Preparing for our IT education programme: Kirti's first field trip

We recently did a post about the IT education and spoken English classes we are planning to introduce for tribal and other village kids living in/near/off tiger reserves.

The computer literacy programme is the brainchild of SF volunteer Kirti Chavan, who is an IT professional himself and formerly worked at NIIT. Our appeal for used computers was circulated by members of our Facebook group "Tigers of the Satpudas" (scroll down for the link), and we have been donated a laptop by Gautam Berry and two desktops by Bhaskar Shetty.

We will possibly tie up with a well-known education non-profit to launch this programme, but more on that later. Kirti has just returned from his first trip to Pench, where he visited two villages to profile the students-to-be.

Here's his account of the trip:

I am not very good at organizing things for myself specially when it comes to travel, but when I planned my trip to Pench Tiger Reserve, I somehow got everything organized in time. I got my days planned out and I even got confirmed train tickets. But there was a high level of uncertainty in my mind. I did not know how I was going to meet the local tribals and how I would get the information I needed for profiling prospective learners, and how to explain that IT training and the English language would benefit them. I had started to think this visit would not really give me any clear picture about how we would implement IT training in these remote forest locations.

But in the end all went really well, thanks to SF Vice-President Giri Venkatesan, Anoop Awasthi and other local field officers. We first went to Ghoti village in Pench - Maharashtra. About twenty school children greeted us in English...quite a delight to hear the children say "Good morning sir," and "thank you" when asked to sit down. There were ten adults from the village who had come to find out what we had to offer and discuss their plans and ideas for employment. All this reflected on one thing for sure, some people do want to move ahead in life and want better for their children, but they still have limited access to resources and information.

We met Vinod Ramdas Chaple, a young lad from Ghoti village who scored 71% in his 12th standard exam two years back but did not go to college, as he was told that college education would mean lots of money. So he didn't bother even inquiring in nearby colleges for any grants or schemes that could work in his favour. So now he has been at home doing nothing for the past two years. We encouraged him to go back to college and check for some schemes that he can utilize. I just hope this boy still has faith in himself and that two years of doing nothing hasn't eaten up his ambitions.

But I still think there are many more Vinods out there who could get proper guidance and support from us and can do good in life.

After meeting the ambitious, curious, enthusiastic villagers of Ghoti we went on to meet the even brighter, more ambitious and upping-their-village-standard people of Sawra. At Sawra the children were very enthusiastic and ready for an on-the-spot English and reading test. I must say most of them performed better than I had thought they would. I should add that there were three other children who travelled 20 kms just to come to the study centre and get a little extra group study time - something that is unthinkable when it comes to city children, who would probably go to the neighbouring building to their friend's house with a collection of their favourite DVDs in the name of group study.

Another very impressive piece of progress that's worth mentioning is about the lantana furniture making (see our earlier post here, Lantana: the new bamboo). The very idea that you can make money out of a destructive weed that would otherwise destroy the forest is superbly well-executed, and like Giri says it has a knock on effect. I saw a few young lads from a neighbouring village who came to check the lantana work because they had heard a lot about its progress and demand from the cities.

And what better way to end this great trip than to see an authentic tribal dance performed by men from Sawra. Satpuda Foundation is encouraging the villagers to perform for tourists, as this is not only getting the villagers some extra income but also spreading awareness about this almost unknown tribal culture.

There's a child prodigy that I would like to mention here, a little girl and her sister, I forget their names but not their singing. They were truly gifted. The elder girl had been sent to Delhi - first time ever some one from that village ever went to Delhi - and she won competitions and accolades. And the younger one was even more gifted! I wonder why she is not on one of the many children's talent shows on TV.

Kirti Chavan