Volunteer Diary Archives - Citizen Matters, Blogs

In English Please…

May 2, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

All children I have voluntarily tutored (often, first generation literates from low income families) over the last several years yearn to become fluent in English irrespective of the languages they speak or study in. And

Gender And Games

April 22, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

The Pottery Town government school (on Pottery Road where I had volunteered for nearly four months) closed for summer holidays in end March but I often find some children playing in the ground or loitering

School sports day

March 9, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

7th February Only Venkatesh and Surya stayed behind to discuss the contents of 2 editions of Young World. We talked about eclipses and as expected Venkatesh asked about the common Indian myth that a snake

Ships Vs helicopters and airplanes

February 9, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

It’s been a month of my Saturday visits to the school but children across classes are unhappy that I don’t go there every day. Most of them remember to confirm if I had lunch and

Republic Day celebration

January 25, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

As promised, I joined the Republic Day celebrations around 9.30 AM as one of the class X girls was reading out a Kannada speech on the significance of the day. A short talk in English

Mealtime – who eats and who doesn’t

January 23, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

When I went to school this morning some children were emptying their plates right outside the newly built rear gate while others were still eating inside. As usual, some threw their food away, bored of

Puli miss

January 16, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

I met the children halfway through their meal and had to answer two questions repeatedly – “Where were you during the week?” and "Did you eat today?” I don’t remember even my mother being so

Did you eat, Miss?

January 9, 2009 Pushpa Achanta

It’s 2009 and I went to school (Government Kannada Model Primary School, Pottery Town) today during lunchtime. I volunteer part-time at this school in my neighbourhood. Divya and others enquired if I’d eaten and wanted