General Informations form a Volunteer

Hi! My name is Rachel and I'm currently volunteering with Aim Abroad. I've been here for 5 days and it has been truly amazing already. So far I've worked in the orphanage, volunteered at a hospital and worked with an empowering women project. They have all been really interesting and the program is really great about letting you mess around until you find a project that suits you. They also help plan trips for you if you want to travel and make sure you have other volunteers around you. Through trying out different programs I have met 4 hosts families and they are all wonderful people, really wanting to help out the volunteers staying with them and inspired to help those in need in India. The two things I was most worried about coming here were the heat and my safety. To tackle the first one, I will be honest....it's hot, slightly hotter than 100°F, 40°C every day. However, Indians beat the heat by waking up early before it gets too hot to go outside and staying indoors with AC for the hotter part of the day. As long as you drink plenty of water, you'll be fine. Water btw is about 20 rupees, 40 cents per liter so it's easy to come by. The second concern, safety, hasn't been an issue at all. I have walked to different volunteer sites and markets near my host family's house by myself just fine. It takes a little getting used to to be in such a different environment and I originally walked with other volunteers but now I feel comfortable to go out during the day alone within walking distance of the house. If I go out at night, it's with other people and we avoid unsafe areas.

The country is extremely busy and it is definitely a culture shock when you first get here because it is different than anything you can picture. However, even after only 5 days I have been able to become comfortable with the environment and really appreciate the crazy Indian culture surrounding me :)

I hope this helps you with an introduction into Aim Abroad. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions --rachyspp@gmail.com

Alice in Wonderland Monthly Update

   The following update should serve as an insight to the day-to-day life of the children at the Alice in Wonderland orphanage, and other projects, for anyone interested; especially potential volunteers and those wanting to help. The Alice in Wonderland orphanage, is located in Faridibad, about an hour's car journey south of Delhi and was founded around a year ago to offer a nurturing environment to children who would otherwise be without. The residents include Muskan and Rajat, brother and sister aged 12 and 9 respectively, Anish and Manish, brothers aged 7 and 6, Brijmohan, 7, Sonu, 7 and Khushi, 3. All with distinctive personalities that are guaranteed to charm.
    The 17th of April was marked by Brijmohan's 7th birthday, which was celebrated with a tea party at the orphanage which all the children and 3 volunteers attended. Just like there should be at every child's birthday, there was cake. Also greatly enjoyed, were the presents and a pinata. As a special birthday treat, the next day at school, Brijmohan proudly wore his own clothes, instead of his uniform!
   Not as fun for the children, however, was the outbreak of head lice, which resulted in haircuts all round. That's apart from Muskan; (12 years old) to chop off her beautiful, thick head of shiny black hair would be a crime!
   Another notable event was the day that the children received new outfits, courtesy of Simone and Colin, mother and son volunteers from London, England. The excitement could be felt in the air and they were only to happy to pose together for their very own photo-shoot. Being the subject of photographs is something they are only too used to as not a day goes by without a volunteer snapping their movements, whether they are dipping their chapati in their chai at breakfast time or waddling to school with their enormous backpacks, which they recently received from Bethany, a most-dedicated volunteer from New York, USA. Bethany was intending to take only a week out of her busy traveling schedule to spend in Faridibad, but after falling in love with the children of AiW, ended up staying with them a month, also sharing her devotion and skills helping and photographing the various other projects in the surrounding areas which volunteers can choose to donate their time to.
   Anyone willing to offer themselves to an extremely worthy cause should take note. As a volunteer who has spent 3 weeks here already (out of 5) I can say from experience that the considerable amount that can be given by a dedicated volunteer and gratefully received by the children, is unsurpassed by the amount that can be learned.
   Also worth taking note of is the current temperature, which has been reaching and exceeding 40 degrees Celsius almost every day. The heat, however, is not uncomfortable if the following precautions are taken: drink plenty of water, around 3-6 liters, appropriate clothing is always worn, which can be purchased from the nearby markets for extremely reasonable prices. (Additionally, wearing appropriate clothes from the market is appreciated by the locals and helps to make you feel less like a foreigner!) At certain times of the day, it is best to be indoors where the fans and air conditioning make a considerable difference. Most of the projects are equipped with fans, more recently the Alice in Wonderland school, which hosts around 30 children from the surrounding slums in Faridibad, has been fully kitted out, making it a more pleasant working and learning environment.
  
It won't be long before the next update, thanks for reading! For further information, photographs and contact details please visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1342886865

My Adventures In India: A couple of Day 11 picturesSome of the slum huts ...

My Adventures In India: A couple of Day 11 pictures
Some of the slum huts ...: "A couple of Day 11 pictures Some of the slum huts around the Morning Star school Mom teaching at the school Some of the smaller k..."

New Project Ready To Open in a Few Days!

We have some exciting news over with the projects at Aim Abroad! Our new orphanage for children with disabilities is almost ready to open! We finished all of the exterior construction about a week and a half ago, and as of this morning, the interior reconstruction has finished! Now, we are working on cleaning and organizing the orphanage, and getting enough supplies and everything ready for the opening. Additionally, we are not clear on exactly who will be given the opportunity to live in the orphanage, but we do know two children, desperately needing a home, whom we would like to offer a place in the home and family. Aiming to house about four to five orphaned and disabled children in this home, we are looking forward to this great new project to help the poor and needy in India, especially now with a focus to help disabled children too! Otherwise, our school for children who live in slum areas has been going well. We have been maintaining an attendance of thirty children, who are all eager to come and learn (and enjoy a treat for arriving on time!). The children have been studying learning their ABCs orally, and they have been working on mastering the use of the pencil, drawing straight lines, circle, squares, basic shapes, etc. Hopefully soon the children will be starting to draw the symbols in the English and Hindi alphabets!

Medical Volunteering and Orphanage Children's Academic Reports!

Today Marie Murphy (as seen above), one of our medical volunteers from New York, went to a charitable hospital called Sharma Charitable Center. She mostly took measurements of the patients' blood pressures, weights, heart rates, etc., but she also had the opportunity to go with the doctors on rounds and observe the doctors working in the outpatient department. In one particular case, she described a patient with a rash on his chest, resulting from heat and dehydration. The doctors prescribed a lotion and told him to drink copious amounts of water, as the summer is around the corner and the temperatures are not too extreme right now: he needs to prepare for how his body will react when the temperature will peak by the end of May. Most of the other cases were fairly common cases, including cold or flu symptoms, which she felt were not noteworthy, but the rash case was particularly interesting to an aspiring dermatologist.

Otherwise, the children in our orphanage have been doing very well in their classes! Earlier this month the children took their final exams for the year, and tomorrow they will be starting their new academic year in school. In India, the academic system works differently than how most volunteers describe their academic system runs in Western countries: Our new term begins in the end of March, and the school year ends in the beginning of March. Children have summer vacation off as well, but in the middle of their school year. Once the children finished this academic year, the results came in! Muskan, Rajat, and Anish, all performed at the top of their classes! Brij Mohan and Sonu also did very well in their classes, as Brij Mohan placed second and Sonu placed fourth out of all of their classmates. Unfortunately, it breaks my heart to see Manish struggling so much through his school work. This year Manish did poorly on his exams again, though the teachers have been seeing improvements! After our parent-teacher meetings, we all decided that he would stay back in lower kindergarten, and in three months' time we will reevaluate his progress. Sonu, Anish, and Brij Mohan moved on to upper kindergarten, while Rajat moved on to 1st grade and Muskan onto 5th grade. We will continue our hard work with all of the volunteering projects, especially educating the young children in our orphanage! Our results, for the most part, prove that we have been doing the best job possible!

Volunteers Visit the New School!

Today one of our volunteers, Jenny, from Malaysia, went to volunteer at our new school for children who live in slum areas! While there, she helped distribute some donations to the children, mostly school supplies, textbooks, stickers, etc. and  helped put up charts and posters of different fruits with their names in English and Hindi, and different vegetables with their names in English an Hindi. Now that we had a volunteer with us, the teacher and Jenny went around the classroom helping the children starting to learn how to properly write some Hindi and English letters, though they have only started a few characters in each script. Jenny also helped the children pronouncing the names of the English letters and numbers, and the children have been practicing their nursery rhymes, oral counting (in Hindi and in English), and orally reciting both the alphabet and devanagari (the Hindi alphabet). We also want to express our satisfaction with our project's success, as our new program of rewarding the children with candy for attendance has had such a great impact on our attendance rate! Now our school has grown by 50%, as today we had thirty children. We do not think we can extend the group to more children, as our workspace and funds are prohibitive, but this improvement shows that our work and ideas are helping the kids in being motivated to come and learn!

More about our Newest Project

At the school for children living in slum areas, the work has been a bit slow, since we have several obstacles to overcome before our children can start learning at a rapid rate. At the moment, because the school is in the beginning stages, many of the children have been arriving irregularly and tardy, which drastically limits our rate of progress: We must work on punctuality to help discipline the children. After reviewing our budget, we have decided to implement a program to encourage the children to arrive on time: We will award the children who arrive before classes begin with a small candy, a rare treat for these deprived children. Our volunteers have not been to the school since its opening, but starting tomorrow the volunteers will work at the school, now that the children are a little more accustomed to using pencils and doing the activities requested by our teacher, Neetu (who is shown holding a child in the first picture). We feel that the volunteers' presence will have such a great impact on the children: while the children focus on learning very basic techniques with writing, the volunteers will practice songs with the children so that they can start learning the alphabet and counting. Neetu is also teaching the children the Hindi alphabet system, known as "devanagari," or "ka kha ga" (which is comparable to "ABCs" in English). 

Neetu is actually a local teacher, having grown up in the very same neighborhood as the children! She is very studious and self-motivated, and she is pursuing a degree by correspondence right now. In the mean time, this job will help her earn while she honorably helps our students gain an education. Though her English communication skills are somewhat limited, she will be able to communicate enough with the volunteers to work together. One common theme in our children's behavior is a lack of discipline. We would like to be able to afford uniforms for the children, to help foster a sense of discipline and professionalism in the children, but the funding is simply unavailable. One complete set for the uniforms per year would cost 1,000 Rupees per child, about $22 USD, or for the entire school of twenty children, about 20,000 Rupees, or $440 USD per year. Considering what we do provide the children, however, we still feel that there is much room for improvement, once we have all of the funding necessary to support our cause. With our current budget, we can only provide one banana per day per child, but ideally we would like to provide a nutritiously balanced meal rather than a small snack. Let's see how the work with the volunteers goes tomorrow!