Introduction to Parijat Academy

We have been planning to spend some time volunteering for 12 months or more. We knew we wanted to work in India (because of Monali's roots) and had originally thought of working as volunteer teachers in a Himalayan school (on the Nepal / India border). However, as we were waiting for Monali's citizenship to finalise we were stuck in the UK until October and with end of year school exams occurring here in India during early December it would not have been helpful for two bumbling idiots like us trying to teach while the children were revising for their important exams.

Uttam with the children of Parijat

So we looked elsewhere focusing on Assam as i) Monali speaks the lingo and ii) if we worked out of Guwahati then we were assured of a decent place to stay (believe me 'hostel' accommodation provided to most volunteers is pretty basic, especially the bathroom -  lets just say at the grand age of 33/34 I'm not sure how long I can maintain the squat position - now I know why yoga is so popular in India!!).

Thanks to the magic of Google we discovered the Parijat Academy on the www.omprakash.org website.

Omprakash is an organisation which tries to link volunteers to needy organisations and is ideal if you are trying to avoid the normal 'volunteer' experience (or glorified donation) which it involves paying 500 quid and rocking up to a location in the middle of the jungle with a load of other backpackers for a week and building a treehouse or something similar to keep you occupied and out of the way of those people actually doing something constructive.

A new concrete classroom costs around £7k or $11k - about the same as the school's annual running costs!

Parijat Academy was started by a man called Uttam Teron in 2003 as a one classroom, four student school. Indeed the initial classroom (now kitchen) still stands outside one of the more substantial new concrete buildings. He has gradually built up the school's roster to over 500 children (though this being India, many often do not come to school) with 19 teachers (including himself) and 10+ classrooms. He provides free education to the children in the community and tries to address those specific children which the government have failed (i.e. drop outs and children passed through the education system as teachers can not be bothered).  His ultimate goal is to improve the life of the community, concentrating on women and children, by also providing a healthcare centre, a disability centre, adult literacy and vocational programmes.

Uttam is a passionate man, full of ideas and energy, but remarkably humble. His work is regularly recognised regionally, has featured nationally (Uttam was voted one of India's 35 youth icons in India Today magazine http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/113864/Cover%20Story/uttam-teron-right-vision.html) and  now potentially even internationally with the Indian CNN affiliate visiting during the past three days to film his work for the 'Real Heroes' programme (http://www.cnnibnrealheroes.com/) - his award will be presented by the chairman of Reliance Industries March 2011 (Reliance is a huge conglomerate here with like many Indian businesses interests in everything).

In fact one of Uttam's biggest problems (aside from lack of funding) is that he has so much energy and so many good ideas - he finds it difficult to prioritise, what to work on next and as he has had no exposure to techniques used in the modern business world he struggles to convey a structured approach to developing the academy.Until now he has been reliant on individual donations to run the organisation but is constantly under pressure with dwindling resources.

Therefore, we have agreed to help Uttam create a strategic plan for Parijat. We have spent many hours discussing all of the ideas he has, some ideas we have generated and the results of multiple Internet searches for similar organisations, government funding, legal obligations, CSR funding...there are countless resources out there, but with no telephone line we are reliant on one USB 'broadband' (well its broadband until around noon when the rest of the city comes online) connection.

Hopefully we will get the strategic plan finished in good time so that we can spend the remainder of our time here trying to implement some of the ideas. The school is in desperate need of new infrastructure (classrooms and a hostel), a good management structure and some more formalised processes - I think we are going to be doing a lot of this remotely for a few years to come!!

Look how natural we are with kids......

We will try and update a little more regularly now - with some more stories about the organisation, the local community (we travel to a tribal village tomorrow in the jungle!), children's stories, future plans and some of the interesting people we have met!

We will also let you know how you can help if you are interested!!