Sampurna Program

The Loreto Day school runs, or has its fingers in, a large number of programs in the Kolkata area. One program that I've been learning a lot about lately is the Sampurna Program, which just began last summer. The loose translation of "sampurna" from both Bengali and Hindi is "togetherness" or "self-sufficiency". Thus far the program has opened up 6 schools (with three more set to open next month) for over 800 students in rural villages surrounding Kolkata, and they have focused on areas that become easily cut off during monsoon season. Several of the schools were opened in slum areas where large numbers of families are squating on unused government land. The Loreto School funds the building/renovation of schools (usually just one large room for classes 1-4), and also trains (and pays) local community members to be the teachers and school administrators. Obviously this is not an ideal solution, but it is certainly better than nothing for the large number of students who would not be able to attend school otherwise. Additionally, these schools also offer adult education classes in the evenings, and several will be starting up micro-credit programs in the coming months.

I have been doing a little fundraising work on the side to help out with this project, so I was invited yesterday to go visit one of the schools. I took a train to the edge of Kolkata, and then had to walk about 20 minutes along the train tracks to get to the school because there is no road to the area during this season. The school is in the middle of a slum that is located a mere 20 feet or so from the train tracks. Below is a picture of the path that that leads to the school:

Here is a shot of the school itself. Note that it is raised off of the ground - this is due to the fact that flood waters rise very high during the monsoon season.

My Bengali teaching/tutoring bag of tricks is quite limited, so I was happy to have the opportunity to work briefly with the student below on the English alphabet. Aside from "5" coming after "Y", I think we did pretty well...
Finally, this is a picture of the community from across the lake/flood waters. If you did not know better or look too closely, you might think it was some sort of lakefront area.
Now a quick shameless plug: if you or someone you know would be interested in supporting the Sampurna program, please drop me an email (jay.s.thompson@gmail.com) and I'd be happy to pass along the necessary information. For just $36 you could pay a teacher's salary for a month, and in turn help to open up even more schools that would reach even more students...

Terrorist Bombings

The entire country is a little tense right now following two straight days of multiple bombs exploding in major Indian cities. On Friday bombs went off in 8 different locations in Bangalore (southern India), killing one person and injuring several others, and yesterday 16 blasts killed 45 people and injured over 100 more in Ahmedabad (western India). An Indian terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying:

"We the terrorists of India - the Indian Mujahideen - the militia of Islam whose each and every Mujahid belongs to this very soil of India, have returned to execute the compulsion of Allah".

While watching the news last night with the family that I'm staying with they mentioned that many people think that the group is based out of the Kolkata area, and that is why Kolkata itself has yet to be hit. I doubt that their sources are the most reliable, but it was an interesting theory to hear. Either way, hopefully things will return as much to normal as possible over the coming weeks, and the terrorists will be apprehended before they can strike again.

Teaching in the village

Yesterday I went out to the surrounding villages of Kolkata (about 1.5 hours outside of the city by bus) with a group of about 150-200 Loreto Day School students.  Every Loreto student in class five and above is responsible for teaching younger students at the overcrowded, underfunded rural government schools one Thursday a month.  The students are given complete responsibility for the classes (of about 30-50 students), and it was really impressive to watch how well they did.  The bus simply stopped every few minutes and dropped off the students in groups of 6-10, and they then walk the rest of the way (upwards of 40 minutes) to the schools.

Unfortunately my camera battery died midway through the day, but I still got a few decent shots:

This is the school that I visited - it had around 200 students split among four rooms:



Below is a picture of the school's 2nd grade students - I talked to them briefly about America with some translating help from one of the Loreto students.



The last two pictures are shots of Loreto students in action:

Home stretch

Today marks day 50 of my adventures in India - 50 down, 25 to go...

Over my first seven weeks I did a lot of exploring in and around Kolkata, but this week I finally took the travelling plunge and flew across the country to visit Delhi and Agra. I travelled to Delhi by myself, but met up with Molly (who is slowly making her way back to Nepal) and another volunteer in Agra. Overall my trip was very good, with the one exception being that my miraculous 46 day health streak came to a screeching halt, and unfortunately the halt aligned perfectly (or imperfectly) with my trip. Regardless, my stubbornness won out so I still got to see everything that I wanted to and really did have a good time. Below are some pictures from my travels:

I call this my "cocky American" pose...

This was the view from our hotel's terrace - unreal...

Flat Stanley came too...

...and he had some travelling partners as well...

Molly likes to say that she is the tallest woman in Nepal - this picture definitely helps her case...

In Delhi I got to check out the Gandhi Memorial and museum. Below is a picture of the exact spot where he was assassinated, with footprints marking his final steps - coupled with the museum exhibits, it was very moving...