Teach a Woman, Teach a Family

Blue Haze…
The night looms larger
As she lights the chulha
The daily chores as always , remain pending..
She an ordinary housewife, her husband a farmer..

Blue haze settles down in a full moon light,
She oils the lamp, looking out for the glimpse of the retreating husband, If she might..
She briskly tidies the cosy little house
Shooing away a scurrying mouse!

Her husband returns exhausted from all day’s labour
Washes hands and sits down for a meal to savour..
She has already put her little children to sleep.
The husband quietly takes a peep!!
The day is done, another life’s battle won.

She quickly finishes her food,
Humming a folk song or two..
She is an ordinary woman but has no time to brood..
Life has set a challenge, she has accepted it too!

She quietly opens the box of steel
To take out a slate and few battered notebooks, sharpens her pencils
Strong and independent, that’s what they make her feel

She has to attend a night school
She hurries and crosses the village’s pool

This is a woman who knows her value,
Unlike celebs, and painted faced women,
She doesn’t bigmouths women’s liberty
Content with her life , taking it all as good omen
But she sails thru life, merrily past the Blue Haze,
It thins as she cuts across it , a farmer’s wife!
This lovely life and her small world shine through her face

AID- Prayas female literacy classes finally managed to come out of the gestation period, all thanks to the efforts of Linkan Subudhi and Charu. But why female literacy only? Because its mothers who transform a house into a home! The community has realized the value of education, from the flourishing changes in their children who attend quality schools. You enter the community, and often women approach you -- “ मैडम जी हमारे बच्चे को ले लो अपनी क्लास में... इसको पढ़ना बहुत अच्छा लगता है “ .. It is often heartening to see this rise in awareness level. So the Prayas team finally decided to harness the awareness by targeting the females within the community. After ladies in the community displayed interest in family planning sessions, our team came up with the female literacy classes. The name “ Meri pehchaan” was thought of by women from within the community . Ulterior reasons for these classes were to increase the faith in education, to target dedicated families, to empower females. Teenage girls cannot attend schools due to social stigmas, few women who have already passed the age of learning, but still brim with eagerness, will be facilitated by these classes. The classes kick started with 100% attendance. Nagma, one of our students in these classes signed the application proudly saying, now she can write her name! Prayas volunteers dream of the day, when the community will rise, realize and become self sustainable.
Lately Prayas volunteers like Pulkit, Aakanksha are getting involved into numerous other activities apart from quality education, like health front, less smoke chulhas. With varied efforts from our volunteers, there seems to be a lot of buzz in and around AID-Prayas.
We have also come up with our new centers within the community, and have begun with our intervention in the Govt School. A small quiz/play session was organized by volunteers like Nitka, Darshan, Anuradha, for students of the govt school to get an insight into the level of children IQ in the school. We thought upon the possibilities of utilizing the new laid out Right to Education in our framework, and going by it, we would be intervening to standardize the library in the Govt School.
Learning from the past, looking ahead

Anvita Shukla