Blog #13

Shukla Bose: Teaching One child at a Time. Teaching one child at a time

She started the Parikrma Humanity Foundation from her kitchen table. They walked the slums of Bangalore. After several days of visiting with the parents and the children they started a school on a rooftop in June with only a half ceiling and in India it rains in June. They spent a lot of time under the half ceiling which turned out to be a very bonding experience.

In six years they have four schools, 1 junior college, one thousand one hundred students coming from twenty-eight slums and four orphanages. Their dream is to educate children and give them a better living. They are all English driven schools using the ICS curriculum.

There is a myth that parents from the slums don't want their children to be educated that is untrue. They want them to be educated to lead a better life than themselves but they need to believe. They have any where from 80 to 100% turnout for parent teacher meeting.Fathers are attending as well. When this first started the parents used thumb prints to sign in but now they can sign their names they was taught by their children. They have had mothers come to them asking if they would teach them how to read and write so they started an after school program for the parents. 98% of fathers are alcoholics so they are sent to detox centers and then they help them gets jobs. Three fathers have been taught to cook, and nutrition, they helped them set up kitchens. They now supply the food in the schools and it has helped the fathers get respect and a sense of pride.

Another myth is that children from the slums cannot integrate with the main stream students. That too is untrue every year they hold a sports event where over five thousand students from around Bangalore compete. For the last three years the Parikrma Humanity Foundation has won the event with there students bringing home lots of medals. They have even had several students from the other schools ask if they could attend the foundations schools.

By Brian Orr
"Jose Antonio Abreu: The El Sistema Music Revolution"The El Sistema Music Revolution

The TED Talk I chose was a story of the Venezuela youth symphony, "El Sistema." The orchestra won the Ted Prize for 2009 for making a symphony that is acclaimed around the world, and ranked 5th on the greatest symphonies around the world by the London Times. The program's main focus is developing a Venezuelan music presence around the globe and providing music opportunities for impoverished youth in Venezuela.

The director of the program, Jose Antonio Abreu, always wanted to become a musician and reached his goal by the help of his family, and God. Frequently throughout the talk, Abreu states God has guided his life and program to its success. He brings to light the spiritual hole in most people's lives, that the world is in a spiritual crisis and his program is doing its part to mend this wound. Abreu is a very strong minded character, a person that knows what he is and what he wants and uses his abilities to help others. This story is less about a good music program than it is a charity for children, this one man's vision to contribute to God a healing solution for Venezuelan society.

I found this talk amazingly inspired, that this man could produce this world wide acclaimed orchestra, with enormous support along the way of course, that has a fairly large statement that people need God and need the arts to heal what is missing in their lives. He reminds me of great spiritual leaders, honestly, like Jesus and Muhammad that preach their values to the world with no fear, only conviction.

From the 1st rehearsal to today, Adreu has this vision of creating a great youth orchestra, and he feeds on his own vision to succeed. His demands more from himself, probably even when he thought he could go no further. This man looks like a person who went beyond his body's capabilities and used his spirit to accomplish his great personal goal. He really is a father to these children, and I'm sure this thought or mindset helped him strive to better each of their lives with music and some purpose to their lives, not just poverty and a lack of self identity in Venezuela. As he states, Mother Teresa thought the most miserable aspect of poverty is not the lack of food or shelter, but of identity and purpose, and I think Adreu has managed to give that to his children.