Help 30 first-generation learners begin school

Little Priya, affectionately known as Piyu, is 3 years old and just completed the year-long playgroup program in April. She will now be starting nursery school in June. Recently, we sat down with her mother to discuss her feelings about AIC, the playgroup program, and the Waghri community with which AIC works.

Her mother, Pinchu, describes the difficult circumstances that have made AIC's support such an anchor in her life:

A few years ago I got married and moved to Mumbai. There were a lot of problems there and I couldn’t adjust – there was no work, and we were staying with my husband’s relatives. How long can you eat off the generosity of others? We didn’t have a house or any money. Finally after a couple months I told my husband, “This isn’t working for me. I’m going back to Pune.” I got a job at AIC and became the sole provider for us. My husband didn’t work, so my salary paid for the rent, household expenses, and everything else.

My husband used to fight with me all the time. Then he fought with me and left me – I was pregnant at that time. He didn’t come back until I delivered the baby. He came back but was the same as before. From the time I got married, he’s always been like this. Then when my daughter Piyu was 10 months old, he left us again. He just came back 2 weeks ago – after 2 and a half years. When I talk about it, I cry – so I try not to talk about it.

Right now I live in my mother’s house. Piyu is 3 years old and will be starting nursery school at AIC in June. I can’t rely on my husband at all for help. I earn, and from that I live my life. I’ve already raised Piyu on my own – through great difficulties and hardships – for this long. But because of this I’ve managed – otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do it. Because of that, I’ve been able to make it this far.

Pinchu also had many insights into her community, which is one of the two main groups that AIC works with:

Waghris are not interested in education. Waghris aren’t educated – so what do they know about education? We’re all illiterate and sign with our thumbprint. So people don’t feel like it’s important to educate their children. They’re only interested in eating, bathing and other basic day-to-day things. There are a lot of problems in our slum. Many families don’t have food to eat. When they manage to sell things in the market, they eat. When they don’t, they can’t eat. There are lots of houses that don’t have running water. There are families with a mother and no father, families where the mother or father ran off and left the children.

Women are the ones who do most of the work – trading and selling old clothes. Men work for a day and then don’t do anything for 2 or 3 days. Women are the ones that have all of the burden and stress – the situation of women in our community is very bad. There are a lot of problems in our community. I don’t talk about these issues much, but I see everything that happens in the community.

Attending weekly playgroup classes has given Pinchu the confidence and courage to stand up to community pressures and fight for her daughter's right to education, a stable upbringing, and a bright future. At playgroup, she is surrounded by other mothers facing similar situations, and receives the support and guidance of trained educators and counselors:

I will educate my daughter. All of the teachers and counselors here say to me, “She’s a girl, you have to educate her.” She’s such a good, smart girl. Her father doesn’t take any interest in her – he’s fine wandering around, sleeping anywhere, eating anywhere. He doesn’t feel like his daughter should learn, and he should work alongside me. Even now he says, “Come on, leave the job and come to Mumbai.” I say, “Should I come and join you out begging? You eat anywhere and sleep out on the streets – that’s not the life I want for my daughter.” I am responsible for her and have to think about her future. I need to save for her education. I told him, “For my daughter, I will never leave. I’ll leave you before I leave this place.” 

With your support, AIC has been able to continue providing birth-to-college programming to ensure that little ones like Priya are cared for at every stage of their lives. Playgroup is an integral part of our early childhood education process, and we are proud to have supported Priya and her mother on their journey toward a better future.

The AIC playgroup has been in full swing since June, and the children have gradually been acclimating to the new environment since the school year started. By mid-December, playgroup teacher Vaishali and volunteer Valerie started to see even more significant changes in terms of the children moving from the observation stage to hands-on exploration and expression. This dynamic duo selects monthly curriculum topics and themes to maximize opportunities for discovery, language, and vocabulary, through which the children are starting to use more and more English words as the year progresses.

Both Vaishali and Valerie feel passionately about the important pedagogical aspects of the curriculum they are implementing - developing gross motor skills (indoor basketball, hoopla rings, soft balls, animal movements), pre-literacy skills (story books and story-telling), numeracy skills (counting, sorting objects, talking about bigger and smaller items), social skills (sharing and interacting with other children, easing separation anxiety), fine motor skills (scribbling, slate work, filling bottles with small objects, finger painting, playdough), and conversational skills. They are especially talented at capturing their young audience's attention through dramatics - skits, conversations, rhymes, and song - resulting in an entertaining, engaging session for all. 

The playgroup curriculum also places significant emphasis on experiential learning, and over the course of the past few months, the children have been able to participate in activities like making fruit salad, tasting various foods, making vegetable salad, rolling dough and making chapatis (flat bread), and other things that develop their motor skills, expand their vocabulary, and provide important real-life learning moments.

Valerie, the volunteer who has been with the current playgroup children since they started the school year, reports that the their favorite activities are rhymes, snack, free time with the books and toys, stories, play dough, and coloring. Upon arrival, the mothers enjoy chatting and catching up, looking at books with their children, and helping their little ones try out the toys.

With our donors' support, we are proud to be able to offer these extremely underprivileged children a playgroup experience comparable to the highest-quality programs in the city, and can't wait to see them continue to progress and grow!