Why, Ash, why?
And so, here I am back in India again. Again! It seems a little stupid to be back here again, but let me try to explain and what I’m trying to achieve.
I am back in India to take part in a program that I have already done, but am coming back as a team leader for some volunteers who are working on a different project. Last year, in Jan 2017, I was a part of a team gathering information on the needs of people within a specific village using lots of surveys and interviews. This time around, I am a team leader for a project that is creating an after-school classroom for English education using tablets. My team is responsible for finding an appropriate village-member to take the role, for finding and renting a space in the village for the class, enrolling and testing students, and then opening it all up.
I am not sure about the impact that our research had for our community last year, but I am confident in the small business we are leaving behind to help those young students into their teenage years. The work of the business I am helping, 40K, really is exceptional and they have been justified for the support they’ve received from MIT, Google, Australia Social Enterprise awards, DFAT and more. I have been thoroughly impressed by their use of technology to help deliver an education that is effective and cheap enough to help the poorer members of the community, but not the poorest. One of my team members is studying teaching and she was blown away by how much the students had learnt in such a small time.
As I’ve walked through the village for these most recent days, it has been a transformative experience looking at people’s faces and seeing them as parents that work hard for their kids to have better lives. My western-cultured glasses have always worked to separate me from the humanity of these people by the assumptions placed on the people within these communities. Just the work so far I have done in social enterprise is breaking down that immaterial self-protective ignorant fantasy to see their complexity and their value of human beings. Whilst it is monetary value that has broken this barrier of assumptions and money is a very destructive force, I am truly grateful that at least it has helped me to see the lives of the poor as the lives of those struggling with less money. We all have to make sacrifices with our money, and being able to recognise that common struggle to provide the best for those you love, help to make this trip a transformative one.
I have also seen how 40K has continued to work in villages and help educate kids for 5+ years and that work will continue as kids finish the program and bring in new faces to educate. Through one month of intense work and many hours of follow-up and improvements, 40K has helped to make a business which challenges me to make the greatest impact I can and assist these other people, people who I am finally seeing with less assumptions and greater sincere empathy.
To help increase the number of classrooms that 40K has a foundation to manage donations and grants. This money goes directly to making more classrooms open for kids to learn English using tablets. If this is work you want to support, then please donate below.
https://40kgroup.raisely.com/ashleys-team-february-2018
Otherwise, thanks for reading about why I’m here, and feel free to send any questions to: ashley.j.wild@gmail.com
Have a phenomenal day!
