Volunteering in India

Submitted by India Week on Thu 08/03/12

For India Week, volunteer Sina Rohani describes his experiences of working with children in India.

"After 5 months in India I wish to share with you some of the experiences from my voluntary service at the Baha'i Rabbani School. I highly recommend all of you to get out of your comfort zone and offer the skills, ideas and energy you have to enrich the lives of others.

The majority of the Indian population will never leave India and in some cases their own town, so when a foreigner comes to their rural village in the middle of nowhere, it is a refreshing breeze and an open window to the rest of the world which they may otherwise never see.

I was a teaching at the Rabbani Baha'i School, where the students come from very poor local villages, the school is one of the cheapest in the state at about $200 for the year, which includes food, accommodation and a state recognized education syllabus.

A New Illiteracy

These children are some of the first to be given education in their families. Illiteracy is decreasing, but a new illiteracy is stopping these children from getting the job opportunities they deserve- their lack of English and computer skills.

This new barrier to jobs has come in the past years as India has advanced economically and technically. Now children thirst for the good English and computer skills, that would enable them to break away from the family agricultural and manual work history.

If the child is not fortunate enough to be able to afford to go to an English medium, they have to use their own initiative and teach themselves. I have seen a number of cases where the children sit for hours and study the English dictionary.

My presence at the school, helping to create a computer syllabus in English and interacting with the students was highly appreciated. I hope you can all take some time out and contribute to voluntary work around the world at some stage."

Find more information on the Volunteering in India website.