Volunteer Speak - Robyn

I'm new to this group, this city and India but thought I'd join in and share the progress I've seen with the kids at Disha since I started visiting there a couple of months ago.

I wasn't sure if I'd really have anything to offer given my Hindi is still pretty basic/terrible and I have no teaching skills, but it turns out I didn't need them anyway. I really enjoy painting and so with some encouragement from Sukriti and Anshul I started visiting once a week with some art supplies and a vague idea of a project and off we go. The kids are fabulous as you all know and I swear I am getting more out of this experience than they are. I always come away hot, sweaty and covered in paint and glue but I LOVE IT!!! The teacher is lovely and all of us are benefiting from sharing our English and Hindi language.

All of the kids started off wanting a lot of direction and were practically waiting for me to hold the brush for them but week after week they've become more confident and the natural talent in that school blows me away. A couple of the older girls are producing things that I am positive my friends and family back in Australia would buy in a shop.

We always end the sessions with a photo session. It's always crazy and I think I probably spend about 10 mins of the teacher's lesson time showing them the photos on the screen, plus then we have the farewell parade after our car all the way out of the village. They're so full of energy and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better and seeing what else they can create as the weeks pass.

I'll attach a few snaps below to give you an idea of what they're producing. Today they decorated some cardboard with some of the photos I've taken of them. We did it out in the yard as the school wasn't open and I have a feeling a few extra kids were in the mix by the end of that too. They've also been decorating some white school shirts with fabric paint. Some of them today were writing Disha on the pockets so they've almost got a bit of a team look about them now.

That's all for now. I'll write some more after a few more weeks and attach some more photos too.

Thanks for letting me share in your group and especially to Sukriti and Anshul for introducing me to the project, the school and the kids.

Have a great day