Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

They bring cheer to tribal children

— Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

sharing and caring: Louis Law (second from left) recalling her visit to the school run by Samata at Araku in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. Samata representative Kalluri Bhanumathi, Laura Eve-Cowles from Massachusettes University and Jayshree Hattangadi are seen.

VISAKHAPATNAM: At a time when government agencies are shying away from their responsibility of providing basic amenities in tribal schools, children from the United States of America (USA) have shown that even a little contribution can work wonders in improving the lives of underprivileged children.

The children were motivated by their teacher who showed them pictures and told them of the good work being done by an NGO in educating tribal children in India.

Louis Law, who runs four schools in Massachusetts, was impressed by the work of ‘Samata’ in its endeavour to provide quality education to tribal children. She visited the schools run by the NGO for tribals at Araku valley and also at Sagar Nagar in the city in December last year.

On return to the US in January this year, she narrated her experience to the children. “The children jumped at the prospect of helping their counterparts in India and readily agreed to my ‘Kids Count’ proposal. It was no big deal for them as many of them could easily contribute a penny or two for the project. They donated their pocket money besides raising donations and within a few months they collected $ 4,000. It was a big task counting the coins and the children themselves counted, segregated, weighed and bundled the coins,” Ms. Louis said.

“This apart the children prepared cookies and muffins and raised $ 175 through their sales. They donated their construction toys (building blocks) that help in easy learning. My elder daughter raised $ 165 through donations from the people and my second one raised $ 90 through a dance show.”

“It isn’t that only Indian tribal children are benefited from the gesture of my students. My children benefit from knowing about the rich tribal culture and family bonding in addition to learning the joys of sharing. The cooperation is mutual,” she says in a down-to-earth manner. “I was impressed by Greg Mortenson’s book “Three cups of tea” and his ‘penny drive’ initiative that helped in raising $ 20,000 to build a school for poor children in Afghanistan. I came to know about the work of Samata through Jayshree Hattangadi during my last visit to India.”

“Our objective is to enrich the native knowledge of tribals through creative teaching and motivation,” says Kalluri Bhanumathi of Samata. She was critical of the government for not extending the ‘mid-day’ meal scheme to the tribal school run by the organisation. The kids have, after all, proved that adults can count on them when it comes to sharing their resources.

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