Five students of class XI (Gauri, Sanya, Pritika, Yash, Kashish) went for an internship with the Hope Foundation located at Basti Hazrat, Nizamuddin from 22nd to 31st May 2017.
The Hope Project was founded in 1980 by the Sufi preacher, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and currently runs a community health centre, a crche, a non-formal school, vocational training courses, a thrift and credit programme and a womens micro-enterprise unit. It strives to provide the poor and vulnerable with opportunities and resources to realise their potentials and determine their future.
The students were allotted different departments there, where they interacted with the students and assisted with teaching them aptitude-appropriate subjects.
On the first day, coordinator, Mr. Masoom, oriented our students with the vision and mission of the organisation along with how it works. The students were divided into groups, and were guided to work in the healthcare department, the crche and the library. The healthcare department serves the medical needs of the community and aims to provide a comprehensive health programme involving treatment, diagnosis and medication. The underprivileged of Nizamuddin Basti, Sarai Kale Khan, Srinivaspuri and Nehru Nagar regularly visit the healthcare department for their medical needs.
Our interns lent their support in the OPD and the homeopathy departments. They also worked at the reception and maintained a record of the diagnosis and treatment of patients for future referrals. They learnt to manage the finances and records.
[gallery link="file"]In the library the students helped in sorting books into categories. Working with little children at the crche was also a very valuable experience for the students. The purpose of the crche is to meet the needs of household help who live in the Basti and do not have a safe place to leave their children behind when they go to work. The crche has a supervisor and a coordinator with 3 trained support staff to look after the children. Our young interns organised interesting activities to help the children in a holistic way.
Special craft classes were held for the children in the age group of 5 to 8 who were taught to make paper bags and pen stands using waste paper. The children loved listening to stories and rhymes which our students narrated and sang for them. The crche is more than a just a day care facility as it grooms the children to secure a bright future.
The interns regularly engaged the children in interactive sessions. They assisted in teaching fundamental concepts of math and science and English conversation. The students seemed delighted with their new teachers who seemed so accessible!
It was an excellent learning experience for us. We learned the ropes of how an NGO is run and simultaneously got a chance to do our little bit for the less underprivileged. We realised how blessed we are.
Gauri Bassi, XI E.
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