our services compliment the process that is already in place at the library.  I explained that we could help flesh out the library with the critical ingredient of more books and quality books.  Sharing this news, I could see that Mr. Anand’s expression was both stunned and excited.  He shook his head and said, “it is a fantastic job. Providing books.”

We then went upstairs to see the 600 children at the school receive their mid-day meal.  Unfortunately, because we were running 15 minutes late we missed the prayer.  Sanjay was quite upset about this because he said that the prayer was truly moving and he had been excited for us to experience it.

After lunch, we made our way down to the administration office.  Children in the 2^nd grade were lined up outside to get their textbooks for the new school year.  Mr. Anand and Sanjay asked us to hand the books to them.  As each child stepped forward to receive the books, they said a quiet, sweet “thanks” and ran away.  I looked at the content of the government-supplied textbooks I was giving them and thought of the gleeful excitement they would experience when they received our books. 

On our way out of the school we made some more small talk with Mr. Anand.  Mr. Anand told us that he had been the principal of the school for 22 years.  “That’s how old I am,” I exclaimed, to which everyone laughed.  I am still not too sure why. 

Before we parted ways, Sanjay helped us get in touch with Readers.  We fixed a meeting for Saturday (June 18th).  We were keen to learn more about the organization and to also ensure that we were not stepping on their toes.

We also asked Mr. Anand if we could bring the books and stationary to the school the following Wednesday (June 22nd) to run a workshop.  And then inaugurate the library and sponsor a mid-day meal that Friday (June 24th).  Since we had missed the mid-day meal prayer I thought it would be a good idea for my mom, sister and I to personally sponsor the meal on the day of the inauguration in honor of my father's birthday.  Mr. Anand agreed to each of our requests.  If all went as planned, it looked like we had a tight but exciting schedule in place.

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Picture Two: Each room at the school is sponsored by a different individual

Picture Three: Even the cupboards are sponsored by different people/organizations

Picture Four: Giving the 2nd graders their textbooks for the year

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (5)

June 15, 2011 continued

Xpress

In the evening we went to Print Xpress to get 20 signs made; one for each library we are planning to establish this summer.  I approached the owner, Mr. Sanjay Bajaj, to ask for a discount.  He was very interested in and excited about the work Kitab Korner was doing.  He mentioned that an organization he was once a part of, The Round Table Society 44, had founded and now fully supported an underprivileged school in Bangalore.  The school is aptly name The Round Table School and was founded in 1986.

Sanjay proudly told us how the Society had started the mid-day meal program back in 1986.  They had first started the program in order to incentivize construction workers to send their children to school instead of making them work.  Through the program, the school now provides a free lunch to 600 students each day.

I had walked into Print Xpress looking for a good deal on some signs.  I not only got that deal, but also walked out with an appointment to visit The Round Table School the next afternoon. 

India may have a lot of poverty and corruption.  But, on the other side of that, there are millions of people – regular Indians – who are involved in making a difference.  It is so uplifting to meet these kind of people, sometimes several times each day.  And it is curious to discover where these newly formed relationships and synergies might lead.  It was a pleasure meeting Sanjay, and I look forward to tomorrow.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (4)

June 15, 2011

Mother Dolphin & A Blind Principal

We picked up Anbu at the Asha center early in the morning and set off to visit The Mother Dolphin School.  Like the other schools we had already seen in Bangalore, this school was colorfully painted and well maintained. 

It is interesting to observe how the quality of schools differ so greatly between each city, or more accurately, state, in India.  Through Kitab Korner, the schools we have seen in Karantaka and Andhra Pradesh have been better managed and maintained than the schools in Maharashtra.  Our observations, however, do not correlate with literacy rate rankings.  According to the Indian Government, in 2001, Maharashtra had the tenth highest ranking in the country with a 75% literacy literate.  Whereas Karnataka ranked at 21 with a 67% literacy rate, and Andhra Pradesh ranked at 28 with a 60% literacy rate.  My inference is that the variable of urban versus rural population also greatly influences these rankings.  Bihar, for example, has the lowest literacy rate in the country, ranking at 35 with only 60% of men and 33% of women being literate.  Approximately 74 million Biharis live in rural areas whereas only 9 million live in cities.  This is a shocking contrast to Maharashtra, where 56 million Maharashtrians live in villages and 41 million live in cities.  Kitab Korner should definitely expand its rural reach in coming years.    

Anbu led us directly to the administration office where we sat and waited for the principal, Radha, to arrive.  While we were waiting, we began chatting with a bright-eyed gentleman who was working away at his desk.  In a mix of Hindi and Kanada, he introduced himself as Radha’s brother-in-law.  He explained that he and Radha’s late husband, or his brother, had both served in the army.  And when Radha’s husband had died, he had come to assist at the school. 

After a few minutes of conversation, Radha arrived.  She was dressed in a crisp, light pink sari, and had a very pleasant expression on her face.  We went through the motions – introducing ourselves, flipping through a booklet on Kitab Korner, and asking questions about her school.  As always, I felt very aware of my American accent as I spoke, and consciously tried to make myself sound more “Indian.”  Radha told us that her school greatly needed the services we had to offer.  She emphasized how critical it is for her students to have both good quality books, and a system in place where the books will be utilized. 

As we were going through the schedule of setting up the library, Radha made a small request.  She asked us to run an initial workshop, just for her teachers.  She wanted us to introduce them to the concept of reading.  Her teachers are under a lot of pressure to cover an immense amount of material before exams and they think investing their effort in other areas is a waste of time.  We committed to running the workshop early the following week.

***

After The Dolphin School, Anbu took us to WARDS.  The school is special on two accounts.  First, the school is for mentally challenged children.  Second, it is managed by a completely blind principal.  We were hesitant to visit because we are only looking to work with non-special needs schools that have at least 200 students.  Anbu, however, insisted that we at least drop in and have a quick look around.

We first visited a classroom for older students.  There were seven men, seated around a table at the center of the room.  Six of the men suffered from either cerebral palsy or autism, and the seventh was a teacher who was reading a book to them.  In the left hand corner of the room, in between large stacks of folded paper, was another mentally challenged man.  Mentally challenged individuals are sometimes trained to do basic jobs, like paper folding, so that they can generate a small amount of income.  The man who was folding paper kept on saying “Namaste” or “hello” and introducing himself to us.  I replied each time, until Anbu told me to stop.  “He has a problem where he won’t stop talking,” Anbu explained. 

As we stepped out of the room, we saw the principal waiting for us.   Both his eyes were visibly damaged.  “Anbu, are these the library people?” he asked.  Anbu explained that we were the library people, but had only come to look around.  “Why?” asked the principle.  “Won’t you give us some books?  Our children are underprivileged and mentally challenged.”

I was impressed by the matter-of-fact, unashamed way in which the principal asked for help.  “Let us have a look around first,” I replied.   

We then visited the classrooms for the younger children.  One teacher was running a dance class for 4 young boys and 1 girl.  The girl had just joined the school a few hours ago.  She was 13-years-old and had never attended school until today.  Though she smiled continuously, it was apparent that she was not used to structure and order.  1 of the boys had down syndrome and could not speak and 2 were autistic.  The teacher labeled the other boy and girl as MR or “mentally retarded” children.  I know that this phrase is considered politically incorrect in the rest of the world, or at least in the United States, so it was interesting to hear it used quite frequently and innocently at the special needs schools and centers we had visited in Bangalore. 

As hard as I tried, the children refused to communicate with me.  However, once the teacher played a cassette, and I began dancing, they started copying my dance moves.  The teacher explained that the children danced to the same cassette every day because that was the only one they had.  She then showed us the school’s arts and reading resources; those were also very, very limited.

It was apparent that even a small donation would go a long way at this school and that the teachers would make the most of any resource.  As we were leaving, I felt strongly about returning to WARDS the following week.  It would definitely be a worthwhile use of our funds to support this school.  

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (3)

June 14, 2011 continued

Holy Cross School

(I have used an alternative name for the school in this blog)

After Ms. Usha Devi’s school, Anbu took us to our final school for the day.  The school had two bright blue and yellow 3-story buildings on either side of a central courtyard.  It is definitely on the plusher end of low-income schools I have visited.  Like Ms. Devi's school, this school was immaculate, it was run by a husband and wife team, and the colors matched ours – fate again?  We waited in the courtyard for about 10 minutes, outside a door with a “Management” sign on it.  Allegedly, everyone was away at lunch.  Finally, a woman, the wife of the husband-wife management duo, opened the door and asked us to come in.  She informed us that her husband had not come in today, so we would just be meeting with her.   

The management office was fairly large; a little bigger than the classrooms I had peaked into earlier.  This is more like what I am used to seeing, I thought.  On the wall, above the lady’s desk was a picture of Christ and various other Biblical images.  Automatically, I deduced that this was a Mission School.  Reading the sign on the ladies desk – “The Holy Cross School” – my assumption was confirmed.  Kitab Korner has worked with one other Mission School in the past – St. Chrispin’s Home in Pune, Maharashtra.  St. Chrispin’s is home to about 350 orphans and a school for another 350 slum children.  Both Holy Cross and St. Chrispin’s have excellent buildings and get support from the Christian community.  However, because both schools do cater to low-income students, they require further support from private organizations and NGOs.

‘The wife’ (her name escapes me at this moment) told us that she and her husband had been managing the school from the day it was founded, 40 years ago.  50% of the students come from really poor backgrounds and attend the school for free or at a subsidized fee as little as $3 a month, because that is all they can afford.  The other 50% come from middle class backgrounds and pay the entire fee.  Holy Cross is revolutionary for evenly mixing children from such vastly different backgrounds.  I can only imagine how beneficial this fusion is.  Privileged kids and underprivileged kids befriending one another, learning from one another, and being motivated by each other to drive greater equality in India.  This is definitely a model I feel other schools should endorse. 

‘The wife,’ invited another teacher (I think it was her sister-in-law) to sit in on the meeting.  As I spoke, I could see them looking at me, but could tell that they were not extremely engaged by what I had to say.  As I was describing the workshops Kitab Korner runs before we inaugurate a library, the teacher stopped me and asked, “excuse me, but what exactly is it that you want from us?”

“Only your commitment to the sustainability of the project,” I replied.  “I need to be 100% certain that you will carry forth the management of the library responsibly, and run activity sessions for your students on a consistent basis.  This is especially critical for your school, as our only third party connection to Holy Cross is Anbu.”  Typically Kitab Korner only operates in communities where another organization – like the Akanksha Foundation or Zensar Technologies – is already present.  This third party organization helps us monitor how the community manages the Kitab Korner library.  Often, the third party organization also assists with activity sessions for the students.  Our core team then visits once every few months.  And, for some schools, our volunteers visit monthly.

‘The wife’ and teacher were both stunned.  The teacher clarified twice if the services were for free.  And if the quality of the books were actually like those in the pictures I was showing.  There was a 180-degree change in their level of interest.  This bothered me.

The teacher mentioned a small library they already had and suggested that we have a look at it.  The library was in a fairly large room on the third floor.  The room was dusty, with the tables pushed against a wall and 200 or so books spread out across the tables or piled up in a dirty glass shelf.  The teacher gave us several reasons for why the library was in such poor condition.  But, I had a strong feeling it came down to a lack of an organization system for the library and interest from the school. 

I hate telling a principle that we will not establish a Kitab Korner in their school after we meet with them.  But, after today’s visit, I have a feeling that that may be the news we deliver to Holy Cross.  There is no question that the school is well run.  However, based on what we saw today, I do not think a library center is something they will value enough to sustain responsibly.

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (2)

June 14, 2011 continued

Ms. Devi

The first school Anbu took us to was the Shri Sharada Vidya Niketan School.  The school was painted a bright blue and yellow on the outside.  We took this as a good sign – blue and yellow are Kitab Korner’s official colors.  The school was set-up in a 4-story house.  It was quite evident from the outside that the top 2 stories had been constructed more recently.  The building was very airy, with large windows, open doorways, and balconies on every floor; an intelligent design given Bangalore’s incredible weather.  As we stepped into the school, the first word that crossed my mind was “immaculate”.  The 9^th grade classroom that occupied the first floor was spotless and organized.  The students in the classroom were dressed in royal blue and white striped shirts, with bright blue ties, and royal blue pants or skirts.  The girls wore two braids, pulled up in loops, and tied with black bows. 

Ms. Devi, the principal of the school, greeted us as we entered the building.  Her office was in one corner of the first floor, partially separated from the 9^th grade classroom by a screen.  Ms. Devi shared her office with one other man, who quietly worked away at a desk adjacent to hers.  I was fairly impressed that the school’s administration occupied such a small space.  Usually they demanded a room equivalent to the size of a classroom.

We began our meeting, like we begin most of our initial meetings with a school.  I explained Kitab Korner’s mission and work, and briefly took Ms. Devi through a presentation on my laptop that highlighted how we go about setting up a Kitab Korner library center.  Anbu nodded along enthusiastically, but it was Ms. Devi’s body language that I was more interested in.  Having worked on Kitab Korner for 3 years now, I knew that ‘a principle who gives a damn,’ is the most significant sign that a school will make the most of Kitab Korner’s resources.  Ms. Devi not only leaned forward and asked poignant questions as I presented, but she voiced philosophies that we knew any school looking to make a genuine difference must adopt.  She emphatically reiterated that a child must be confident and comfortable with spoken English to get a job that will pull them out of extreme poverty.  She acknowledged that, “educating a boy means educating one life, but educating a girl child means educating the next generation and the generation after that.” 

Ms. Devi then called two of the students from the 9^th grade class, Shirlika and Aishwarya, to her “office.”  She introduced them as her star students who “maintained excellent notebooks with perfect handwriting.”  Shirlika is the daughter of a maid and mason worker.  My guess is that her parents’ combined income is no greater than $40 per month.  Both girls live in a slum.   

***

Ms. Devi’s school has 565 students.  Sitting on the first floor, I could not imagine how all the students fit into this small building.  But as we climbed higher and higher, there were more classrooms to be seen and more students to be introduced to.  The building reminded me of that bottomless bag Hermione carries around in the 7^th Harry Potter book.

The first graders had just finished lunch when we entered.  They saluted us with a sing-song “good morning, Madam,” to which we replied “good afternoon, children.”  They had just finished eating their lunch.  “What did you eat?” I asked.  “Maggie,” shrieked one boy from the back with so much enthusiasm that the students sitting around him burst into giggles. 

As we toured the school, Ms. Devi introduced us to a number of students, highlighting the challenges they overcome each day to be present at the school, focused and dedicated to learning for a better life. 

In the 2^nd grade we met Bathsheba.  Bathsheba suffers from severe diabetes.  She has the diet of a 65-year-old and faints frequently.  Before Ms. Devi picked up on the signs and took her to a doctor, she was not being treated.  The doctor has agreed to give her treatment, but only temporarily. When we heard Batsheba’s story, we knew that we had to find a way to help this girl out.  Maybe Kitab Korner could start supporting children who need extra medical attention to be able to attend school, I thought?  We should not only ask sponsors to “adopt-a-library,” but to “adopt-a-child” for a healthy education.

In the 4^th grade we were introduced to Kirti.  Even though Kirti was too shy to say hello, she won us over with her silent gaze and chubby cheeks.  Last year, Kirti was asked to leave a prestigious local school because she has an infection.  She may have a medical problem, but she also has a note from the doctor saying that she is fit to attend school.  Kirti was made to stay home for a year.  She cried the entire time because all she wanted to do was learn.  A few months ago she arrived at Ms. Devi’s doorstep.  The rest is history.  As Ms. Devi told us, “If a child wants to learn, how can I say no?  I asked her parents to put her in my school immediately.  The rest we can manage later.”  Screw the maybe, I thought.  Kitab Korner should start asking sponsors to not only “adopt-a-library,” but to “adopt-a-child” for a healthy education as well.

As we were walking to the 10^th grade classroom, Ms. Devi explained that each year she selects a handful of 10^th grade students to send to Evening College at a private university.  Evening College is cheaper than Day College and she somehow manages to scrape together the funds to support her students.  There are approximately 1.2 billion Indians in the world.  According to the World Bank, about 500 million of these Indians are living under the international poverty line of US $1.21 at purchasing power parity.  According to UNICEF, in 2005, 59% of Indian men and 49% of Indian women received a secondary education (secondary education, not higher education).  The fact that Ms. Devi is not only driven to, but also managing to send some of her students, girls and boys alike, to college is…I am speechless.

In the 10^th grade, we met Arun.  Next year, Arun will attend Evening College.  His parents cannot afford to support his 3 younger siblings for much longer.  Arun is committed to making something of himself for his family.  I hope that in the coming year we are able to rent an office in Bangalore and hire Arun, or students like him.  It would be an honor to work with them by day, and to help support them through Evening College.

When we returned to Ms. Devi’s desk, we discussed the schedule for setting up the Kitab Korner library center.  Ms. Devi also requested us to look into mid-day meals for her school because she does not like to see her students with stale food or empty lunch boxes. 

Finally, Ms. Devi thanked us for supporting her school.  She used to work in the IT industry, but left it all to realize her dream of building a school for the underprivileged. “It is all thanks to my husband,” she said, gesturing to the man working away silently at the desk adjacent to hers.  “He is my silent angel who has made my dreams come true.”  In any other situation, I would have burst out laughing at the ‘drama’ of the words.  But they were said so honestly, that I could only feel touched.  

It was truly a privilege to meet both Ms. Devi and her husband.  I am grateful that we will be able to support them through Kitab Korner.

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See the full gallery on Posterous

Picture Two: (Left to right) Arun, Ms. Usha Devi, me, and Anbu standing in the 10th grade classroom on the 4th floor

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Kitab Korner: On the Road (1)

June 14, 2011

It's monsoon season in Bangalore.  The cool weather, smell of rain lingering in the air, and the fresh tropical fruit - lychees, mangos and bananas – make the Kitab Korner work we have set out to do in this city just that much more enjoyable.  In the next two months, KKEF is looking to set-up 8 libraries in Bangalore and another 12 in and around Mumbai.  Today marked the second official day of what I have dubbed the “Summer 2011 twenty library project”.

Managing Kitab Korner on any day is an overwhelming task.  There are so (dare I say “too”) many facets to think about when a non-profit organization is in its initial stages and I constantly feel like what I am able to do is playing catch up to what I want to do.  At the start of a day like today, even “overwhelming” does not capture how I felt.  We were scheduled to (navigate Bangalore traffic and) identify at least 3 low-income schools where we could set-up library centers.  Yet, we only had one concrete contact to work off.  Then again, I thought to myself as I sat in the car at 9 AM on the way to our only appointment, this is Kitab Korner.   And as cheesy as it sounds, and I know this sounds cheesy, some pretty magical things happen on the road with Kitab Korner.

The lady we were scheduled to meet – Usha – works at the Asha Foundation.  The Asha Foundation is a medical center that treats children (often from very underprivileged backgrounds) with neurological and physical challenges.  Asha has both a rehabilitation center that started in 2001 and a school for autism that started in 2007.  The few sentences about Asha I just typed is information I pulled from Usha’s initial email to me several weeks ago.  When I first read Usha’s email, the beauty of and the tragedy in the work the organization does never struck me.  However, today, it took less than two seconds from when I took my shoes off and stepped into the rehabilitation center, for me to be affected. 

The piercing cries of a toddler who was strapped against a board filled the room.  The cries were not normal cries.  They were interrupted by painful gasps and inconsistent squeals.  Next to the child, spread across a stack of 4 mats, was a 17-year-old boy with cerebral palsy.  The boy had no control over his arms, legs, and head; his feet were deformed, protruding like stumps from his twisted legs; and his mouth kept on closing and opening uncontrollably.  As we entered, the boy looked up from the book a speech therapist was holding in front of him, and welcomed us to the center.  In that moment, the only feature in the room that captured me was that boy’s smile.

We spent about 15 minutes with Usha in her office and then proceeded to tour both the rehabilitation center and the school.  The rehabilitation center was quite an overpowering experience.  But after visiting the school, it felt like an appetizer to the main course.  Shanta, one of the principle teachers at the school, explained to me that there are various types of autism, with some students being slow learners and others being incredibly intelligent (I think the term she used was “high-functioning”), with little to no social skills.  The analogy that I conjured in the moment, and I am guessing many of you did too, was Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (or Shahrukh Khan in My Name is Khan for the Bollywood fans).  I asked Shanta if this was a fair comparison.  She replied with a simple, “haha, movies glorify everything.”     

12 autism students (aged 8 to 12) were at the school when we visited.  It was lunchtime and they were huddled in a room eating rice (or for one girl, dry bread and popcorn) out of a bowl.  The student to teacher ratio was about 2:1; an impressive feat for a donor-supported center in India.  The students were looking in different directions, some were screaming from time-to-time, whilst others were banging their bowls against the floor.  One boy abruptly stood up and walked to the corner of the room, where he stood facing the wall, until a teacher pulled him back to his mat.  We spoke with the teachers, had a look at the resources the center already had, and gauged what Kitab Korner should contribute. 

As I stood in the school, I recollected loosely knowing an autistic person (a student at my High School who would go to the library for private lessons and did not have many friends).  However, I had never taken the time to understand what the condition was until today.  In the Asha Autism School, like many times when I am doing Kitab Korner work, or even when I am in India, I felt painfully saddened by the cards some people have been dealt, inspired by the individuals who dedicatedly work to help them, and acutely reminded of what is important in life.

Before parting ways, Usha introduced us to one of her colleagues, Anbu.  Usha defined Anbu as a “gem of a person; an absolute angel,” and said that he could take us to a few more schools in the area that would greatly benefit from having libraries.  Both Usha and Anbu were keen on referring us to schools with special needs students.  We, however, asked, or more accurately, convinced, Usha and Anbu to refer us to non-special needs low-income schools instead.  Most of our sponsors who had adopted libraries, had donated money with the understanding that we would target 200-300 students; a number we could not hope to hit if we worked in special needs schools.  Furthermore, given our lack of experience with special needs students, we felt it would be more apt to set-up two libraries with the Asha Foundation first, and to then proceed from there.

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Hi, I am Shruti - a volunteer for the Kitab Korner Educational Foundation. Every two weeks I visit a center to see how the library is doing and to discuss the various workshops that are conducted (to both offer ideas and collect them).

On September 8th I visited the Kitab Korner library center in Kharadi, Pune which KKEF established in collaboration with Zensar. My observations on workshops were as follows:

Number of workshops conducted per week: Three workshops are conducted every week. Each grade gets a chance to participate in the workshop once every two weeks.

Examples of workshops:

• Crosswords: The students were told the history of dinosaurs and on the basis of that they were given a crossword which they enjoyed.
• Poetry recitation: The volunteers hold poetry recitation sessions once every two weeks.
• Story telling
• Book discussion

The library has progressed well since my last visit and I look forward to making more visits in the future.

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