Going to school is not an easy task for children in the villages of ladakh. They bear extreme weather conditions and travel long distances to get basic education. To bring some cheer to their lives, a fast food chain collaborated with a local NGO to open up a library and playground in a school. Such little efforts by organisations are encouraging parents to keep sending their children to schools despite the odds, says Divya Kaushik
It was not the toughest but surely a challenging situation I was facing. My audience was not older than 12 years. I was being gawked and giggled at while I was struggling to describe a picture in my hand. I never thought defining a motorcycle would be such a Herculean task. None in the class of nine students had ever seen a motorcycle. But they liked the name, repeated it “motrrrcycle,” “motocycle” to each other and laughed. The awkward moment suddenly turned into an interesting exercise. Such exercises continued for over next one hour, which for me was a discovery that storytelling (in the language that children don’t even understand) can be a form of rejuvenation. My students only were able to learn two new words — almirah and motorcycle — from the story My family. The lessons for me were many, of patience and art of expression.
A day at a government school in Kanji, a small village in ladakh, was turning out to be a field day not only for the students but even for me and my companions. We met students and narrated stories from the books picked up from a new library that had been set up in the school with help from the NGO called 17,000 ft Foundation. The organisation had set up 100 libraries in ladakh schools to develop a reading habit among students and expand their horizons.
Setting up of playgrounds has also been an exercise in progression. It helps in keeping the students and parents interested in education.
A playground with swings and slides is a luxury for students, who have to travel long distances to be in school where basic necessities like toilet and electricity are missing. The school at Kanji is an example. The small village is inhabited by poor peasants who run their livelihood through occupation like farming. A few families in the village depend for their daily bread on the members of the family who stay and work in leh. Take for example, Shiring Dorjee, a “retired tehsildaar” and a member of Village Education Committee (VEC) of Kanji school. While taking us for a walk around his village he shared that while his son has been working in leh, the daughter-in-law has been a teacher in Srinagar. “It was very difficult for her to return to leh during the floods and the entire family was in a state of shock. So we are not sure if she will continue,” he said. Thanks to trekkers and volunteers of NGO at Kanji school, Dorjee’s family earns an additional income by providing food and accommodation to the visitors. “Kanji is famous among those who come to trek and while many prefer to stay in tents, some go for bed and breakfast accommodation. My family and two other families, who have comparatively bigger houses, provide that. In the tourist season that is from March to September, we get around six visitors. If they are volunteers they stay for a week or even 15 days. Trekkers do not stay for more than two days. We charge around Rs700 per day for food and lodging,” informed Dorjee, who has interesting stories from the guests and tourists that he met in his village. “I met a foreigner who asked me the meaning of the word, Kanji, the name of our village. I told him that it means the bottom or a surface that is surrounded by mountains from the four sides. I was curious why he asked that. He replied that he met his lady love in Kanji while he was here to trek, married her later and they named their first child Kanji. He wanted to know the name of the word since his son is often asked about the meaning of his name,” he smiled.
Dorjee stopped and pointed at a small structure with crumbled walls. “This used to be the school at Kanji which was till class five. It used to run in a small room and most children of my times studied here, including me. After studying here, those who wanted to continue learning travelled to Khaltse for further education. Over time all of us have realised that education is important. At least, if one would study till class 10 or 12, they can find a job in the Army or in some hotels. There is a lot of scope in tourism sector, so we make sure that every child in the village at least gets basic education to earn money in future. Girls can also become teachers in schools, if they will study,” he said with his eyes gleaming with hope. But he and other villagers are not expecting miracles, knowing that they are still deprived of basic necessities. “We know that change will come gradually, therefore we try and support every organisation that is coming and helping to improve the state of our school. We get electricity only from 7 to 11 in the evening and for food we depend on our local produce. We have a small ration shop from where we collect our stock of grains and daily consumables once in a month. But winter months from October till March are difficult,” he said.
When I returned to my class, students had completed the assigned task. The white sheet of paper was swathed with colours. Just like any ladakhi home, prayer flags of different colours were at the top of each sheet, as was said in the story, and every member of the family was painted on the sheet. But they did not draw themselves. I asked them the reason why and pat came the reply from one of the students, “How can we be here when we are in schoolIJ” Giggles and claps followed that.
Our next stop was a private school at Khaltse, a place lot more commercial than Kanji. The school was getting ready for a grand function and the aroma of fried chicken greeted us as we entered. We could see that KFC was all over. The officials from the brand were running from pillar to post to ensure that the big feast they planned for school children at the lamdon Jamyang Khaltse School was being organised on time and that things were running smoothly. The event was the opening of library and playground at the school that was set up by the NGO in collaboration with KFC. The fast food chain ran the campaign during Christmas last year, #KFCwishbucket. They received several requests on the social media from their fans across the country. Some wishes were funny and some noble. One was by the NGO to help them set up libraries and playground at schools in ladakh. The wish was not only granted by KFC but an entire event was planned to add some cheer and joy to the lives of school children. “This campaign started as a fun exercise and we were surprised by the kind of noble requests that we received. But this was something special and we are glad that we did it,” said Dhruv Kaul, director marketing, KFC.
The school that has around 42 children had luckily enough space to set up a library in a separate room. There was a huge space to be converted into a playground where the slides and swings were set up.
The inauguration day was a big event not only for students but for teachers and parents, who turned up in their traditional dresses to be part of the big day. “It is rare that we have such programmes here. We are happy that what we are spending is not only getting our children education but also making them happy,” said Tenzing, a mother of a four and six-year-old, for whom sending children to a school was no less than an ordeal.
“It is difficult to send children to school with our income but we do not want them to stay deprived of it. This school is the only option we have and it is only till class eight. All I want is that my children should learn to speak in English so that they can get some work outside Khaltse when they grow up,” she said.
Apart from the craze of slides, the other big reason why the tiny tots were on cloud nine was the big feast organised by KFC.
It was apparent that they don’t know about a brand, but a delicacy like fried chicken, as a meal, was a luxury for them.