Team Asha at Sita School

Sita School has been supported by Asha Bangalore for more than a year now. We support the entire running expenses of the school. The school was started in 1975 to try to address the problem of many local children not going to school and the fact that many children dropped out of school. The reasons were varied and included economic factors and lack of flexibility in mainstream schools to accommodate children with special needs. The schools also were not attractive to children and if parents were not motivated to send their children to school the children rapidly left.

The school is structured in a way that children can enter at any level and are encouraged to learn at their own pace without pressure of exams or fear of failure and disapproval. Literacy is only one aspect of education. Learning that fosters solely the growth of the intellect is often fundamentally disconnected with life and therefore, oppressive to children. Sita School tries to create an environment which stimulates the child not just intellectually, but also emotionally, creatively and socially.

From Sita_school_overview_health

About 20 of us - many from Team Asha and other interested volunteers did a car pool at Cubbon park on August 29th, Saturday for a trip to Sita School. Even as we reached, the kids were assembling and getting ready for the run with the team! We spent some time introducing ourselves to the kids and even got on the trees :)

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

We then started on a run/walk for about 3.5kms/7kms. The kids had a lot of fun and it was a very scenic location with beautiful green trees, grasslands, eucalyptus forests, mango groves and so on!

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

After the run, we all had a wonderful breakfast of Uppitu, Bananas and Tea. It was under a big tree with all the children as well. Even as all of us gathered for breakfast, Jane interacted with the runners to give them a background of Sita School.

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

After breakfast, Jane gave us a tour of the school and we discussed the philosophy of the school, the teaching methodologies, integrated learning and goals of the school. We met with a few teachers who showed us a few activities for teaching various concepts related to science and language. We also had a discussion on integrating children with disabilities in the school.

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

Last year, Sita School children designed and printed a lot of calendars for Asha. Asha volunteers sold the calendars to fund raise for Sita School. The funds support vocational training and continued education of children graduating from Sita School. Here is more on it by one of our Asha volunteers, Sanjeev Ranganathan

This year too, children are doing the design and hand printing of Asha calendars. After the run we got a glimpse of the work involved. Its quite rigorous and time consuming with all the elder kids involved. The kids who had passed out and are currently supported by the funds also contributed time and efforts for the calendar.

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

The pictures were all painted by the kids themselves. The kids were involved a lot in the printing process as well.

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

After the runners left in the morning, many of the Asha volunteers helped in the calendar making process along with the kids.

From Sita_school_calendars_teamasha_trip

Overall it was a wonderful day at Sita School and a unique opportunity to learn more about diverse efforts supported by Asha Bangalore.

More Photos are here