January 10, 2024

A Fistful of Rice

Since arriving in Bangalore, it was still unclear how much was expected from us, and who was expecting from us. Today, I got a better understanding of the community we work for and what is an acceptable amount of impact.

Starting the day at Parikrma, a school aiming to educate underserved children from Bangalore slums, we got to hear the goals of the whole program. They highlight the circle of life: a child set up for success needs education, family care, nutrition, and healthcare. These students are fed two meals a day along with a nutritional drink, a quality education, and family counseling and healthcare. The program is designed for the long run, for students to stay until they go through a degree program and are placed in a job.

We visited the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classrooms, and I specifically went to the 3rd grade classroom. As we walked in, we were greeted by the children with such joy. They jumped up off the ground, waving and smiling while saying hello. They were smaller than the average 3rd graders, due to undernutrition prior to the program. As we sat down and individually spoke to them, you can immediately see how social and intelligent they are, speaking and writing with me in English, teaching me yoga poses, and having dance circles.

Returning to our own classroom, the founder, Shukla Bose, spoke more to us about Parikrma’s challenges and why she does what she does. She told us that the biggest challenge they face as an organization is changing mindsets. She explained that the children and their families experience poverty of the mind, where they may not see a way out and don’t see that anything is possible. She said she’d like to serve all underserved students in Bangalore; however funding is a barrier and that limits the foundation to admitting only 120 students per year.

In the afternoon, half the class headed to Swasti, an organization that provides accessible and more affordable healthcare in Bangalore. Being a member with Swasti gave access to checkups, referrals, and countless other services. We saw in action the work that is done, walking from the office to a member’s house and watching a check up take place for a family of sisters and their children. They found problems in the member’s health and wrote a referral for further treatment. As of today, Swasti has over 20,000 members.

Both Parikrma and Swasti work with what they have on hand and work to design solutions to the challenges each organization faces. Although the exact numbers quantifying their impact on the community may seem small, Shukla explained that these acts are contributing to a greater cause, using the analogy of her students bringing in one fistful of rice to donate, and in total they accumulated a substantial amount of rice. She again tied it back to poverty, saying collectively, we can eradicate poverty by making small impacts in the world that contribute to the cause.

In my time here, I won’t be able to make as much of an impact as the organizations I saw today, but learning from them and the community can allow so many possibilities and ideas for change.

By Kiara