SIGNATURE CAMPAIGNA DFC 2012 PROJECT BY ANANDO

OUR GROUP

All of us live in the same

locality and have been

friends for a long time. So we decided to work together for this year’s DFC project

AMISHA

POOJASARASWATI

AMRITA

POONAM

FEEL

Our mothers

are very

dear to us

and we

wanted to do

something

for them

While we all go to school many of our mothers are not literate. Whenever they have to sign a

letter or document they

give their thumb

impressions

IMAGINE

We wanted to change that …

we wanted them to be able to say confidently that they could sign!

And we could teach them ourselves!

We visited the houses in our locality and talked to our mothers, aunts, grannies and neighbors to learn of their views

We asked them about when they had spare time and how often they could get together.

10 ladies showed an interest in our venture!

With the help of our mentor we drafted a letter

and took permission to use the local community

room

We could now meet here every

Sunday afternoon.

DO

It was now time to get ready for

our teaching experience!

We collected paper, pens, slates , chalk and dusters …making sure

everything was clean and ready

to use.

Before long our classes had started !

Out of the 10 ladies, 4 came

to learn. But we were not

disheartened….. it would help us

teach more effectively we

felt.

We held our classes for 1 hour every

Sunday afternoon.

In between we encouraged

them to keep practicing. The

ladies could take the slates home to do so.

Those who were not teaching helped with

organizing tea, alerting

everyone when the classes

would start and generally running errands.

One of the mothers

already knew how to sign her name .

But she wanted help to perfect the letters

and improve the way she

wrote.

Another wanted to learn at

home as she felt shy about coming to the

community centre, which is a public place.So one of us taught her at

home.

Soon everyone was writing their

names confidently !

And then they were writing with pens as well as with

chalk.

We were surprised to see

that it was more difficult

for the ladies to write in pen

than in chalk.

SUCCESS!

We wanted to give something to the ladies to reward them for

their efforts and help them remember this

experience.

So we made picture frames and inserted

their own photographs in

them.

On the last day we had a party!

We held it at Amisha ‘s house

and all of us played hosts.

Amisha thanked everyone and

then we presented the

gifts to our students.

All the ladies spoke of their childhood experiences with education and why they never went to school. There were some interesting stories there!

They also said that they would now be proud to ask for a pen every time they had to sign rather than extend their thumbs.

BAHUT BAHUT BAHUT MAZA AYA!

We were a bit scared at first as we thought that the ladies would not listen to us and we would get scolded at every turn! But it turned out just the opposite……

The last day when everyone was so happy gave us a warm glow inside. It was the best day!

STUDENTSPEAK

They can hold their heads high now!

It did not matter that only 4 came. We were able to teach them better.

FUTURE PLANS

All the ladies want to learn more !

We are planning to set up more classes and teach them basic numbers and reading skills in the coming months