Indian adventures Part I

The Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Delhi would have been great if the guy behind me didn't snore like a truck! Thankfully passport control, customs and luggage were all speedy and painless. Best part of the journeywas that the hotel I booked sent a car for me (read: old Subaru car with barely working AC). When I first walked outside several things were immediately apparent:

• The heat is like nothing I have ever felt before. Tel Aviv is pretty hot and humid in the summer but Delhi takes it to a whole new level with temperatures reaching 105 and 70% humidity. It is also made worse by the amount of dust in the air- you feel like your lungs have a growing desert in there.
• The smell- it is like old rotting something combined with a bit of sewage. Some places are better than others and I have learned to avoid the low land where all the unidentifiable liquids flow
• The driving- there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic laws. The roads are shared by trucks, cars, cows, auto rickshaws, pedestrians and everything else you can imagine. I have still not been able to cross the street myself so tend to walk in a local's shadow.
• Relatedly, the noise level - I have always heard that Cairo has the worst noise pollution in the world but it seems like Delhi is right up there. Everyone honks (probably because there are no guidelines governing driving). In Israel people get riled up when there is honking but here it is just commonplace, no one gets too worked up about it.

I had my first official day today and I was really pleased with how it went. I was supposed to meet the education director from the NGO that manages the mobile classroom program today. However we left it really loose- it seems that Indians are pretty chill about meeting times (have heard that India time is similar to Africa time). I was nervous it would fall through and I don't have time to waste since I am only here two weeks. I followed the directions through the main bazaar, with the help of a nice boy, to what looked like a building from the 1950s that hasn't had a coat of paint or any work done to it since then. I was shocked at its facade; in the States even the most bare-bones NGOs can't afford to let their building reach that dilapidated state as it would be unlikely they would get much funding. A certain level of seriousness and purpose is displayed via the office. In SBT's case, I went down a stinky alley and walked up two flights to a room without much air circulation. It turns out that most of their funding comes from the government and there isn't much of it despite the great work they do. The office also served as a shelter for street children. These boys stay at the shelter for 6 months and then are either returned to their parents or get placed in a more permanent situation if the former isn't possible.

My meeting with the education director was so interesting- he was telling me all about the structure of the program, the need to motivate their parents to send them to school and the value of education, and the challenges associated with fundraising. I could have listened to him talk for hours. But he had arranged for one of the teachers to take me to see it for myself. Using broken English and a lot of hand gestures we managed to communicate. Turns out the teacher, Sudha, is only 25 years old and has been teaching for two years. The school bus turned into classroom stops at 4 sites each day for two hours. There the kids learn Hindi, English, social studies, science, math and some health. Most of these children have never been to school and often times their parents are apprehensive about sending these kids to the Chalta Firta school. Social workers conduct a survey at the beginning of the year to identify the children between the ages of 6-10 in that area and convince their parents to enroll them. The program currently serves about 125 students. At the end of the year the children take an exam to determine their mastery level and the social workers help enroll them in formal schools. Last year they streamlined 102 children into formal schools! The program has been very successful and the department of education wants to create 20 more school buses. One more will be operated by SBT and the rest by other organizations. There is another NGO, Butterflies, that runs the same program in South Delhi, which I hope to visit. Here are a few pictures:

Today's visit to one of the sites was so inspiring, I had to hold back the tears when I first walked on the bus- to think that this small bus could mean a different life path for these 25 children. Most of them would never learn to read or write if it wasn't for the mobile classroom. I don't think an academic observer is supposed to get emotional upon observing her subjects but it was hard not to in this case as it could literally mean prolonging the cycle of poverty or creating better life opportunities.

Leaver's Gift Revisited

As mentioned in a previous post, I along with a fellow Ambassadorial Scholar from the US, Lauren Williamson, organized a leaver's gift on behalf of the RIBI Rotary Scholars. The purpose was to give back to a local charity and show our appreciation for this opportunity we have been given. The leaver's gift and walk-a-thon, the first of its kind, was a success, although we wish that more scholars would have joined in the fundraising efforts and/or participated in the walk -a-thon. It was a very busy time of year for us all but all in all we are very pleased that we could raise as much money as we did for a great cause. Below is the letter we sent to foundation:

As a culminating event of our time here in the UK, the Ambassadorial Scholars have organized a leaver's gift. Our purpose was to both thank the community that has hosted us during our incredible year abroad and raise awareness about one of Rotary's partnering organizations here in the UK, the Leonard Cheshire Disability. LCD aims to change attitudes to disability and to serve disabled people around the world. Our leaver's gift will benefit two of LCD's diverse services - a home for young adults with disabilities in London and the Schools4All in Africa program which builds accessible and inclusive schools so that children living with disabilities are not denied the right to an education. To learn more about LCD, please visit http://www.lcdisability.org/

For the last several months, Ambassadorial Scholars have been raising awareness about and raising money for LCD's important work. Thus far we have raised £1,700 for the organization, 65% of our goal of £2,500. We are so pleased that many clubs and Rotarians have contributed to this great initiative. If you or your club have not had a chance to contribute, it isn't too late. Please visit http://www.justgiving.com/summerwalk to donate safely. Alternatively you can contact us to get the address of where you can send a check.

Our culminating event was a walk-a-thon at Greenwich park on July 4. Approximately 30 participants - consisting of scholars, Rotarians, grandchildren, friends and supporters of LCD - joined us for the 5K walk. The weather, while not always consistent in London we have learned, was perfect! It was a great day and a wonderful way to celebrate our year in the United Kingdom.

We will forever be indebted to our sponsoring districts and Rotary Foundation for providing us this incredible opportunity. And we are equally as grateful to the RIBI Rotarians and Clubs that have welcomed us into their communities and homes. We hope that our leaver's gift serves as a small token of appreciation and demonstrates our committment to the ideals of Rotary.

Gratefully,

Yamit Taragan and Lauren Williamson

2009-2010 Ambassadorial Scholars

Dissertating

It has been forever since I last wrote an entry but frankly there wasn't much to report on at the time. I spent the month of May and half of June in one of two places- the Goodenough library or the LSE library. I remember thinking when I first sawthe academic calendar that there was SO much time to prep for exams but when it came down to it, I felt like I could have used another week to get ready. In the US you may have a few days or a week to study but in the UK system it is several weeks. It is partly reflective of thedifferent structure- all of our exams, even for those classes that were during first term, were in June. It is also expected that you have a greater and richer understanding of the material. All in all I think my exams went well. I just wish I better understood the system when I started as it may have changed my study habits. Here is a picture with my beloved study group, withoutwhom my core class would have been near impossible!

I have also 'finalized' (loosely interpreted) my dissertation. I will be looking at synergies between formal and non formal education and specifically how mobile classrooms in India are identifying and teaching children who have not attended formal schools. This is especially relevant now that the Indian government has passed the free and universal primary education law. It is my hypothesis that these mobile classrooms are serving as important intermediaries between the parents and schools and are key in building trust in the schools and appreciation for education. For more information on the program visit the DIFD website. I will be going to India for two weeks to conduct field research and see these programs for myself. Am really excited/anxious/nervous. More to come soon!

Spring time in London

Beautiful trees blooming in the Goodenough Courtyard!

Sunning at Brighton Beach, 45 minutes outside of London

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."

-Peter Marshall

Rotary Scholars Leaver's Gift

Quick Overview

The Event: 2009-2010 RIBI Ambassadorial Scholars' Leavers Gift & Summer Walk


Who: YOU, the Rotary family, your friends

What: Fundraiser for Leonard Cheshire Disability and a summer walk-a-thon


Where: Greenwich Park, southeast London, United Kingdom


When: Sunday 4 July 2010 at 10 AM
Why: Service Above Self

Answering a Need

Just walking around any city it is apparent how difficult it is for disabled people to lead normal lives: lack of elevators and wheelchair ramps, ill-maintained sidewalks and pedestrian paths, bustling crowds of people too impatient to assist. Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) is working to change that, to provide a way for disabled people to be more mobile and live independently.

Rotary has a long history of partnership with UK-based LCD, including past work on their Schools4All in Africa projects, which improve education for the disabled in Africa and contribute to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These are the reasons we have chosen to fundraise for LCD. The money raised will be channelled to their beneficial programmes in the UK and abroad.

The Ambassadorial Link

Rotary International Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has a large number of Ambassadorial Scholars studying in the UK during the 2009-2010 year. It has been an amazing, life-changing year and, true to Rotary values, we felt the best way to say “thank you” to the Rotary Foundation was to give back to the community. Moreover, an event of this nature, requiring such collaboration among UK scholars, has never been done before. This will have a great local impact!

Our Fundraising Efforts

Our fundraising goal of £5,000 is a hefty one and our deadline is only three months away. However, we hope to leverage the entire Rotary family – both in the UK and our abroad. So how can you help? Please consider donating to this great cause. Once you decide an amount, the donation process is very easy. Go to the website www.justgiving.com/summerwalk. This is a safe and secure site where you can donate using a credit card. The money goes directly to LCD!

If you are in the UK, you are invited to join us at the culminating walk-a-thon in beautiful Greenwich Park (pictured). The 5K walk on 4 July 2010 will celebrate our fundraising efforts, our health, and our year abroad.

Thank you so much for your contribution and commitment to the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar program!

End of Lent Term!

It is incredible how fast this year is going by! Lent term (aka spring term) ends in a few days. British academic calendar is quite different from the US in that all of the exams are at the end of year, even the classes you had in December. So come June I will be taking exams on EVERYTHING (will think about that later!)

In the meantime, I am sad that classes are coming to an end as I really loved my courses this term. I took a course on emerging health threats and although I am not a science/medical person at all, found the content so interesting. One of my biggest takeaways is the sheer disparity between those diseases that have the highest burden on developing countries and those diseases that get the most funding. Not surprisingly HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis get a disproportionate share of the funding partly because they are more complicated diseases but mostly because they pose the largest threat to developed countries. Kind of difficult to overlook the selfishness associated with funders' intentions.

The other elective course I took, titled Public Management of Development, covered a whole lot of issues related to the development industry (which it is). One of the lectures I found most interesting was about innovative business models whose products or services are targeted to the poor. For more information - look at some of the development blogs on the right.

Highlight of this past week was definitely having three of my best friends from Teach For America visit me. Here are just a few pictures :)