Night school at slum helps kids, woos volunteers

Chennai Youth Centre, comprising several people from different profession who work towards the betterment of the community, have started a volunteer drive to support their pet project: the Kallukuttai Night school.

“It’s a great opportunity for people who wish to volunteer to come in the evenings or during weekends as well and work with the slum children in the area, who are from government schools and only know Tamil. Teaching them English and soft skills is the main priority we have,” says Abilasha, who is an early childhood educator by profession and volunteers at the school.

The team does not use traditional teaching methods, but instead opts for a more practical, interactive system of learning to work with the kids. “Be it Math or Science or English, the onus is on making it fun for them. Hence, we make it interesting for them: for instance, we ask them to draw whatever comes to mind and then later ask them to explain their interpretation of it. We use this to teach them something slowly,” she states.

Interested volunteers can WhatsApp their details to +91-9790901585. Since the volunteers come from different backgrounds, it keeps things innovative. “It is also highly enjoyable for us, as the kids really look upto the people helping them out.”

Meanwhile, the Chennai Youth Centre have also collected funds for delta floods rehabilitation work and purchased school stationary kits for children to help them to get back to their routine lives. The team has identified a government school at Sembodai in Nagapattinam district and are leaving on Sunday to meet the kids for an interaction and distribution of the kits at the school.