Good Samaritans join hands to educate kids of migrant workers in Udupi

They students raised funds to purchase stationery kits for these children, who were divided into groups depending on their class

Fifty children of migrant labourers in Padu Alevoor in Udupi, who study in nearby government schools, look forward to the visit of their favourite 'akka' and 'anna' from Madhava Kripa School in Manipal. They have been helping the children speak English just like their peers in English medium schools.

The informal spoken English classes for children of migrant labourers were first launched as an online session during the Covid pandemic by Madhava Kripa School grade 11 student Prahlad Madhu, founder of NOSFAM (Not a school family), an educational student-led initiative.

He and his friends Aryaa Praseed, Maruti Madhu, Nidhi Varma, Deepika Sreejith, Mohammed Hassan, Thushar Hebbar, Jatin Kotian and Sahana Thenkillaya decided to take up the initiative of teaching spoken English to children and financial literacy to adults in the colony.

“On noticing my friends teaching children in slum areas in Mumbai, my friends I and decided to educate underprivileged children in our locality,” Prahlad told DH when contacted.

“During the first few days, children were very excited but also restless. They were not used to people visiting colonies and teaching them. As the sessions progressed, they realised we were helping them and got used to the classes. They overcame their inhibitions and began initiating conversations with us in basic English sentences,” he said.

They raised funds to purchase stationery kits for these children. The children were divided into groups depending on their class. They were taught basic grammar, self-introduction, rhymes, and common words used in conversation.

‘’They were also initiated into reading sessions, to make them acquainted well with English. In collaboration with Childline, we organised a few activities for the children also,” Aryaa Praseed said.

These Akka and Annas, besides conducting spoken English classes, help them in their school lessons.

“We also had collaborated with the Government School in Ambalpadi and conducted a crash course with basic English alphabets on the online
mode for children in the school,” she said.

The students took learning to the next level by conducting programmes in English. To provide a platform and help children express what they had learnt, NOSFAM organised ‘Saksham 2023’ in the second week of March.

All our activities during the programme were held in English, recollected Prahlad who has represented India at many international debates.

‘’We had a spell bee contest in which four teams with two members participated. This consisted of words of all difficulty levels. Apart from this, there were also three English skits based on Tenali Rama stories. The impact is such that the children were able to present three skits in English effectively, Prahlad added proudly.

“NOSFAM has two chapters - one in Aurangabad and another in Kolkata, where our friends are running similar projects in their own areas,” he added.

The students who are part of this project told DH that the school authorities and their parents were supportive throughout.

Prof Kokkarne Surendranath Shetty, a visiting faculty of the school, lauded the initiative by the students for students.

‘It’s a good effort by the children of Madhava Kripa School who in their own way are ushering in changes in the lives of underprivileged children. The students formed a group voluntarily to take up the pro-societal work,” said Prof Shetty who teaches Political Science at the school.