Thursday, July 11, 2013

Poona School and Home for Blind Girls

This morning I had the opportunity to visit the Poona School and Home for Blind Girls.  The bus picked us up around 9:30am from the hotel and drove us 45 min. to the school.  The bus ride reminded me how big of a city this is.  I knew Pune would be smaller than Mumbai, but I was thinking it would be more like the size of Asheville. Mumbai has over 20 million people in the city.  Pune has 3 million.  So yes, it is much smaller than Mumbai, but it is not small by any means. I didn't think the traffic could get any worse but it did. Apparently our hotel is in Camp Pune. This school was in the new part of the city, an even more urban part. Almost everyone was wearing jeans am tahirts an very few signs were in English. 



 When we arrived at the school, I immediately noticed the lush tropical plants surrounding the grounds.  It looked like a tropical rain forest. We went inside to talk to the principal and the assistant principal.  They both spoke English but had very thick accents.  We had a hard time understanding them at times. She told us about the school and that is was founded in 1924 to "give the blind light through school".  
We were then taken on a tour of the school. The school has a vocational center for the older girls.  These girls learn weaving, candle making, massage, sewing, knitting, braille printing, how to make bags, how to use a computer and how to make notepads.  They have a little store where they sell the things they make.  I bought 2 of their bed sheets,(which can be used as tablecloths) a  napkin and a towel all for 400 rupees...that is equal to $6.64. I almost felt bad for giving them so little for their hard work. During our visit, I kept wishing I was a millionaire so I could just hand them a check for a ton of money. It was all very sad, but inspiring at the same time. They were doing so much with so little. I don't think I'll ever complain again about not having enough resources available in my classroom. 
This girl was completely blind but could thread a needle in like 5 seconds. She was incredible. 

 Here is a third grade classroom. Most of the schools in India use rote memory style teaching.  The teacher lectures and the students listen. These students were studying the geography of India.  There were a couple of braille maps of India and the teacher had a book. Notice the walls are nearly blank, the chairs don't match and the room is practically empty.  

The girls live here 10 months out of the year. Here is the "little girls" hostel or dorm.  
Again, notice the lack of everything.  

It was hard not to cry when we were at this school.  It was old and not upkept.  The paint was peeling, the floor was dirty, but somehow it was all still very beautiful.  The teachers who got to visit the blind school for the boys today said they were told that India has 50% of the world's blind population. You would think with that many blind children, they would have a better facility that this.  All in all, I learned that good teaching does not come from "stuff".  Good teaching comes from passionate teachers who genuinely care about their students and want to help them learn.  
This school had so little but was doing a lot of great things to help the blind girls of India. 

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