Newsletter — Feb 09 to June 09

Blessed by a few welcome showers of rain in the first week of june, the entire Sittilingi valley heaved a sigh of relief.Temperatures that were soaring at 40-41 degrees Celsius, came down to 34-36 degrees C.The grass, plants and trees responded in a flash to the rains by sprouting fresh, green leaves.The scorched, dry dusty brown summer cloak is gone and the Valley is green and beautiful again.

At Thulir our group of senior students Perumal, Senthil,Vinu, Devagi and Rajammal have grown and bloomed into a very responsible, confident, enthusiastic, sincere group and are now guiding and teaching the younger children.They also take more responsibility in the administration and management of Thulir. For instance, they all worked very hard in May in-spite of the blistering heat. May was supposedly holiday time in Thulir, i.e. we had no classes. But we had more physical work this month than most other times. We had to deepen our well, repair the mud floors and walls of the classrooms,take stock of the books and learning materials. etc… The seniors took charge of most of this work and with very little guidance, completed the work well.

Deepening work in our open well

Three boys from Moolasittilingi village who had wanted to join the Basic Technology course begining in June also came every day in May and worked hard with us. We were really amazed to see this.We had not asked them to work, nor were they getting paid. But here were these 3 teenagers – considered failures in school, spending every day of their holiday working intensely. What was motivating them? The freedom? The feeling of being treated as equals? The space? The fact that there was no compulsion? The example of the seniors working seriously? One doesn’t know.

Painting walls with home made cement-mud paint

Wiring work in Thulir office building

New Batch joins us for Basic Technology Course

As we write this, new teenagers keep coming in to join Thulir for the Basic Technology Course this year.We had decided that we will start the course from June 15th. Instead of a formal interview or test to select students where some would have to be rejected, we have asked the interested students to come in for a trial period and participate in all the daily activities. At the end of it, both sides could decide whether they should join the course or not. Three adivasi students from a village near Gudalur in the Nilgiris have come to join the course today [24th June].They have been selected to undergo this course by the Vidyodaya Education Team, who are interested in the concept of this course. We hope they would adjust to this vastly different environment and would complete the course. Activities have started with the group in the meantime.

One of our dreams this year is to document the classes/ work done in the Basic Technology course and share it through this Blog. So watch out for more posts in this space!

Summer workshop for the seniors

From May 25th to 31st we had a workshop on “Learning and facilitating Learning”. This was primarily a preparatory session for Perumal, Vinu, Rajammal, Devagi and Ezhumalai; to help them teach the younger students this year.The sessions were a mix of discussions, readings [John Holt, Totto Chan, Sylvia Ashton-Warner etc.], activities,use of teaching aids, trying out creative ways of language and math teaching and practical discussions on problems they encountered last year while teaching the younger children.

Running:

Santhosh Padmanabhan continues to inspire and guide the students. With his help and guidance Senthil has taken charge of the running training for the younger kids. A group of 6-8 children practised running every morning at 5. am throughout the summer. Santhosh visited Thulir in May along with Manjula Sridhar of Asha to interact with this group. He took Senthil, Perumal and Ezhumalai to Bangalore to participate in the Sunfeast 10 Km run on 31st May. After the run he arranged for them to visit Ananya School in Bangalore and interact with the students there. More details in the Team Asha Blog

On 20th June Perumal Ezhumalai and Vinu participated in the Valley School run.After the run they were able to go with Sudhakar of Mrinmayee to purchase materials required for Thulir, in the Bangalore Market area. These trips outside Sittilingi are valuable learning experiences , offer exposure and increase confidence among our seniors. Thanks to Team Asha and Mrinmayee for making it possible.

Traning Programme on installation and maintenance of Solar Photovoltaic systems.

With the help of V.Ramasubramanian of VillageRS Thulir conducted this 3 day training programme in April.We have been using Solar PV systems for lighting and computers successfully for the last 5 years in Thulir. We have acquired some knowledge and skills in installing and maintaining these systems.Over the years we kept getting requests from various friends / groups to train some of their personnel. Hence we decided to hold an organised training programme for 3 days in April. Mr. V.Ramasubramaniam, of “VillageRS”, an expert in alternative energy systems and the person who helped us design and install out PV systems , was the Resource person. We had participants from Hunnarshala Bhuj; Mrinmayee, Bangalore; ACCORD Gudalur; Payir, Thenur and Sittilingi. The group was a hetrogenous one with varying academic levels and langauages, and backgrounds. So planning the sessions was challenging. The Sessions were a mix of theory and practicals and we got a positive feed back from most of the participants. For us it was a very good experience. For Senthil and Perumal, who anchored some of the practical sessions, this was a confidence boosting experience.They could see some value in what they had been doing as a matter of routine.

A session on testing of  Solar PV panels

Perumal Teaching assembly of white LED bulbs

Organic Vegetable Farming

Interest has been sustained and the plants grew well. So we got some organically grown  vegetables for the Thulir kitchen. but the water crises and the deepening work of the well in May affected our farming, and we haven’t got the expected yield for the kitchen from these plots. With the new batch of students in, enthusiasm has increased and they are working to get one small portion of the land for rice cultivation. This year so far the rains haven’t been good and the well water is still not enough for agriculture, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and waiting for rains.

Harvesting onions

Getting the vegetable patch ready

An experimental raised bed for vegetables in Thulir, after seeing in Auroville!

Our corn harvest!!

Evening Students Classes

With the begining of the new academic year in June, we had a big spurt in the children coming to Thulir for the evening classes. With a few weeks of settling down and classes/ activities/schedules falling in place, now there is some order and consolidation. As we do usually, we have made groups on the basis of academic levels and age and classes have started in right earnest.

Writing Stories

One of the activities we did end of last academic year was to get the children to write their own stories and produce books and then read it out loud to the rest of the group. It was great fun and the children did the work very seriously. Already there is an increase in confidence levels when it comes to reading and writing among the younger children; this year we hope to work further and go beyond just the basics.

Govindammal

Govindammal, one of our seniors, got married and has moved out of Sittilingi.

We wish her all the best and a happy married life!

A lamp assembeled in Thulir using white LEDs, waste CD and papermache work

News update Sept 08 to Jan 09

Welcome to the News update from Thulir. In this post we review happenings of the past 5 months

Marathon Fever

As we write this blog today our senior students – 3 girls and 4 boys, have just finished participating in the Auroville Marathon. We just received an excited phone call from them. The marathon fever has been spreading in Thulir for some months now. After Sridhar’s visit for the science camp [see our earlier news update], Team Asha came to Sittilingi for their pre marathon trial run in preparation for the Cauvery marathon.This visit inspired the Thulir students to take up running. Senthil and Vinu participated in the Cauvery marathon on Oct 19th. Senthil finished the full marathon and Vinu did a 10 km walk. Spurred by this event, other students of Thulir showed interest. Team Asha has been very supportive by hosting the students, providing running accessories and encouragement. Santosh Padmanabhan has been in regular touch with us through phone and email, patiently and diligently providing training schedules and following up progress. His sensitivity to the children’s background, his confidence in them, and his thoughtfulness have been  major factors in their accomplishment today.

Our children are born athletes and up till now their talents have been neglected and have had no opportunities to flower. Training for and participating in these events have given them a tremendous leap in their self confidence. It has also given them an opportunity to travel and to interact with the outside world. It has long been our wish that Thulir children would get opportunities in sports and we had felt handicapped by our lack of skills and resources in this field. Team Asha and Santosh’s  effort  has been a wonderful beginning and we  are looking forward to such possibilities  opening up in future. See team asha’s blog for more details and pictures.

Pongal / Kolam Festival Jan 9th -19th

Pongal, the harvest festival, and a time for celebrating and thanking nature was a week long affair in  Sittilingi. At Thulir we had our annual Kolam festival. The highlight this year was the increase in the number of boys making  Kolams. Traditionally this has been considered a women’s domain. We were invited to visit students’ homes at Moola sittilingi, Sittilingi and Nammangadu throughout the week. Being a part of the festivities and interacting with all of them socially was a very refreshing experience.

Exposure visit to Timbaktu – Dec 9th to 14th

We have always had warm and fruitful exchanges with the Timbaktu school and children’s Centre. In the past students and teachers from there had visited us; students from Timbaktu and Thulir have jointly attended training workshops and executed projects.So it was highly exciting for our older students and staff to finally visit Timbaktu as a group.Since the students of both the places were similar in social backgrounds, skills and faced similar issues, they got along extremely well with each other even without a common language to communicate with. We had workshops where both groups taught and learnt from each other. Our group came back inspired and strengthened by the visit.

Bee Keeping workshop

Justin from Keystone foundation was here on Dec 19, 20 and conducted an intensive hands on workshop in beekeeping. Since we had about 8 working colonies of bees, Justin could demonstrate all the steps in Bee keeping practically. The workshop was held to introduce bee keeping to newer students and a few interested farmers; and to provide further training to the earlier students.It was a success in both respects.

Music and crafts workshop.

Thulir walls sported a colourful look after the visit of   Lalitha from Centre for Learning, Banglaore who was here in the first week of December. She did  intensive music and wall painting sessions with the senior students and clay work sessions with the juniors. Being an experienced teacher, she was able to draw out even students who were inhibited in singing and painting. There was enthusiastic participation.We hope she would continue visiting and teaching us.

Building Construction

The common Kitchen and Dining hall construction is finally over and we are all heaving a big sigh of relief. The construction while taking significant time and effort, has provided an opportunity for a group of local youth to be trained in alternative construction techniques. We also have added much needed office space and guest accommodation.

Parents meeting
This year we invited the parents of the older children to come individually or in groups of 2 to 3 persons. We showed them in detail what their children have been doing at Thulir and some of what they have learnt. We spent 2-3 hours with each group, reported on the progress of individual student and discussed with them our plans, their expectations etc. All of them were happy with their children’s progress.We hope to do this with the other parents too.

Priya Nallan’s Visit:

Priya Nallan of Asha Princeton visited us. Though the visit was brief, the interaction was good and we feel encouraged and look forward to a continuing and meanigful relationship with Asha Princeton.

Visit of Rishi Valley students/ staff:

Abinanad, Ira,  and Siddharth, students of Rishi Valley school interacted with our students and conducted sessions in sketching, painting and making friendship bands. Another student, Abhay, made keychains.

Mr Dilip Joshi, a teacher from the school amazed us with demonstartions of furniture making using cardboard.

Prof Ravindran and Mrs Vanaja Ravindran

have as always been regular visitors and have been taking classes in language and science. Prof’s classes on repair of machines have been of great value and our senior students have grown in their confidence to service faults in our equipment.

Crafts camp:

Our evening sessions especially during rainy seasons and winter, are sometimes too short for intensive craft work. Now a days the children have stopped coming on sundays and come on Tuesday evenings instead. So we decided to have two-day camps to get more time for intensive work. We had one crafts camp in September. Around 20 children stayed over during the weekend and made bamboo keychains, friendship bands, greeting cards, paper jewellery etc.

Support of Asha Bangalore:

We are happy that Asha Bangalore has decided to support activities at Thulir. This has come at a crucial time as the newly registered Trust is in its infancy.Several visits have been made by volunteers from this chapter and we have had good interactions with them. We hope this partnership would flourish in the coming years.

Health workers’ classes:

The THI hospital has started training a new group of Health workers. Twice a week this this group comes to Thulir for classes and discussions on social and environmental issues.Some of the topics covered include tribal culture, tribal self respect, terrorism, suicides in the community, global warming [causes and effects] etc.

Vegetable gardening:

When vegetable prices skyrocketed in October and November, no vegetables were sold in the weekly vegetable market at Velanur. We had to make do with the little that we were growing. This situation and the subsequent visits to Timbaktu and Auroville [where our students saw good vegetable cultivation], have inspired the group to start organic vegetable cultivation on a serious scale this month. We hope to sustain our enthusiasm and reap the benefits!! This is important as most youth in our villages are reluctant to engage in gardening and farming activities.

As always we look forward to your comments and feedback!!

***********************************************