UPDATES FROM THE FIELD
Here’s a little window into the goings-on of our India office! These are the compiled articulations of our staff’s current obstacles and little triumphs this week—in their own words—to give you a closer illustration of day-to-day life in iSanctuary Mumbai.
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From our program director, Alyson
Challenge: Keeping participants consistently focused and engaged is a challenge. Our educational environment is unlike any that most of them have experienced before, and it's difficult to orient to using parts of their minds that have not been encouraged in the past.
This week I'm experimenting with a few strategic changes to our class plans in order to engage students better and accelerate their development of critical skills and mindsets.
Victory: “Joining the Academy has clearly enhanced confidence, along with a sense of self- direction and responsibility, in a number of our participants. Two in particular impressed me this week by proactively asking our teacher for make-up work to catch up when they were ill and missed a class!”
From our new jewelry designer, Collyn
Challenge: “I am still learning how to create an environment that fosters motivation. Right now I am focusing on connecting with each participant on a deeper level, but that process takes time.”
Victory: “Making the first model of a jewelry design can often be a slow and frustrating process. I am incredibly proud of how hard everyone has been working to create our Spring and Summer 2017 designs. It's going to be such a beautiful collection.”
From our Academy teacher, Pritish
Challenge: “I fell sick at the start of the week. I have almost recovered. I am learning how to deal with the frequent change in weather.”
Victory: “The assessment tracker is complete. I am looking forward to using the data to guide the instruction.”
From our social worker, Shalem
Challenge: “With varied levels of comprehension it becomes challenging at times to communicate and ensure each and every student is understanding the points. But the use of visual aides, discussions and quizzes has helped in communicating the themes.”
Victory: “The theme for last week and the week ahead was on decision making, which includes understanding how the brain senses and responds resulting in decisions at all times. The students were struggling to comprehend that the brain makes decisions at all times, but as we continued to remain focused, the doubts and queries were clarified using visual representations and group discussions. The students have started to appreciate the fact that the brain makes decisions at all things even though we're are not aware about it.”
From our communications associate, Kate
Challenge: Working in this sector is incredibly rewarding but, at times, emotionally trying. Learning about how to take care of myself while engaging deeply with the tough issues that we tackle at iSanctuary has proven to be a trying feat.
Victory: My personal celebration for the week entails a project I’ve been working on for several weeks—creating visual aides for the classroom. I am so excited that weeks of brainstorming and designing the visual aides have finally come to fruition! A series of educational and motivation-themed posters are finally printed and hanging in the classroom for our students to use.
From our founder, Stephanie
Victory: “A mini victory was watching the Academy math lesson take place upstairs in the workshop. It was so fun to see math taught in a way that relates to the students’ real lives. I wish I had been taught math like this when I was in school!”
Challenge: “Getting one of the many Christmas shipments out without our production manager! It was tough but I am so proud of the way everyone worked so hard, partnered up to complete big goals, took on extra responsibility and challenged themselves. I think several participants surprised themselves at what they accomplished!”
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Because of the girth of obstacles we confront—ranging from the serious societal inequities threatening the safety of our participants to the quotidian infrastructural challenges of running a social organization in Mumbai—it is vital for us to reflect on the pressing areas where we can improve our work, while acknowledging and giving thanks for our successes. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are immensely grateful for all of the staff’s and participants’ accomplishments this week!