Education India Project #29041

Send a Child to school in India for a Year

by Hope Now

Send a Child to school in India for a Year

Project Report | Jan 21, 2021
Twelve Months and Counting

By Machelle Norling | Director

Painting Competition focused on Climate Change

Twelve months and counting. What a daunting, challenging, exhausting year it has been. A year of lock down, distance learning and figuring out how to engage 58 children day in and day out all within the confines of our home, with no support staff.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes we are learning how to be resilient in the face of hardship, diligent in a time of uncertainty and most importantly, how to lean on each other for what life demands of us to stay on course and continue to reach for our dreams – even in the middle of a world-wide pandemic.

Nothing happens by accident when you are caring for a home filled with teenagers, young adults, four dogs, chickens and a garden that needs tending no matter what else is happening. Once again, our staff and kids deserve the credit for staying positive, taking care of the home and themselves and finding ways to bring joy, laughter and hope to these difficult days.

Last week the kids celebrated the Pongal holidays. A ten-day break from school where most of the kids usually travel to their home village to visit with extended family such as aunts and uncles or grandparents. This year was different, as it has been for so many of us around the world. It was impossible for the children to go out to dozens of different villages and be with large groups of people and return home. The risk is too high for us, so for the first time, everyone stayed home.

To ease the sadness and burden of a continued sense of limits on life, the staff put together a series of fun-filled competitions to engage the kids in art, sport and other creative outlets to encourage the kids to look forward and build on a year-long endeavor to see exactly what we can do, no matter the circumstance. Each area of competition had a theme, such as climate change, sustainability, education and the importance of staying fit.

There were baking competitions, drawing, painting, volley ball and cricket matches. The kids had a glorious time and proved once again, that anything is possible if you only try.

We look forward to the kids going back to school at some point during this new year and life going back to some sense of normal, friendships renewed and new college adventures. Until then, we will do what we do best – be a family that loves and supports each other.

We have many talented artists.

Girls competing in Rangoli, a colorful chalk art

Always learning.

Links:

Hope Now

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Sep 23, 2020
Life Continues

By Machelle Norling | Director

Ramesh and Nissar repairing our water cooler.

We have been on lockdown for 6 months and counting. What a strange time for all of us. As with all things, life continues. The challenges have been many. Our kids have not merely met those challenges, they have risen to a new level of confidence, determination and creativity.

As you may know or not know, India initiated one of the most severe lockdowns in the world. Currently, they have the second fastest growing number of COVID cases globally and this is not over yet. We are adjusting on the fly, adapting to an all digital learning format and sustaining our home with no outside staff. Not an easy task when you have more than 50 kids vying for a limited number of computers and the space to sit where concentration is required.

As we always have, for more than 15 years now, we lean on each other to get through life - as a family. With the restictions on movement our entire outside staff has been absent, which means we have to cook for ourselves, do our own laundry and make sure our space is clean and the bathrooms scrubbed. We are all learning new skills, with the kids taking on leadership roles in the kitchen, maintaining the home and grounds, and monitoring the computer room.

Ravi - who graduated this year with a bachelor degree in Hotel Management - is our resident chef. He is running the kitchen, creating menus, grocery shopping lists and a schedule that brings each kid into the kitchen to help prep, cook and serve. it is an inspiration to see him lead and utilize what he learned in college to our small place in the city.

Ramesh and Nissar, two of the young men who are currently enrolled in year two at Word & Deed Vocational school studying to be electricians, took it upon themselves to fix one or our aircoolers. At the height of summer, when the temperature can reach well over 100 degrees, they were able to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

This is the precise reason How Now started and the reason it all works. We believe in creating a "home" for every child who comes through our doors. We believe in a solid education through trade school or college. With 4 house parents, 2 dogs and 54 kids, we are a bustling, often times loud, sometimes chaotic, but always a family working through life the only way we know how - together.

Keeping the kitchen clean

The girls cleaning their dorm

Links:

Hope Now

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Mar 30, 2020
Adapting to a New World Reality

By Machelle Norling | Director

Morning yoga

Wow - how a week can change everything! We are all living in unprecedented times with a new virus plowing it's way around the globe, challenging our ability to cope with a new reality. The way we live, communicate and interact has drastically changed and, when the virus is gone, for many, life will not go back to the way it was.

You may or may not know India is in full lockdown - no one is being allowed to leave their home without direct permission for emergency situations. For us, this is a critical time of coordinating with our partners, collegues and the government to ensure we continue to recieve our daily ARTs, food and maintain access to our internet connections. Like so many places around the world, schools have been shut down. We have no cooks, no cleaning crew and no support staff.

The kids who were living outside the home have returned to complete their year of college online. We are creating a new daily routine, class schedules and investing in creative ways to leverage this change to achieve our mission during this time of crisis. Without staff we are learning new skills like how to cook and wash bedding by hand.

Each day starts with a yoga session lead by the kids. We have structured "class time" and everyone is working in the kitchen. What a great way to learn a life skill. Ravi - one of our college kids who has returned home - is working toward a bachelor degree in hotel management and he loves to cook. He is leading the charge in the kitchen with the help of our house parents. He is creating menus and teaching the other kids how to make new dishes. It is a site to see the boys stirring pots, chopping vegetables with Ravi shouting out orders as they fall in line under his guidance.

We cannot predict the future and we do not know when life will return to a new normal. In the meantime, we will use this time to build resilient kids who know that we are all in this life together, we need each other to survive and most of all we need to take care of each other.

We hope you are all well, healthy and safe. Thank you for being a part of our support system. We will reach out again when life has calmed down and let you know how life is going in India.

Ravi made lunch.

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