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Project Age Limit
Minimum of 17 years old with parental consent form.
School Holidays
Please be aware that there are lots of school holidays throughout the year in which you won’t be able to volunteer. Please ask us for the holiday dates so that you are able to avoid the school holidays should you wish to.
Core Volunteer Options:
- Education
- Childcare
- School for mentally challenged Children
Wherever your volunteer placement occurs, the general pattern is to work five days a week for approximately three to five hours per day. Most work occurs in the morning before lunch. But some placements require afternoon work as well.
Education
Class sizes in India can be extremely large, leading teachers to become little more than traffic police attempting to keep order. Activities include:
- Teaching children English and Maths in schools
- Creating a playful environment through painting, playing games, singing etc
- Working with local teachers in creating low cost teaching material
- Take responsibility for everyday attendance of a few children to the school
- Ensuring regular health check ups of the children in each school through co-operating with the local doctors and hospital staff.
- Creating basic hygiene awareness amongst children on a regular basis for healthier living.
Child-care
Child-care volunteers assist in local childcare centres, known as Aanganbari. The concept of ‘preschool' childcare is a new one in India.
This is where the joint family system has long provided ample child-care providers. Unlike Western countries, where child-care facilities exist primarily to free women to work, the aanganbari's main purpose is to provide a safe, healthy and hygienic space to young children who would not be able to receive proper care at home.
Activities include:
- Ensuring maximum attendance by the children of the area to these centres.
- Personal attention and care to the children coming to the centre everyday
- Assistance to the local worker for record maintenance for each child based on health, vaccination, growth and nutritional condition.
- Making and feeding the children a specially prepared nutritious meal every day with the heap of a local worker
- Continuous survey of all pregnant women and newborn babies in the area for regular health check ups and vaccination.
- Creating a colourful and enjoyable environment for the children with games, stories and other creative activities (all material support and training for such activities is provided to you)
School for mentally challenged children, Thakardwara
Special school for mentally challenged children. Severely understaffed, the two teachers in the school are often struggling to give adequate attention to each of the approximately 20-odd students enrolled in the school.
The volunteer activity in this institution would include:
- Assisting teachers in completing assignments for the students.
- Organising education and fun activities for the children
- Visiting students’ homes for sensitisation of the family towards their children
Extra Afternoon Volunteer Options in Himachal
If you would like to get involved in more volunteer work than your core option offers, you may have the opportunity to get involved in some of the following:
- Additional tutoring for weak children
- Conversational English classes and computer training to groups of local women
- Orphan home, Saliyana
- Maintenance of institutional facilities
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