This video gives you an idea of life at Shanti Bhavan in the children's own words. Pretty amazing, right?!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Getting started...
Shanti Bhavan is a residential school for children ages 4 to 18 located near the rural village of Baliganapalli in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. A two-and-a-half hour drive southeast of Bangalore – India’s equivalent of the United State’s Silicon Valley – rural India offers a stark contrast to the modernity and technologically advanced urban city center. Founded in 1997, the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project charges itself with breaking the destructive cycle of poverty that is all too often the norm in rural communities across India.
Shanti Bhavan (SB) is a co-ed residential school that focuses on early intervention and in-depth, progressive schooling for its students on a beautiful campus featuring modern, hygienic facilities and a committed faculty and staff comprised of both Indian teachers and international volunteers. Children are admitted to the school at the age of four and continue their schooling through the completion of high school. Upon entering college, Shanti Bhavan continues to support the students financially and offers them a mentorship program to guide their continued progress.
SB serves children from India’s poorest communities – those often called dalits or "untouchables." They come from families and communities often forgotten or ignored by the rest of society. Without opportunity-providing interventions, they are destined to become rag-pickers, quarry laborers, or sex-workers, like those who came before them. All of the children educated at SB come from families that make less than $1 a day, and often they come from one-parent homes. (To offer a bit of perspective, the gap between the rich and the poor in India is massive. Over 75% of India’s population lives on less than $2 per day, and 1 in 9 people in the world live in an Indian village.)
Dr. Abraham George, founder of The George Foundation (of which Shanti Bhavan is but one project) said:
Shanti Bhavan means “Haven of Peace” in Hindi and that is what the school aims to provide for the children in their care. The school holds its students to the highest educational standards, believing that children of poverty are no different than more fortunate children and, if given access to quality education, they will realize their full potential.
For the next few months (from January to April) I will be living and learning alongside the students, faculty, and staff who make Shanti Bhavan their home. I will be teaching classes and extra curriculars, learning what I can about the educational model Shanti Bhavan is practicing, and contributing what I can to their work. I am uncertain as of yet how (or if) I will be using this blog during my time in India. It is possible that I will post antidotes and photographs, that I will share student stories, or that I will reflect on my own experiences. I am unsure what time I will have available for posting, but I wanted to have a space available to do so as desired.
In the meantime, I encourage you to read about Shanti Bhavan and consider how you might contribute to their work. You can find them on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I leave you with a brief video to introduce you further to SB and the work they do.
Peace and love to you.
Shanti Bhavan (SB) is a co-ed residential school that focuses on early intervention and in-depth, progressive schooling for its students on a beautiful campus featuring modern, hygienic facilities and a committed faculty and staff comprised of both Indian teachers and international volunteers. Children are admitted to the school at the age of four and continue their schooling through the completion of high school. Upon entering college, Shanti Bhavan continues to support the students financially and offers them a mentorship program to guide their continued progress.
SB serves children from India’s poorest communities – those often called dalits or "untouchables." They come from families and communities often forgotten or ignored by the rest of society. Without opportunity-providing interventions, they are destined to become rag-pickers, quarry laborers, or sex-workers, like those who came before them. All of the children educated at SB come from families that make less than $1 a day, and often they come from one-parent homes. (To offer a bit of perspective, the gap between the rich and the poor in India is massive. Over 75% of India’s population lives on less than $2 per day, and 1 in 9 people in the world live in an Indian village.)
Dr. Abraham George, founder of The George Foundation (of which Shanti Bhavan is but one project) said:
“My thought was, how do I empower these people, the poor? I could think of one way – education. One good place to put the investment is on children. Most poverty models that exist today don’t emphasize quality; they talk about quantity. If you’re going to permanently break the cycle of social and economic disadvantage, you have to do something different. If we can create an institution – Shanti Bhavan – that would take a few children and give them the best care and the best education, and they become leaders of tomorrow, they will carry with them hundreds of others – their own families and many more. They will make their own contributions for the future generations. And if we had 100 Shanti Bhavans, we can break the cycle of social discrimination. 2,000 years of the caste system can be broken in 50 years if we would have many Shanti Bhavans.”
Shanti Bhavan means “Haven of Peace” in Hindi and that is what the school aims to provide for the children in their care. The school holds its students to the highest educational standards, believing that children of poverty are no different than more fortunate children and, if given access to quality education, they will realize their full potential.
For the next few months (from January to April) I will be living and learning alongside the students, faculty, and staff who make Shanti Bhavan their home. I will be teaching classes and extra curriculars, learning what I can about the educational model Shanti Bhavan is practicing, and contributing what I can to their work. I am uncertain as of yet how (or if) I will be using this blog during my time in India. It is possible that I will post antidotes and photographs, that I will share student stories, or that I will reflect on my own experiences. I am unsure what time I will have available for posting, but I wanted to have a space available to do so as desired.
In the meantime, I encourage you to read about Shanti Bhavan and consider how you might contribute to their work. You can find them on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I leave you with a brief video to introduce you further to SB and the work they do.
Peace and love to you.
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