Alisha's Story

My name is Alisha. I'm 14 years old and like many girls my age, my hobbies include playing guitar, badminton and reading girl's magazines. I also like watching movies - comedies and romantic comedies! My favourite show is probably Ugly Betty.

Charity has always been an element of my life. My family donate unwanted toys, clothes and various other items to people who need them. I think this has made me realise how fortunate I am compared to many others, so when my school partnered with a school in India, I was keen to get involved.

School partnership

In year 8 my science teacher(the organiser of a partnership), asked us to do a science project that the students at the Indian school also had to do. We then compared how each school did the experiment and how we presented our findings. My friend Amelle and I were then lucky enough to be chosen to do an online interview with two of the Indian students who'd taken part in the Science experiment.

As part of the program, teachers from both schools take it in turns to visit the other. There they'll teach a lesson the way they would teach it at their school. In our school there have been many lessons taken by the Indian teachers, like Dance, Science, English and Maths. Through this I've started to see that although we have many differences, we also have many similarities.

A life changing trip to India

I've enjoyed every aspect of the partnership, but THE most amazing thing happened this summer: I visited the school in India and spent a morning becoming friends with the students I'd been talking to online and their classmates! The girls I spoke to were very welcoming and genuine, and I thought that some of the problems (like bitching, bullying etc) that occur in our school probably wouldn't happen there

The main difference I found was the way of teaching. The teachers there have to go through the topics slower in order to be confident that the students thoroughly understand. This explains why they have classes on Saturdays. Also, the classes have way fewer students compared to our 30, all of whom are seated in a semi-circle.

Some names have been changed.

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Experiencing life at the school

I think that because I'm of Indian origins, I may have had a better understanding of life at the school. The fact that they wore churidars (tightly fitting trousers worn in South Asia and Central Asia) as a school uniform was no surprise, but perhaps to someone of a different background this would be shocking. I also found that the cultural beliefs were the same as any other Indian society and I found that I could relate to that to quite a large extent.

I also got to see life at the school first hand - something I'm incredibly grateful for, especially as no other pupil in my school has had such a chance. The main thing I gained from it was a friendship: the pupils and I swapped contact information and I hope that we keep in touch. We also, exchanged bracelets as a little souvenir of our morning together.

Visiting orphanages

While I was in India, I also visited two orphanages outside of the school's partnership - one for able children and the other for those suffering with AIDS. Both were real eye openers, but the AIDS orphanage was particularly so.

There we saw the children, aging from 4 to 16, doing their daily exercises; some of them were behaving just as any mischievous, young boy would - they thought it would be funny to compose their own workout instead of following the one given!

Afterwards, we gave chocolates to each of the children in the hall and talked to them - many were too ill to play games. One of the older girls took us to see the babies - it was snack time then. We also saw some of the sicker girls. One girl, 16, had a neck brace and was very frail. We were told she didn't have long to live.

These children we met were not sad or mournful about their conditions; they made the most of life and seemed to enjoy every bit of it. They had ambitions just like us - the girl giving us the tour was studying to become a nurse. A few children who had recovered from AIDS went to school with able children and studied the same syllabus.

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Saved

Even though the children at this orphange didn't have their parents, they still had a family - some had their biological siblings, whilst others found family amongst their friends and the nuns who run the place.

This child was born with deformed hands and legs - her parents were going to kill her by leaving her on a railway track. Fortunately some nuns were travelling that day and heard about this. They rescued the child and took her in. She doesn't have aids but she still has a home there.

The true value of happiness

After my experiences in India, I now realise it doesn't take the latest mobile phones or fashion trends to make someone happy. There are many children in the world who have far less and are yet are happy in life. I've also learnt that disabilities don't come in the way of friendship.

Also, I realise that the world isn't as big as I thought it was (metaphorically, of course) - we're all connected with each other and I'm now aware that my actions can create problems in other areas of the world. Britain's pollution affects the fjords in Norway.

I don't want to be responsible for creating conflicts in other places so I am being more careful in what I do, e.g. recycle whenever I can. I try and do at least one good turn a day and I know if we all work together, as cliché as it sounds, we can make the world a better place.

More info on some of the topics discussed:

More info on Alisha's family's involvement
Department for Internation Development
BBC Health page on AIDS and HIV

Interested in doing what Alisha did? Here are her tips:

1. If your school hasn't got a link with a foreign school, suggest one. (You can ask your teacher to look at this website - there are currently 1, 900 partnerships involved in the scheme)

2. Make friends with someone from another country through a program like a school partnership and keep in touch (email/web cam) - maybe visit them. It is great having friends in different parts of the world

3. Visit a local school whilst on holiday.