Education For All

To Gurnihal, our inspiration and driving force. The little girl who unknowingly changed the way we think about education.

Gurnihal- The kid that changed our lives

It was 37 degrees the day we went to Nensi, a small village in Punjab. We got out of our air conditioned cars holding our DSLR’s and Mineral Water bottles, looking around as if we were in another world. The world without pollution, with greenery for miles on an end and no cars in sight.

We were greeted by this older gentleman who very pleasantly asked us if we were foreigners and if we wanted to take a picture of him, so we did.

He is a 93 year old gentleman who thinks it’s appropriate to flirt with “foreigners”

We were sitting in their local “Anganvaadi”- The village Pre and free school, while they announced our arrival on the megaphones in the local Gurudwara(temple), because that is the only way to let people know whatever’s happening in the village, the organic-ness of it was unbelievable. We had gone there to invite people for a seminar that was being held in Patiala regarding higher education options.

So we settled ourselves in the school and waited for people to come in and talk to us about what they wanted.

View from the school

Fortunately or unfortunately, they had a power shortage and couldn’t make the announcement over the megaphones in the Gurudwara so we had to go door to door to distribute flyers and to talk to people, it was very pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. People were so welcoming and hospitable but that was the first time we got in touch with reality, which was the sheer percentage of illiteracy in the region.

We walked for a couple of hours, dodging cattle in the streets, talking to people and being amazed at their simplicity.

Confused Team Members

By the time we came back to the school, we were quiet, subdued yet restless. No one over the age of 30 was educated in that village, not even educated enough to be able to read or write their names. Higher education seems futile and far-fetched when you talk to people who have no way to quantify the impact of that. Their kids go from Anganvaadi’s to secondary schools to the fields or drug dens. The problem is not the lack of money, there was none of that; the problem was the lack of motivation and the lack of options for these simple people.

The Wonder Wall of Education

That’s when this 3-year-old beautiful little girl came to school with her tiffin and an empty bag, looked at me, smiled and asked if I was the new teacher at her school. Something tugged at my heart and before I could answer her question, her teacher came in and greeted us.

She scolded the kid, gave her a cursive writing book and got on with her knitting.

A couple of things were a little unsettling for me, first was the fact there was only 1 child in school and second was the fact that the teacher just didn’t give a damn about it. I tried confronting her as nicely as I could and she told me to have my tea and leave it to the government to take care of the illiteracy and ignorance.

That is when we decided to take things in our own hands because relying on the Government is just not an option. It is our responsibility to do our part for the betterment of that 3-year-old child and thousands of other children who just didn’t know any better.

#EducationForAll is a project that is open for anyone to enroll into. We get together in groups of 5-10 people and head out to various assigned villages on weekends, where we go to anganvaadis (free schools) and teach children of different age groups various skills from painting, sketching to crafts, sewing, creating models and much more. We want these kids to use cognitive thinking and come up with creative solutions to everyday problems. We are teaching them our age-old ways of recycling, reusing and, of course, the new fad, Jugaad.

In spite of just starting the program, we are already seeing higher attendance in schools and that is just the beginning of the impact that will be created. Our next step is to involve village elders and older kids into speed skill training programs in order make them more productive and financially sustainable at the same time.

We are trying to change the world- one village at a time!

The kid who wanted to take a selfie with my camera