EOTO (Each One Teach One) Site visit report

 

 
About EOTO:

 

Each One Teach One Charitable Foundation is a development organization working towards overall development of municipal school going children. It works with children from socio-economically deprived sections of the society. The organization has targeted these children from the lower strata from 5 municipal schools in Mumbai, 2 schools in Bangalore and 1 in Bhopal. The organization envisages its role as being responsible for overall personality development i.e. physical, emotional and intellectual development of each child, in addition to providing daily necessities like uniforms, books, stationary, mid-day snack. EOTO was started in the year 1983 with 5 children from Sion school. Till date more than 5000 children have been beneficiaries under the aegis of EOTO and 550 continue to be under their patronage. Over the years, the organization has diversified its outreach through appropriate programs. Among these is a new project to support a group of students from the mentally challenged school located in the same premise as Sion municipal school.

 

 

Visit to the New Sion municipality secondary school (01/17/03)

 

 

The school:

 

EOTO schools in Mumbai

 
The school is located in Sion Koliwada area and the children attending are from communities around and most from economically backward class. There are altogether 45 children enrolled in this school out of which 38 attend the school regularly. The school has 1 Principal, 2 teachers and 2 helpers provided by BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). These teachers have basic training to deal with mental handicaps. Apart from these teachers, EOTO has a team of professionally trained individuals.

 

 

The facilities:

 

The children are provided with uniforms, books, toys, stationery and mid-day snacks. Once every month, birthdays of all the children during that month are celebrated. There are three classrooms, as the children are grouped as per their mental abilities and are trained according to their needs and level of learning. Educational toys and games and other visual aids form important media of teaching them, as it is natural for these children to learn faster through these rather than the conventional teaching methods. They are taught important everyday skills like identification of money of various denominations, to count, to make money transactions. The children are taught the essentials of living so to speak. The whole aim is to help these children become self-sufficient individuals.

 

The children participate in recreational activities like singing, drawing, story telling. It is a promising sign that 5 children regularly attend computer classes being run at one of the schools of EOTO. Two children go for additional drawing coaching. They are especially given vocational training, in which they learn to make greeting cards, lamps and other handicraft items. They also interact with regular children from other schools during competitions arranged by EOTO. They have been taken on excursions to places like planetarium, zoological garden, IMAX Theater, Nature Park.

 

They are also being provided with medical help. As a part of the program, there are regular check ups and medical evaluations. These children have the facility of subsidized medical prescriptions. Along with these measures, these children are being taught yoga, importance of hygiene and cleanliness. To counter malnutrition and food related problems, they get nutritional snack.

 

There are also informal programs to equip the parents and guardians of how to deal with such special children, most of them being from lower economic strata and are also illiterate. Many of them still feel mental retardation as social stigma; associate it with witchcraft and other superstitions. It is imperative to educate the families of such children about the condition of these children and make them realize that it’s a medical problem and can be controlled, if not totally cured, with proper and timely medication. EOTO sends teams to their homes to persuade the parents to send their wards to the school.

 

These children stay under the coaching of the school till the age of 18, after which they are sent to a vocational center run by government where they are offered training program and provided with jobs based on their individual abilities.

 

 

The children:

 

I got an opportunity to spend some time with these children. It was a touching scene when I entered their classroom; each one of them folded their hands and welcomed me saying “Namaste”. Each one had an innocent smile on their face. My visit being close to 26th January, they had been preparing for republic day celebration. One of the boys, Ilyas, sung a song. It was impressive to see how the child could sing the entire song by memory, and had a good sense of music.

 

There was also a group song, it was a patriotic song, and it came as a surprise to me, seeing the synchronization between each one of them. This included children with different level and type of mental handicap, but this was not apparent from their singing talent. There was a very young child (don’t know his name), who stood up and started pumping his fist, making me wonder that they do know the meaning of patriotism more than we do!!

 

 

 

Group patriotic song

 

Ilyas singing a solo (he’s got a voice like Mukesh)

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Mentioned earlier, two students, Rahul and Sunil, go for drawing classes, and it was a pleasure watching their paintings and sketching. An example of which, I’ve attached below.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rahul and Sunil displaying their drawing

 

 
 

 

 


It was interesting interacting with these children. One girl, Pratibha, is a good dancer and singer and is also good at craft; a girl, Sapna, one of the smarter students, as told by the principal, she cooks at home, does all the household activities. A young boy, Raqibuddin, likes to do sketches of lakes, ocean and drawings having water sources with crayons.

 

 

Suggestions:

 

A lot is being done by the organization for these special children. However, it is pity to know that there was couple of dropouts from the school. One of the cases, parents declined to send their daughter to the school but continue sending their son. This discrimination, an inbuilt element of our Indian society, needs to be dealt more forcefully, and this comes as an appeal to all such organizations and not just EOTO that they should fan out to reach the parents and guardians of such children and make them aware of their duties.

 

EOTO could take more initiative to work along with the government vocational centers, to assure placements of these children, once they are 18, and I was not clear about the status of the children once they graduate out of this school, though they are sent to the vocational center, my concern is about following up of these cases by EOTO.

 

 

 

Visit to the Ghatkopar School (01/17/03)

 

 

The school:

 

This school is located in Ghatkopar, and is attended by children of the nearby Vidyavihar and Ghatkopar localities. Children coming to this school from these areas belong to families in lower economic section of the society. Like the other EOTO schools, this school runs in one of the rooms of the Ghatkopar municipality school.

 

 

The facilities:

 

EOTO has a classroom on the 4th floor of the school building. This center has children coming in two shifts. The lower class children who have lectures in the afternoons attend EOTO class in the morning, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. while the children from secondary section with their lectures in the mornings, attend EOTO class in afternoons.

 

The selection of children is done on the basis of their financial needs. EOTO takes a list of children from the school authorities. Children from economically backward families are short-listed, and then EOTO sends its teams to the families and assess their financial condition. The children are interviewed before finally being selected.

 

The school has a teacher who tutors these children in all their subjects along with two helpers. The medium of instruction is primarily Marathi. I met a X-student of EOTO, Deepak who is pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Science and also works part-time to teach these children subjects of English and Mathematics. EOTO has a huge base of alumni who regularly take part in the teaching process of their juniors; this is how the name of the organization, Each One Teach One, originates. There are a few social activists and volunteers who monitor the learning of these children and help them on academic front.

 

On Saturdays, these children are taught by EOTO alumni about practical day-to-day expertise like managing bank accounts, commuting in Mumbai local trains (which I believe, is a tall order, all my fellow mumbaikars would not differ on this one). On many Saturdays, there are competitions like singing, elocution and dramatics. Then there are sport events, like kabaddi, carom, cricket, khokho.

 

There were carom boards in the classroom, also some books on general knowledge. I was told that these children learn yoga and take karate classes too. All this is apart from the regular supplies of uniforms, stationery, books and a healthy snack. Like the school for mentally challenged children, the EOTO School for regular children also stresses on vocational training. Hence they are taught drawing, craft and computer skills. There was a sewing machine in the classroom and upon being asked about its use, I was told that earlier, sewing was being taught, but off late they weren’t getting a good teacher for the same.

 

The children are also given computer training. Most of them know to operate computer, work on word, paint, excel and other important tools.

 

For the children of Std. IX, during their summer vacation, EOTO arranges for study training workshops, where all the children from other EOTO schools participate too. These students are taught efficient ways of studying, memory techniques to aid their preparations for exams. For children who’ve appeared in X std., they are given special vocational guidance and counseling to aid them choose their careers. EOTO lays special importance on making different vocational opportunities available to these students, for instance mechanical drafting, carpentry, welding. There are personality development workshops for these students. There is provision for personal counseling for all students as well.

 

Then there are also other programs like annual day celebrations, prize distribution, inter EOTO schools sport meet, farewell parties and picnics. There are frequent medical camps, and the children are taught about hygiene and health care issues.

 

 

The children:

 

I got only half an hour to spend with these children, but it was an enriching experience. I could meet only students of std. X, as they had their prelim exams going on and had come to school on that day. Initially, they were hesitant to speak with me, and were busy cracking jokes amongst themselves. There were some behind the back statements on me too, but hardly they knew that I can understand Marathi, and once I told them I did, it was fun to see their pink faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls from std. X, Ghatkopar School

 
 

 

 

 


I had to try out an icebreaker to get them to talk out. I personally approached students and asked them about their hobbies and other non-academic likings. It was heartening to see that each one of them had interest in various activities like dramatics, sports (cricket like most of the true Indians, badminton, marbles, carom, soccer, chess), knitting, learning computers, karate, singing, dancing and many more.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys from Ghatkopar School, Std. X

 
 

 

 


Few were even inquisitive to know what I was doing, why Asha is supporting them. Most of them had a fair idea of where their careers were headed. One student (a girl) enquired about pursuing higher studies abroad, which was interesting, because when I was in std. X, the thought of wanting to know about higher studies had never crossed my mind. One student promised to draw me my portrait, but there wasn’t enough time for that.

 

 

Suggestions:

 

The schools being located in Greater Mumbai and its suburbs, EOTO has an option of exposing these children to various vocational activities, which it is doing. But it will be more beneficial to get trained professionals to counsel these children. I haven’t attended their vocational training programs, but sure would like to see more involvement of qualified people.

 

Overall, EOTO is succeeding in its aim of “being the light that helps the children to dispel darkness and rediscover the joy of living and learning”.

 

 

Ravi Manghani

Asha Seattle