Newsletter Spring 2010
Click on the pictures to enlarge
In our last newsletter we had to write that Rohit left Ganga Valley Homestay to work with his brother in the teastall. We are very happy that now we can write that Rohit is with us again since February 2010. After a few visits from Rachel and Kees, Rohit’s brother agreed to send him back to us.
Rahul (12 years old) has also come to stay with us. Rahul was working in one of the hotels in the neighbourhood and stayed with his brother. He was very eager to go to school and left his job. He has worked hard and now he can read and write in both English and Hindi. At the moment he is in third grade.
Jitender, who is 8 years old, is another boy who has come to stay. He is very shy; fortunately he has the company of his elder brother Sahil, who is with us since several years now. Jitender is studying very hard in first grade and likes drawing.
About our visitors and volunteers
Swami Ramanand has visited the school and the homestay and with his donation we could buy a laser printer with a scanner. We have already made a lot of worksheets. It is very convenient that we don’t have to go out anymore to do the printing work, it saves us so much time! Every time we make a print out we think of you, Swami Ramanand!
Inge has given Claude (from France) a Devanagiri course. For these lessons Claude made a donation to the school, for which we could buy many educational DVD’s and puzzles for the children. Claude has also been helping Manish with Hindi & English on a daily basis. Being able to read and write Hindi herself, Claude could even give him dictation in Hindi. Manish has worked hard, doing more homework than Claude gave him. We have seen he has gained a lot of self confidence from these extra lessons. Both Manish and Claude were very sad when she had to leave, but fortunately Claude will try to come back still this year. We are all looking forward to seeing you again, Claude!
Griet (our volunteer from Belgium) had a visit from her father. He also came to see us and brought stickers and delicious Belgium chocolates for the children. He also gave a donation and therefore we could apply for internet, which has proven to be very useful in our classes. Many thanks for the possibility to make the lessons of our students so much more interesting!
Talassi has come in March to visit us again. She brought many sweets for the children and donations from Antje Sievert, Nicole, Andreas Reiss, . We bought course books for class 5 (6 students) and class 4 (6 students) from anjea donation. Nicole, Andreas Reiss and Talassi donated funds in specific children’s behalf and as is our policy those funds will be utilized for all of our children as required. We want to thank Talassi warmheartedly for all her work in supporting us.
Through Ashley a group of 4 American people has visited us. They stayed for tea and danced with the children. We enjoyed their visit very much, it was great fun! They made a donation for school, for which we could buy school books for class ( five students).
In March Kees and Inge went home again to The Netherlands. But first Sahil, Deepesh and Vipasana did their final typing tests. They have obtained their certificate for blind typing, all three with more than 100 beats a minute and only around 1% of mistakes! The other group of students (Vandana, Anjali, Laxmi and Ashish) has also worked very hard and will probably do their typing test later this year, when Kees and Inge are coming back. Rachel and Raj managed to obtain internet for the classes and therefore it was decided to postpone the classes for Word and Exel until next time. Instead, the children had the opportunity to practice their English in different ways. The internet offers many possibilities to learn English in a practical way, like listening exercises with comprehension, ESL quizzes and so on. Even for the youngest students (who already master some English vocabulary) there are quizzes with images. Internet in the classroom is a big hit, the children are now much more motivated to learn and use English.
Events
The children have not only worked hard in school, they have also performed in several dance contests. For their performance in “Rishikesh Idols”, Deepesh, Vipasana, Vandana and Renu won the second prize with their hoop dance. We are so proud to have the medals and the cup in our TV-room! On Independence Day the children also performed several dances in a community function and again they went home with a few prizes.
,This year our annual function was celebrated on International Women’s Day. We combined the performances of the children with games on stage for the mothers of our students. The presentation this year was very professionally and enthusiastically done by Nidhi, our head teacher. Within the framework of International Women’s Day, we honored several women from the society, our volunteer Inge, who is very committed and Talassi, who is supporting us continuously.
Newsletter Winter 2009
This year we had some changes in the home stay situation. The big boys are now sleeping in our room (the TV-room) and Rachel has moved to the room of the volunteers on the second floor in the front part of the building. Bina and her husband are now sleeping in the big room with the smaller children.
In May 2009 two other children came to stay with us, Rajan (10 years old) and Shivani (7 years old). Rajan is a nephew of Vinod and comes from Bihar where he had no opportunity to go to school. Shivani comes from Rishikesh. She is the eldest of 4 children and was helping her mother by taking care of the other children. In this family there is no father to support them. In October Manish was brought to Ganga Valley School by his father. Working as a porter, his father was not in a position to send Manish to school.
Unfortunately, two children had to leave our home stay, as their parents wanted them to start working. Rohit is now helping his brother in their teastall in Ram Jhula, while Ajay is selling necklaces and ice cream in the street. We are very sorry that these children don’t have the chance to enjoy childhood any longer, but there is nothing we can do about it. We don’t have custody over the children who are staying with us and their parents can take a decision like that any time. We hope they enjoyed the time that they were with us.
About our visitors and volunteers
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In summer Om and Rasina from Sweden came to visit us. When they left, we received a huge donation for which we are very grateful. We will keep the money for future plans as probably we will need more classrooms in the near future.
Our first volunteer was a man from Australia. Nathan arrived in Ganga Valley School on July 8th, 2009. He brought 2 suitcases of clothes for the smaller children, which were collected by Jeff and his wife. We want to thank both Jeff and his wife and Nathan as well for surprising us with such nice clothes which we found folded so neatly in the suitcases. After 2 weeks his brother John also came. Together they made nice open cupboards for the children’s room and also some shoeracks which we placed under the staircase in front of the children’s room. John had to leave already after 2 weeks and Nathan left at the end of September to go on a tour through India and Nepal by motorbike. Nathan intended to come back before he leaves again for Australia to make a kitchen rack and bookshelves.
Since October the school gets some extra help during the week from Griet and Tien. Griet is teaching English to the young boys. She also gives a special art class for the younger children. In this art class the children create presents for the customers who are buying in our shop. This way we can show our clients our appreciation for their contribution. The children not only learn English in a playful way, but they also develop their creativity.
Tien, Griet’s husband, has set up the computers, so we have the maximum benefits in the English and typing classes.
Kees and Inge, our volunteers from last year, are back since the beginning of October. They have rented our guest apartment and a lot of special educational activities are going on there.
They started again teaching the eldest children maths and English with a special system which is called “LOCO”. The children like very much to work with this system and it really puts them to work. With this system the children can check themselves whether they made any mistakes. Inge brought many exercises for both maths and English grammar. Most of the original exercises can be used, but Inge also made a lot of exercises for this system herself.
This time eleven children (Deepesh, Sahil, Ashish, Vipasana, Laxmi, Anjali, Vandana, Ganesh, Renu, Raj, Shankar) don’t only learn English vocabulary, but also grammar. Kees and Inge think its important that the children really apply the grammar and they brought many boardgames to make the children speak English correctly with the grammar they just learned.
Kees and Inge have also arranged for typing classes for Deepesh, Sahil, Ashish, Vipasana, Laxmi, Anjali and Vandana. We have placed our computer in their classroom, so now 2 children can take a typing test at the same time. At this moment the boys can already type all the letters. That is not an easy task, because Inge has blinded all the keys with coloured tape! Yellow means that all these keys have to be typed with their small finger, green means use your ringfinger etc. The children are not allowed to look at their hands or at the keyboard, but they use a master sheet which mentions all the letters and which is placed on the table, just above their keyboard. The children learned the letters row by row (4 new keys at a time) and so far nobody has made more than 4% of mistakes. Inge told me that in all previous typing courses nobody made more than 0,5% mistakes at the final exam. We will let you know the result of our children in our next newletter.
The results in typing class are very promising for the boys and therefore we are planning to make these children familiar with Word and Excel in February 2010. The children will be able to practice Word & Excel for one month before Kees and Inge go back to The Netherlands. We even have applied for internet in the classroom, because so many professional teachers of English as a second language put their material on the internet free of charge, so it can be used by other teachers.
Events
October is the month of festivals. The children have been really happy celebrating Dusera and Diwali. They all received new clothes, many sweets (which we made ourselves) and gifts from Inge and Kees.
There was very special food and in the evening we all went to the roof for fireworks.
At the moment the children are rehearsing for our annual function. As usual, there will be a variety of performances, not only singing and dancing, but also a play (including hoopdance). The function is planned for March 2010.
We are planning a picnic on Christmas day. Kees and Inge will organise a big hoolahoop contest with prizes. They are already making new hoolahoops, so there will be enough hoolahoops for all children.
There was very special food and in the evening we all went to the roof for fireworks. At the moment the children are rehearsing for our annual function. As usual, there will be a variety of performances, not only singing and dancing, but also a play (including hoopdance). The function is planned for March 2010.
Newsletter Spring 2009 (updated)
Annual function
In March, we had our end-of-school-year function, which was a big success. At the event, the children performed dances from each and every Indian state. The attendees also enjoyed very much the hula-hoop dance the children performed and choreographed. As usual, we also had an environmental play.
Visitors
We had a wonderful visit from Talassi who brought lots of goodies for the kids. The children were very excited to get clothes, shoes and toys. Talassi also bought a cupboard, bed and kitchen equipment for the school. While Talassi was here, one of our boys fell ill with malaria. He was lucky that we had donations available at that time for his treatment at the hospital. The boy is now well and doing fine.
In March, we had visitors from Chile who performed a ballet dance for the kids. The children especially liked the many gifts the Chileans brought. Gurusahai and her friend gave a lot of their time teaching yoga to the kids and Rachel. The techniques learned are now being used daily at the school. Our friends from Chile found a lot of goods at our shop which they bought to take back home. We all thank them very much for their purchases.
A group of Americans led by Ashley as well visited us. Dinner with them was very entertaining for all who attended. We thank our friends for their visit and contribution.
School Activities
Final exams at the end of March kept everyone very busy with studies. The children did well and will all move to the next level.
Recently two more live-in students joined our school.
We are currently on holiday since May 15 to July 1. During that time, the kids have been having a good time going on picnics, to waterfalls and amusement parks.
Click on the pictures to enlarge
Newsletter winter 2008/2009
New building is finished
The building with the room for the boys and the guest flat was finished at July 2008. The 10 boys are really happy that they have their own room. Two boys share one bed. The two boys who share a bed also share a box where they keep their belongings so they can keep the room neat and clean. The boys have their own bathroom which they keep very clean them selves. In their room they sleep, play and do their homework.At the moment the guest flat is housed by Inge and Kees, a married couple from the Netherlands.
The Dushera festival trofee
Last October the children performed very well at the Dushera festival with their dance performance for the Laxman Jhula community. They won two prizes by dancing an Indian National Dance, a devotional dance and a local village dance in their beautiful self made costumes. Congratulations Children of the Ganga Valley Homestay/School!
In memoriam
We also have some very sad news. Last month one of the children of the Ganga Valley School, Sunny, died of a snakebite. He was only 6 years old. We miss him a lot. We all are very sad that he died this way and we wish his family strength to deal with his dead.
New volunteers
Since December 15th 2008 Inge and Kees came to live in the guest flat of the Ganga Valley Home stay. They are a married couple from the Netherlands who teach the children after school English and math. For many years they come to India for 3 months each year to teach underprivileged children who need help with learning English and math. Both of them speak Hindi so they can really communicate properly with the children.Inge is really passionate about teaching and she prepared many materials for teaching when she was back in Holland. With the materials she brought to India Inge can teach the children English and math during tuition in a playful way. The children love it and always come early.
At the 15th of December, Nicole a volunteer whom is also from the Netherlands came to stay at the Ganga Valley Home. Each morning she helps two or four children from pre-school with their math, like practicing counting or practicing which number is the biggest. She also helps the children with their homework after school and she helps one of the girls, Renu, individually in tuition.
Winter activities
During the holiday the kids are preparing for the function of this year. They will perform a play who is written by Rachel. They will also perform a dance. As in the past the teachers and students are planning beautiful hand-sewn costumes for the dancers and hand-made decorations for the school are being designed and created by the staff and students.During the holiday the children also attend tuition to keep up their schoolwork. They have tuition in the morning and in the late afternoon. In between they practice for the function. They also get a hula-hoop course from Inge which is a lot of fun and they are going to learn to play softball.
Ganga Valley School News / Fall 2008
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