Setting a rare example to boost the morale of the children of women prison inmates and to facilitate their primary education, a teenaged old girl studying in Pittsburgh (USA) is using her vacations to spend time in lucknow district jail.
Priya Singh Rajawat (16), a Rising Senior at Sewickley Academy in Pittsburgh (USA) is making a heartwarming display of solidarity with her motherland, by continuing with the programme of outreach to children of women inmates of lucknow jail.
A student of standar 12, Rajawat said that she took time off from academics and extra-curricular activities to make it an annual routine to fly to lucknow - her mother’s hometown. She spends 2-3 weeks with the deprived children of women inmates of lucknow district jail.
Priya said that she has a two way engagement with the kids - a mix of work and play and of teaching and imbibing. She croons Bollywood tunes, plays board games with them and teaches them nursery rhymes. She has also gifted books, stationary and white boards to children to help them read and write. Recently, she started a fund-raiser website (www.baalsevak.com) to expand her philanthropic deeds.
Amongst her umpteen friends from the jail, Priya is especially fond of two blind kids who inspired her to continue playing the trombone. A few years back, as a middle school kid under severe academic stress, she thought of quitting her favourite instrument. However, it was upon encountering these two visually impaired kids during one of her visits, that she unwaveringly devoted to perfecting the harmonium and resolved to carry on playing the trombone. She gifted a brand new harmonium to each of the kids.
Priya says she’s deeply attached to her friends and plans to carry on with her efforts well into the future.