ASEEMA

Aseema Charitable Trust is a Mumbai based nongovernmental organisation with the main objective of providing underprivileged children with a quality education. Through the use of technology, highquality educational materials and a nurturing environment, the students are learning new content and developing useful skills with each session. Due to the guidelines provided by the organisation, volunteers are able to provide students with a holistic and relevant education that they can apply to their daily lives without much difficulty.

 

As volunteers at Aseema, in the first session, we were introduced to the organisation and its key objectives. Browsing through their website and conversing with one of their supervisors helped us in achieving clarity about how to proceed and utilise each session efficiently. Additionally, we understood the role we were going to play to make a difference in these students' lives. In the first few weeks, we worked as content creators. Each of us were allotted a subject, a topic and a grade-level at the beginning of our sessions. We prepared materials that would be sent out to the students according to our designation. Whether through recording videos or interactive tutorials, finding or making questionnaires, worksheets or games, we were completely engaged. I'd like to add that because we had SMART goals, we were extremely productive with the tasks completely. Eventually, after we developed the content that Aseema needed, we began to teach the students, whom we provided the resources to, directly. During the week, Ms. Sheetal Daver would send across the aspects that we had to teach to ensure that we had enough time to plan our lessons. Some mathematical skills we taught them included multiplication, division and remainders. Moreover, we developed their English-speaking skills by playing games and conducting conversation classes. These communication skills are essential for them to improve their job prospects, self-esteem and confidence. We have also conversed with them on a personal level and built a safe space for them to talk about their problems and passions openly. These little conversations, according to me, motivated the children to continue learning and hope for a better future.

 

 

Our experience working with Aseema was enriching and unforgettable. We, ourselves, learned innumerable things while teaching such as collaboration, video-editing, improvisation and time management. Technology played a very prominent role in making this activity possible. We could connect and interact with the students despite the Covid-19 situation. Lastly, we would like to thank Ms. Sheetal, our CAS coordinators and Aseema to make this experience extremely special.

 

Annette Mehta