Group 1  ​

We were the first group of students arriving Kolkata. We arrived in early June, which is the hottest period in India. India is no way an easy going country and we encountered many difficulties including the weather, food and  completely different culture there at first. Fortunately, we finished all the tasks assigned at last. Although what we could do in a month might be too tiny to make a real change in the lives of people there, we still wish to give them hope and courage to overcome all the hurdles ahead in their lives.

Leather Ipad Case making - women center
We were arranged to go to a women center named "Life Welfare Society" located in Park Circus, the town center of Kolkata.

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Because of the poor living condition and the relatively inferior position in Indian society, many of the females in India don't have the opportunity to go to school. However, many of them are not satisfied with their current living condition. Women centers like "Life Welfare Soceity" are therefore established to provide these women vocational traing and knowledge transfer programs, so that they can have a place to study and learn skills which are useful in their daily living.

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Considering the popularity of Ipad Case in Hong Kong, we decided to conduct leather Ipad case making classes in the women cetner. A fair trade platform was established. The finished cases will be sent to Hong Kong with the help of the local NGO, FOCUS. After the cases was sold in Hong Kong, the revenue will be sent back India and distributed to the women. Till this moment, we have already received 20 cases.

English Classes - children center
Although the Indian government provides nine year free education service, there are still many extra expenditure, such as books, stationary and private tutorial classes. Attending private tutorial classes now becomes a norm in India, because of the poor teaching quality in public school and the low enrollment rate in high-school and university. For those whose family cannot afford to employ a private tutor, they may choose to go to children centers operated by NGOs. The children center we went was established for this purpose.

We encountered many difficulties at the very beginning. Children were in different education levels, not all of them understand English. Instead of communication problems, they felt bored for our formal teaching classes. To solve these problems, we adopted an alternative teaching method - dance and sing. We selected some simple campfire songs in English as teaching materials. Children could therefore learn English vocabularies through dancing and singing.

The children there enjoyed our classes so much. Not only they learnt English vocabularies, we also learnt some simple Hindi vocab from them.

​Home visit - Change A Life Children Sponsorship Program
Apart from the Vocational Skill Transfer Program, we visited the places of the sponsored children who were benefited in the "Change A Life Children Sponsorship Program". 

As mentioned about, although there is free education in India, many  families still cannot afford the extra expenditure on books, stationaries and uniform. The sponsorship program is aimed at providing financial support to these families, so that more children can afford to go to school.

We were responsible to follow-up the children sponsorship program by keep updating the condition of the sponsored children. We did some video shooting to record our visits and drafted notes about their living condition.
Most of the children are living in the slum area. Because of the huge population in India, many of the children lives with more than 10 family members in a place as small as 100 sq. meter. Some of the houses are only made of bamboo which are weak and vulnerable. Most of them need to go to the public toilet with poor hygienic condition. They don't have tap at home and need to take water from street hydrant.

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Because of their poor living condition and also financially not affordable, many children in the family choose not to continue their study in early stage and go out to work. What impressed us the most is that in one of the families we visited, because of the early pass-away of the father, the eldest brother, who is only 17, is the only financial support to his family with 8 members.

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As we all know education is the most powerful instrument to eradicate poverty and inequality. Although at this stage we don't have the bargaining power to influence the policies of India, we still hope that our little financial aid can support more children to go to school, so that they can have a better life in the future.