Since early January, AID volunteers have been assisting some of the kids of Sudarshan Layout. In the initial days, we tried to accommodate all the (interested) students in and above the 10th std, but due to timing issues and in view of the board exams, we quickly narrowed our focus to std 10 students only. The way we work is simple: We solve the kids' doubts in Math and Science (and English if there is an occasional request). This often requires us to go to the most fundamental of basics (e.g., multiplication and even tables). The motivation behind choosing this style of working over chapter-by-chapter "classes" is that we didn't want to force them to sit through things they already feel confident about, nor did we want to create a school-like environment which can repel them. We teach them five days a week currently, mostly in the evenings. Similar efforts are being carried out in Aras colony too, although things are not as streamlined as Sudarshan Layout, due to lack of volunteers who can commit to a certain day every week. In all, we currently have about half a dozen volunteers who have taken up at least one day each. We are also taking the help of a Kannada-speaking 2nd year B Com student whom we are rewarding with a small payment. His role is to aid non-Kannada-speaking volunteers with translation as well as to tutor the kids himself. Very shortly, we are gonna conduct mock tests, to be followed by the sharing of tips on how to write the answer sheet - time management, what to leave, what to attempt first, the elimination technique for MCQs, etc. 

While it's not yet been our focus, from time to time we cater to 10th+ std kids as well. For instance, Saraswati, a B Com 1st year student is being helped with spoken English. She also finds Statistics and Accounts difficult, but we have no volunteer with that background, so we took her to NGO Prerna's Adugodi center and have sourced some help for her from there.

The above mentioned are all short term activities which will be terminated after the board exam. Then, the focus will be on strengthening the basics in a way that is fun enough to sustain their interest. We will most likely open this up for the kids of standards 7 to 9 too. That might also be a good time to start looking at funding. To this affect, a couple of us have already participated in NGO Prerna's house visits where we systematically mark observations that are used later in determining whether a student is worthy of funding or not. We are likely to adopt a similar model, although we haven't held formal discussions on this yet. Mentoring too will kick in around that time once we have PUC (and older) students with us.

A you would have anticipated, people who can read and write Kannada are ideally suited. But, in most walks of life, ideal things are very scarcely available! In our case, it's entirely unavailable. Thankfully, the kids from both the communities are Tamil and most of our present volunteers speak that language and are able to get over the difficulty of not being able to read the Kannada script. Non-Kannada-and-Non-Tamil volunteers are restricted to only English medium students, which are quite low in number.

The majority of these slum dwellers are Dalits and they have the utmost respect for Dr B R Ambedkar. Thus, the inclusion of "Ambedkar" in the name was done at the insistence of the kids.

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