september 2003
The First three months since our shifting to Sittilingi are over and we thought its time to update all our friends and wellwishers about happenings here in Sittilingi
----Our moving to Sittilingi
The shifting from Gudalur to Sittilingi was emotionally difficult but logistically a very smooth operation with our Gudalur friends and colleagues providing us lots of support and help in packing our things and in transporting. This May and June Sittilingi went through one of the worst summers [tempt. soaring to 43 C compared to earlier max of 39C]. The day we arrived in Sittilingi we were greeted by thunderstorms which cooled the place down considerably.
Friends and colleagues in Sittilingi have been kind and generous and have made us feel welcome and it has helped us a lot in settling down. Housing is still a problem and Regi and Lalitha have put us up [and are putting up with us!] in their spare bedroom. The common kitchen has been a blessing, taking care of the food requirements.
The Staff meeting of Tribal Health Initiative and the Trust meeting were good opportunities for us to discuss our plans and get valuable feedbacks. Apart from the above average rainfall in the past three months, our shifting in has coincided with the arrival of the phone connection! So finally Sittilingi is begining to get the benefit of the communication revolution! We can no longer say that this is a remote village with the nearest phone 12 kms away!! Of course the lines are yet to be fully functional [the net connection is very very unreliable yet].
----The Learning Resource Centre
[Called “THULIR”..a tamil word meaning "a tender shoot", also "to sprout" ]
We have started the Learning Resource Centre in a rented thatched hut in the Village. We spend weekday mornings there. We started by taking classes for our two boys here and arranging books and learning materials. Regi and Lalitha’s son Abhay [8 yrs old] and Bharathi [5year old son of Ravi who works in the Tribal Health Initiative office] have also joined for these sessions.wWe have been under a lot of pressure from the village to start a school, but we would like to settle down a bit in our new environment, get acqainted with the children and their context,people"s concerns ,get some assured funding ,prepare some learning materials and a clearer strategy of work,find a suitable space for teaching before we start teaching the children.
----Visits to some alternative schools
Vikasana, near Bangalore:
Visiting Vikasana and meeting Malathi was a valuable experience. Hearing her rich experiences of teaching village chiliren with minimal resources has given us a lot of confidence. We also got familiarised with Horsburgh’s way of teaching..
Puvidham:
Puvidham is located in a village near Dharmapuri [ and so, for us, is the nearest alternative school.]. This school caters to the village children of the area and we got to see Meenakshi’s improvised teaching aids made locally for a fraction of the market costs. Meenakshi has offered to help us to make similar materials.
Poorna School, Bangalore:
Meeting Indira who started this school and her children [“founder” students of Poorna!] gave us a lot of confidence that we too can have our children grow up with us here in Sittilingi. Though an urban school, this school too showed us how with limited resources meaningful education can be achieved.
Sita School, outside Bangalore
We made a very brief visit here. Meeting Eleanor Watts and talking to her and Jane Sahi was the highlight of this visit. Eleanor has written a number of primers for teachers and students and had herself started a school in rural Andhra .Jane sahi started the Sita school. Both of them have enormous experience in working with rural children and discussions with them were very helpful.
All these schools offered to help us in our attempt here in Sittilingi and this has given us a boost of morale. In fact we can’t wait to get started in opening up the Resource Centre and beginning sessions for the village children.
----VillageVisits
We have been visiting villages with the health staff of Tribal Health Initiative when they go on their Weekly field visits. This is to get ourselves familiar with the place and also to meet the field staff of Tribal Health Initiative who are our present contact in the village. We are also visiting the village Govt. Schools, to actually get to know the condition there.
----Visitors
We had several visitors dropping by, both old friends as well as new well-wishers. They have patiently listened to our dreams, plans and frustrations and have offered suggestions support and solace. Having them here has been of great value to us in settling in this new place. Kiran and Beena Waghela from Bhuj came with us on the day we shifted! Anita Satish from ASHA brought us upto date with the happennings in their education network and promised to help get us support. Dulhari [a medical student from CMC Vellore] visted and we hope to see more of her here and help take a few sessions with the children. Mark Russel from Ireland and Kurt Buhner from Germany also spent a few days, interacted with the children and helped us out.
----For the next 3 months:
We plan to build a small structure to house the Resource Centre,since there is no space available for rent. We have been on the lookout to buy a piece of land for the same, the past 3 months, but haven’t been able to buy one yet. At this stage, a couple of possibilities have appeared and we are hopeful of something materializing soon. The Tribal Health Initiative has promised to buy the land with its resources, and we have to raise the neccessary funds to put up the buildings.
We plan to start some evening activity with the children as soon as we have a place ready. In the meantime, we are preparing some materials for teaching/learning. We expect the next three months to be crucial, and are looking forward to it.
Thank you all for the support extended to us and we hope for your continuing support.
With Best Wishes.