Education for 100 street children in India

This year, in an effort to expand our impact and provide vital exposure to a workplace environment for our ever-growing group of college students, we at AIC launched an internship initiative within our own Education Program.

This initiative, which provides a handful of paid internship opportunities available to AIC's college students, exposed the students to the fundamentals of job readiness from the get-go by requiring them to go through a formal interview process with AIC managerial staff (even though we have known these students for years - interview practice never hurts!), after which several were selected to fill the spots.

AIC students have not spent much time (if any) in formal job environments before and often do not have parents who can model the types of workplace behaviors necessary for career success. Thus the goal of the internship program is to inculcate values and behaviors such as:

• timeliness
• meeting expectations
• communication skills (especially in English)
• computer literacy skills
• professionalism
• following guidance and accepting feedback

Additionally, the internship provide our students with formal job experience to list on their resumes when they go on to pursue future job opportunities, which, in an extremely competitive job market like India's is of paramount importance.

Neha, one of AIC's recent junior college graduates, who is currently enrolled in the first year of her Bachelors of Commerce program at a local university, spends three hours every afternoon assisting with administrative tasks at AIC's Education Outreach Program. This includes tracking student attendance, data entry, general recordkeeping, conveying messages to parents, and providing hands-on support during special events. She has also dabbled in taking photos and helping at AIC's Mother-Baby classes.

Of her internship experience, Neha says, "I have learned so much! I am now being exposed to an English-speaking work environment and Chethana didi [Program Coordinator] taught me how to send e-mails." When asked about the difference she feels as an intern versus a student at AIC, she replied, "There is a sense of responsibility. I feel more involved. In the past, if I saw kids arguing, I would feel like, 'ok, there is nothing I can do about it.' But now I make an effort to mediate and help our kids when they have problems. It feels good to be on the other side now."

Another student, Pooja, who was one of the Education Program's first twelve girls back in 2006, assists with accounting tasks (filing, creating vouchers, etc), and provides classroom support for one of AIC's standard 5 classes. About her responsibilities, Pooja jokes, "Oh, it is fun - I am here mainly to tame Pappu [a particularly spirited child in her class]! I will do anything for AIC. It is my second home."

Not only do our students start to understand how they can take charge of the futures of their own communities, gaining vital skills and exposure while also feeling empowered to give back. They also earn a competitive monthly stipend while providing valuable support and assistance as new members of our on-site team. It's truly a win-win situation and we are so excited to continue to expand our college student intern program for students from AIC's marginalized communities as we head into 2016!

International Literacy Day, according to UNESCO, is a day to celebrate and promote literacy, a “basic human right and fundamental building block for learning as well as a personal empowerment tool.”

As the underlying themes that underpin our work are the education, cultivation, and empowerment of the next generation of Waghri and Sikligar community members, this occasion is quite significant for us here at AIC. It celebrates the importance of one of the main efforts we undertake in our Education Program – to provide our children with the literacy skills they will need to advance throughout their lives, in order to break the cycles of poverty and marginalization, and to lead their communities by being the first educated members of their families.

In true AIC fashion, we decided to celebrate International Literacy Day with gusto, and our on-site celebration morphed into International Literacy Week. As such, we orchestrated activities and events over the course of the week leading up to International Literacy Day on September 8th.

The packed schedule of events that week included:

• For our youngest students (playgroup and pre-primary), parent-engagement activities ranging from a letter matching game, rhymes, a discussion about assessment and achievement at AIC, and a storytelling activity wherein groups of parents and students worked together to retell and act out (with as much dramatic flair as possible!) stories in front of the entire group
• The inauguration of literacy classes for our caregiving (maushi) staff
• A general knowledge quiz for parent-child teams (standards 3-8) that became fiercely competitive as parents and children consulted each other and jostled to give answers
• Art and writing activities for parents and children, wherein children taught their parents to write their own names
• A large rally through the neighborhood and slum communities, wherein our students carried signs and shouted pro-literacy slogans, put on a street play, and confidently answered the questions of curious bystanders and community members 
• Films about literacy

Last but not least, in preparation for the festivities, we surveyed 60 of the Education Program children in grades nursery through Standard 3 about whether they have books in their homes (and if so, how many). Sadly, but not surprisingly, out of 60 children polled, only 4 owned a single storybook; the remaining 56 children reported having not a single book in their homes. You can imagine what this means for their literacy development at what is such a crucial stage (ages 3 – 9) for these milestones.

This new information reinforces our understanding of how important the children’s hands-on access to high-quality literacy resources is during their time at the AIC Education Centre every day. It also renews our desire to establish a lending library and to gift books to the children at every possible opportunity (good attendance prizes, Diwali gifts, etc). Our goal is to ensure that by the end of the school year, 100% of our children will be able to proudly proclaim that they have at least a book or two to call their own, as well as access to a supply of continuously updated books and reading resources through a small lending project.

To kick off this goal and in honor of International Literacy Day this year, we published a books wishlist and were blown away by the response from our supporters. So far nearly 200 books have been purchased off our wishlist (we’ve had to continue adding new titles to keep up with the response!) and every evening our Education Program Director returns home from work to a lovely pile of packages at her door.

Overall, it's safe to say that International Literacy Day (or in our case, Week) 2015 was a tremendous success! The community response humbled and inspired us, and the energy and encouragement generated by our staff, supporters, and partners near and wide in celebration of this event has been absolutely exhilarating. The ability to read and write is a beautiful, powerful, worldview-expanding skill. Reminding ourselves that, step by step, slowly but surely, we are working to empower the next generation, allowing them to achieve the education and employment that will pull their communities out of vicious cycles of poverty and marginalization, makes our daily work feel all the more worthwhile.