Sponsorship
The evening classes, held at the Sakti Vihar, help the children to do their home work and to understand their lessons properly. For this, Volontariat employs part time teachers, coming from various institutions. These teachers are selected from the applicants, for their competence and their understanding of child psychology. This activity is very important because it supports the instruction received at school and helps children who live in huts, often without light and with noisy relatives or neighbors, to complete their lessons and homework.
There are 700 children who derive benefit from this programme. For this large number of children to be accommodated, the classes are conducted in two batches. The classes for the younger children are held from evening 5.00 P.M. until 6.15 P.M. and the older ones come from 6.15 to 8 P.M.
Every one receives a glass of hot milk and a snack before starting the class. Then they go to their respective classes, where one of 17 teachers recruited for this purpose is ready for them. It is interesting to note that more and more of these teachers had themselves been sponsored by the Volontariat. They gain valuable experience for their future.
It is mostly a tutoring programme, but is also an occasion when they gather in the schoolyard or in the classroom, to be open to the world, to think and to question.
The final examination of secondary school may be passed, with only very basic notions of spoken or written English. This weakness, too often, leaves the door closed to higher education, computer studies and the possibility of going out of Tamil Nadu. Volontariat tries to complete the education of the older children, with courses in English, given by qualified teachers or by English-speaking volunteers.
At first view, it seems surprising that not all sponsored scholar children attend these evening classes. In fact, there are several reasons for this: first, they are distributed in almost thirty schools in the city which, more and more, hold their own evening classes, often mandatory. A second reason is that, due to the reputation of Volontariat, many families come for seeking help, from far away and their children live too far from our center to attend our evening programme. It may be risky for them, especially for girls to return home at nightfall.
