Your Stories

Neil, 21, an anthropology graduate and former pupil of Bournside School, experienced an education of a very different kind when he spent four months teaching English in the earthquake-struck city of Bhuj, in Gujarat, and to 70 freed child labourers in an orphanage in Rajasthan.

Neil, who is now working for Global Dimensions Trust in Cheltenham, tells his story: 

My adventure began at the end of September 2006, soon after I completed a university degree in anthropology.

The Asian Foundation for Philanthropy ( AFFP) which is funded by VSO, organised for me and a few other British born Indians to conduct voluntary development work in India.

Students at Hope School

I chose to work with children in rural Gujarat, and I was offered the chance to teach English in Bhuj, Gujarat, which was the epicentre of the Indian earthquake in January 2001.

There was another reason why Gujarat held a particular appeal for me. My parents came to England from Uganda but my family's roots are in Gujarat.

Along with four other volunteers, I flew into Bangalore, South India, for in-country training, where we stayed in the Indian Social Institute, which has a massive library and some amazing research being conducted, from adavasi/tribal displacement to scheduled caste laws.

Intense

The few days there were intense. I met many researchers and academics who put me in the picture about India’s present social situation and gave me many contacts all over India to meet up with and possibly assist in carrying out research in all different areas for the institute.

Part of the training in Bangalore was to introduce me to the organisation I would be working for, the Hope Foundation. This organisation had set up a school in an infamous area of Bangalore called Tannery Road, best known for its massive Hindu-Muslim riots and protests.

The organisation rented a school in the middle of the two villages, offering education for children from both religious backgrounds. The divide in the community is intense, and for the last five years there has been a wall physically dividing the Hindu and the Muslim area.

The school does an incredible job of uniting the children from the communities, inspiring them to work together from an early age, and showing promise of a united community in the future.

AFFP also introduced me to a couple of grassroots organisations based in Karnataka, and in particular an income-generating programme for village widows, involving in silk making, shawl printing and paper printing.

Sacrifice

Typically in rural India it is common for widows to sacrifice their life when their husband dies, and as this traditional aspect of society is the main theme in the latest Bollywood blockbuster 'Babul, the importance of this organisation cannot be under-estimated.

From Bangalore, I set off for my first placement teaching English at a school in Bhuj. 

Textbooks and class work were written in English but the teachers had a lack in confidence in speaking English, and this was my first challenge. The children also rarely spoke English outside the classroom.

I lived with the headmaster and school co-ordinator, an English speaking Christian couple from South India, and their two boys, Rohan 8, and Dinesh, 7.

I encouraged lessons to be more fun, and when it came to Diwali, I had classes all to myself which allowed the children to be creative and make colourful Diwali cards!

Indians also love to celebrate Children’s Day, which has been changed to fall on India’s first Prime Minister Nehru’s birthday, 14th November. For this I was asked to created and direct a drama production and we had lots of fun  asking the already energetic children to dance around on stage in fancy dress.

Family history

Weekends were spent travelling a bit, and as I have an interest in family history which tied in nicely with my trip I visited places related to my genealogy, including the city of Jamnager - where I was involved in a street wedding and met some Tibetan refugees!

However, my hopes spending more time in these areas broke down when the school lost a teacher due to illness just before the exam period, so I stayed on for a few extra weeks until the Christmas holiday to teach and give the exams.

During one weekend journey, a long and dusty 29-hour sleeper-train trip across Gujarat and Rajasthan to Delhi, I met many locals travelling from city to city and with the little Hindi I had been learning, I managed to discuss with them the problems of India’s development.

Neil's students in Viratnager

People aren't afraid to blame government corruption for issues such as why almost nine million people in Mumbai, a third of the city's population, live in extreme poverty, many without access to toilet facilities.

The school gave me hope, hope of children’s education, but the standard of living for the average Indian is so low that it's amazing that the Bollywood billions come into the same country.

Child labourers

Another thing I noted was the immense number of child labourers working on the streets, the trains, and in the train stations, all working extremely hard for very little money. There are chai (tea) sellers everywhere, in almost every carriage of the trains, and many of them under 16.

Another organisation I came across was Bacho Bachpan Andolan (BBA) or Saving Children’s Childhood.

They had a rehabilitation unit in rural Rajasthan, a small village 150km outside the city of Alwar, called Viratnager. After meeting a previous volunteer who told me about the place, I ended up volunteering there after Bhuj.

This ashram was an amazing place, full of inspiration for social change. There were 70 boys, who had been rescued from child labour - bonded or otherwise. The 10-to-15-year-olds had spent much of their lives working either in factories or on street stalls.

It was incredible. I met the activists and went to a couple of local villages when I wasn’t working to meet locals and see how these communities are changing into 'child friendly villages'.

Pressure

Pressure on local governments by external forces including the media, and on a grassroots level, as well as from protests and petitions by villagers, increases the amount of funding available to children in local areas to go to school instead of working from an early age.

The ashram itself rescues children and educates them offering them a choice in vocational courses, such as cooking, mechanics, painting, tailor, agricultural work, or the children go to local schools.

While some children stayed at the ashram ifor school, they would usually study outside on the floor, but, after digging out some previous work painted by the children, I spent an evening with a couple of the boys redecorating a spare room attached to the library. This became the classroom, which the children were very pleased about.

The boys were great, and willing to learn, as well as teach. We had a mode of exchange where I helped them with their English and they helped me with my Hindi!

The ashram was an amazing place, and I am looking forward to going back later this year.

Neil recorded an audio diary of his adventures in India which forms part of a  half-hour BBC Asian Network documentary, Home Is Where The Heart Is. Click on the link below or top right of this page to hear it.

You can also hear Neil's interview with Manny Masih and Paul Moss on BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Face To Face programm.e