Balamitra
Newsletter from August to October 2008
Newsletter August -
October 2008.pdf
Content:
Contents:
· Arrival
· Classes the volunteers have taken
· Music class
· Music class
· Ganesha Festival
· Craft work
· The field visits
Arrival
On the 27th of August, three new volunteers
from Germany arrived in Sagar Nagar, Visakhapatnam. As
in the previous two years these new volunteers have come
to India to work for one year at the Balamitra ModelSchool.AnnaStellmacher,
JosefineReiks and Jan Paul Dollinger (from left to right)
joined the children of Balamitra.
Classes the volunteers have taken
All the volunteers are teaching the children
English. Anna Stellmacher also teaches Drama, Music, Painting
and Form Drawing in class III and IV. Josefine Rieks teaches
Maths, Craft Work, Music and Form Drawing in class III,
IV and V. Jan Paul Dollinger deals with Maths, Geography,
Form Drawing, Craft Work, Geometry and Sports in class
IV and V.
Music class
Josefine is teaching class IV and V to
play the flute. She teaches the children by listening,
imitating and playing without teaching them notes, because
tribal people are used to learning instruments by listening
and feeling. The children are learning to play the song
“Morning has come”, which is known to all
of them.
In the other Music classes, taken by
Anna and Josefine, the children are learning new songs
to sing, for example the Hawaiian song “Jenny Mama”
and the song “Twist again”.
Ganesha Festival
On Sep 3rd we had the Festival of Ganesha.
We celebrated this festival, which lasts ten days, by
having a Puja for Lord Ganesha and by immersing the idols
of the Lord into the ocean.
During the week before, the children
had made their own Ganesha figures out of clay and on
the day of the festival, all the beautiful figures were
placed together with fruits, sweets, flowers and rice
on a great altar. We then gathered together in front of
the altar and we prayed and listened to stories of the
Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati.
After three days, all of us from the
school went with the decorated Ganesha figures (all with
a painted “bindi”) to the beach. During the
procession to the ocean the children sang prayers to Lord
Ganesha. We then immersed all the figures solemnly into
the sea. Because we had made the figures ourselves out
of clay, instead of buying them, it was a nonpolluting
action and a great festival.
Craft work
Together with class III Josefine has
made kites and paper boxes with different shaped shells
on them. Together with class IV and V Jan Paul has made
Coconut Shell bowls with different paintings and designs
on them.
The field visits
From the 24th to the 27th of October
2008. Seetharamaraju, Simhachalam, Sivaratnam and the
volunteer Jan Paul went for a regular field visit to the
village schools in the Poolabanda region. The first out
of the six villages they visited was the school in Buruguchattu.
The children and teachers of the school were evaluated
through simple tests. Attendance in the school that day
and the weeks before were monitored. Mostly two thirds
of the students attend the school regularly. The other
children had to work in the fields with their parents.
Raju and the training team tested the knowledge of the
teacher and checked the health of the children. The children
were mostly in good condition except for one student and
one baby who had scabies.
The next villages they visisted were
Buradapadu, Bodichattu, Chidimetta, Junjuruwada and Poduguputta.
There they did the same procedure.
After that they went to the resource center in Poolabanda.
Herbal medicine
On Oct 11th -12th Rajulamma, Josefine and the children
of class V went to the tribal village “Poolabanda”
to have lessons in herbal medicine there.
There they met Vemala Bhimanna, the medicine-man of Poolabanda.
Every tribal village has one of these
medicine-men, who has a great knowledge of plants and
their use, methods to prepare medicines for illnesses
from fever to wounds. They take care of the people in
their villages having no serious illnesses. If people
in the tribal villages have serious illnesses, they are
directed to go to the hospital. Rajulamma and Yerayamma,
who live in the Balamitra School double up as nurses,
take care and monitor the follow up treatments of children
brought to the city. Their duties include taking care
of the children’s health, looking after the sick
people from the villages coming to Vizag and referring
them to the city hospital. They take good personal care
and monitor and follow up on the medical treatment in
the hospitals and help them to understand their illness
and their situation and to make the right decision, in
case.
So class V, Rajulamma and Josefine went out to the fields
together with Bhimanna, who has dreadlocks and wears orange
clothes and looks really like the way you would imagine
a medicine-man looks. He explained the group about 40
different plants, their names and what they could be used
for and in which way. Josefine also took photos of these
plants for making something like an information-book about
tribal herbal medicine. Later Rajulamma and Bhimanna together
wrote down all the information about the healing plants.
The children, Rajulamma and Josefine
are going to prepare some of these herbal medicines by
themselves.
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