For helping educate, is empowering an entire generation

Education is the only sustainable way that you can empower someone. And thus, in February 2014, I dared to fill in the form of Teach ForIndia Fellowship. Today, I’m teaching, 40 little 2^nd graders at a Municipal School in Kurla (Mumbai).

After working for a year in a small PR consultancy, I realized it wasn't my cup of tea. A knack for teaching, too much love for kids, and a desire to make a difference, made me join Teach For India.

My Classroom is full of love and joy. My kids are enthusiastic, they love art, colors, dance, answering and asking questions. They come from the communities around the school. Some also come from communities away from school.

My kids belong to the age-group of 7-8 year olds. This is the age when a child learns to become independent, develop values and mindsets, starts to build greater physical strength, shows rapid development in mental skills, begins to work in groups and express himself/herself in different ways.

Keeping this in mind, I have designed my presence in their lives. From Academic Achievement, Values and mindsets to Exposure and Access, I’m here to provide them with everything I can for empowering them to become independent and responsible citizens of India.

My vision for my kids is: they will be able to differentiate the wrong and the right, be passionate about whatever they do, and be able to make a difference to the world around them in whatever small ways they can.

For this, here are some things I’m doing in my class:

1.     *  We and Our Heroes: Our Class will learn about fictional and non-fictional heroes, their work, their life, their people and their values. We will identify and meet the heroes in our community and learn from them. We will have at-least one idol, which will inspire us to reach our individual goals more efficiently.

* We are a team: We will learn to work in a team, respect each other, and work hard to achieve our goals. We will demonstrate our class values outside our class too. We are also going to play lot of football.

* The ‘WHY’ behind our learning’s: We will know the why behind everything we learn in class, our class rules, class consequences, values etc. We will ask questions and seek to learn every moment.

I signed-up for this single-handedly but to achieve this vision and the goals I need your help. Not only do I need a lot of stationary, books, I need finances for classroom resources, field trips and other logistics.

Your contribution will not only empower 40 kids, but also empower those 40 kids to empower other several people in their communities. You will help in empowering the future. This is a movement, to being a change, to make a difference; it’s a movement towards education equity. If we all believe in this movement, trust me, one day all children will receive an excellent education.

Though I can’t afford to return the favor, but I promise to keep you updated about the happenings in my class. Also my kids love meeting new people, and you are welcome in my class anytime. You will also receive cute drawings from my kids (They absolutely love making gratitude cards) for your generous contributions. And what is more valuable than those smiles.

You can help me in many other ways. Reach out to me with your suggestions and questions through mails at ruchika.thakkar2014@teachforindia.org.  I will be glad to hear from you.

Hoping to get your love and support.

PS: Sharing a link to my Flipkart Wishlist : http://www.flipkart.com/wishlist?link=home_wishlist

I need a Football coach urgently. 

Love,

Ruchika Thakkar

“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose”
― Charles Bukowski