The little fishing slum at Cuffe Parade is home to the India that westerners imagine and locals develop immunity to. Lofty towers with impervious walls surround porous shanties where privacy is a distant dream. The labyrinth of narrow gallis, kachha/pakka constructions and makeshift maidans teems with bleary eyed mothers, hyper tots, reclining husbands and hardworking men. Locally known as Machinagar, the area is also home to Down to Earth (DTE), an NGO that works towards expanding the potential and capacities of the youth via the medium of sports, drama and imparting life-skills like English, Math and computer literacy.

 

In a modest room, co-founders Dev, Mansi and Nikki have evolved a Monday-Friday set-up, where volunteers interact with about twenty children from the age group of 4-18 years, between 4-7 pm. 

 

Viswajit, an officer with the merchant navy, volunteers at the centre whenever he is in town. He reminisces about Rehman, who earnestly inquired about how many times a week he goes fishing for his food while sailing! “It is as much a learning for me as it is for them”, he says. Over the last two years, he has delighted the eager beavers with stories of space, ships and spaceships. He tells them about the Parsi community, helps with English, Science and Math and evokes their imagination in a plethora of ways. 

 

A few weeks ago, while chatting with a friend on Skype, it dawned upon Viswajit how easy it is to transmit knowledge via the digital-visual medium. After circulating the idea around the DTE team, the pilot project was launched on the last Monday of March 2011. Armed with a laptop, an MTS data card and on-line volunteer Avair (from Australia), a bunch of kids peeped into the pixels, watching Avair talk about Australian food and culture. She says, “It was so lovely to speak to the children; it felt like I was back there in India, in their classroom. I think the skype program is a wonderful opportunity for people who want to volunteer and can’t take time off work to go overseas.”

 

“Initially, the children were so excited during the first on-line session that they got a little distracted. However, concentration levels were high”, remarks Friyan, who has been teaching English to the kids all summer.

 

“Many volunteers make ardent commitments to teach at the centre, but are unable to live up to them”, says Viswajit. The founders of DTE note that skyping is not the optimal mode of teaching, but has several advantages – it upgrades computer skills, improves spoken and written English, exposes kids to international cultures and is a potential medium for teaching skills like playing an instrument or learning origami. 

 

 

If you wish to volunteer at DTE, join the Skype project or sponsor a laptop or data card with an internet connection, get in touch with Nikki at 93222 69017 or email dteindia@gmail.com.

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